In France, near the entrance to the camp where I stayed (actually right across the road) was a grapefield. It was obviously a manmade one because the grape trees were in perfect roads. There was a dirt-path through it to the main road (a mere ten second walk)
No fences.
No farms.
No people.
I could not for the life of me see anything that would stop me from taking some grapes EXCEPT my own sense of guilt*. I never took any. At best I stopped walking and stared at them.
Surely, in the wine making region of France (Provence) the Grape fields would be fairly well protected from loiterers??/
edit:*That, and the fact that it seemed like NONE of the trees near the path had had their grapes picked… suggesting that nobody from the camp came here and took grapes… Maybe no-one did for the same reason that I didn’t but I didn’t want to take the chance that I was wrong.
Don’t know why this bugs me, but I’m in a mood tonight…grapevines, not trees, and vineyard, not grape field. Okay, I’ll sit quietly out of the way for now…
Nature’s candy! I ate at least a pound of them (merlot) yesterday while we harvested.
There are acres upon acres of vineyards here, I ride my bike past many that are exactly as described in the OP. No fences or anything to stop anyone from just taking a bunch or two. I think most people in this area just respect the vineyard owner and their property. Considering wine is just as important to the culture of the people in Provence as it is here, I think most people would just leave them as is.
I was at a market last weekend that had a basket of scuppernongs, and I just picked one up and inhaled deeply. Ah, the sweet heady earthy aroma of a fully ripe scuppernong grape is just about heavenly. I wanted to sqeeze it till it popped it’s juicy goodness and I sucked every drop from it’s hull, but I carefully set it back with the others and left the rest of the basket unmolested. It reminded me that I need to go visit my Granny (who has a 20 year old scuppernong vine that should be quite heavy with grapes just about now).
I expect that what you didn’t see were the bodies strewn deep about the rows, nor the camouflaged sniper towers. Count yourself fortunate to have resisted temptation.