Meg's & Lon's Magnificent Adventure: Bordeaux/St Emilion

Elona Typing

We left Tours for Bordeaux and the countryside was just stunning – which is a good thing because it took us quite a bit of time to get there…oh must mention here that although we do LOVE Ken (our GPS) he did get a little confused in Bordeaux because he decided we were in a different accommodation. We parked the car on the correct road – at least he got us this far and we went walking to find our accommodation on foot – ta dah!!!! No probs and the accommodation was quite nice though a little different – we were in a converted warehouse. We went back to the car to drive it to the correct destination and checked in. We weren’t IN town, in fact we were a good twenty minute drive from the centre but it was amusing to be in the “DIY” Home Decorating district – the amusement kind of waned when we realised that there aren’t too many food places around such areas but we did find, after quite a decent walk a great Thai place where we bought take awayJ Yeah for Green Curry!!

The next day we decided to hit the vineyards – OMG how many vineyards does this place have!?!? Quite a lot apparently, as 850 million bottles are produced EVERY year here!!!! I did some research on the local tours to define the popular vineyards most used and found St Emilion to be one of the most expensive to get a tour with – hence the car and touring the place ourselves; we saved 300Euro just like that!!! St Emilion was again just a magnificent drive, passed so many vineyards and wonderful chateaux – you just want to stop everywhere!!!! But on arrival we were soooo very glad we chose this one as the town was just beautiful with it’s cobbled stone streets and wine tasting at every corner – more actually!! We shared a lovely lunch and I had some champagne – yes real champagne from Champagne!! We knew we were in a very up market place when the wine list was larger than the menu and the most expensive wine was 3000 Euro – NO KIDDING!!!! This was being offered in a street Café!! Most of the wines were around the 50 Euro mark but there were lots there that were in the hundreds!!

Whilst in this beautiful place we also learned that they have a special recipe for Macaroons and best selling delicacies called Canelles; these are cinnamon pudding like things that are to die for!!!!!!!! That was our breakfast by the way and when you think the French eat Pain au Chocolat for breakfast Canelle seems quite appropriate J The macaroons were nice but neither of us took a great liking to them L

After our fill of the historical little village and surrounding vineyard we headed back to Bordeaux to eat left over Thai for dinner and get a good night sleep to head into Bordeaux itself the next day.

Driving in cities can always be a little harrowing at times due to the amount of people on the road and the quick directional decisions that need to be made but the very quiet Bordeaux didn’t seem to be that hard to navigate. Ken led us to the Tourist Bureau but we had to do a little parking navigation ourselves. When we parked we started to head to the Tourist Bureau but as happens a few things caught our eye and we ended up realising that we had no idea where the car was – oops!! A map from the Tourist Bureau was the solution – well once ascertained where and what direction we were facing – got forbid we ever get lost in the desert I’m telling you!! We then decided to find the car and pay more attention as we headed off in the direction of where all the people were – shopping and lots of it!! Their mall area is very large and is lined by lovely historical buildings. We had a delicious lunch after a wee bit of browsing – the only thing we bought was needed shampoo and conditioner: I know majorly boring!! We then walked around a little in the touristy section – see photos – where we found a very interesting fountain: no water again – is this the thing lately or what?!?! After we felt we had absorbed as much of Bordeaux as we could take we decided that, as always we needed to work on the blog – not a chore people I promise, just at times it can be very time consuming but we definitely know in the long run it will be a lovely keepsake and if my nifty Mum does keep putting all of this in book format we will have a ‘coffee table book’ to wow the socks off people!

Bordeaux overall is a wine district and this is the place to spend your time – the city is pretty but like we seem to find, it is a city and does not hold our interest long. The smaller villages with the history, the quaint shops and the magnificent scenery is what we adore. The wine districts and there are a number of them in Bordeaux are a must and if we had more time we would still be there!!

One of the vineyards at St Emilion

After the grapes are harvested they are then pressed and aged in "caves"; underground cellars that keep the wine at a constant temperature all year round.

Elona was so excited on being in a room with so much wine

she started to levitate - can you believe it?!!!!!

Elona with some disorganised fags

And the flags have it.

Elona and some organised fags.

How some of the structures have stayed standing and in operation for hundreds of years is amazing.

There was no room either side so they just built up!

Vineyards surrounding the town of St Emilion.

To buy property here will cost you around 1.5 million Euro for 6 bedrooms and 500 hectares of vineyards - BARGAIN!

The grapes are just tiny balls of green - it takes 100 days

from the start of spring for the grapes to grow to harvest.

Every square inch of available land is used for planting grape vines including in and around old ruins.

Every shop window displays bottles on bottles of wine.

Through the arch way is the entrance to the vineyard's caves.

Bicycles are a very popular mode of transport - more so than tourist buses judging from the number of bike groups you see exploring the towns.

View from the top of town - you can see the cafe where we had lunch

Grape vines as far as the eye can see

Cobbled paths can be dangerous to a traveller who likes to look around them when they walk. Some of the switchback roads and pathways were difficult for some of the older generations to navigate.