The shape of grapes...

As we were driving from the village yesterday we noticed these colourful umbrellas among the vines and wondered what they were for. It was dull so they did not appear to be for protection from the sun nor was it raining,so why?

  

They are,as we learned from Richard and Francoise, there to protect the workers from whatever the weather throws at them. The reason they are required is because the pickers are diligently shaping the bunches of grapes to the correct shape so as to make them acceptable for the supermarkets, sad or what!