A Birthday in Bordeaux

To help get through the trauma of her 30th birthday Michelle decided a weekend of luxury was required – and what better place than Bordeaux?

After a very early start we arrived at Gatwick only to find that British Airways didn’t have a plane for our flight (odd for an airline wouldn’t you say?). The rest of the day was mainly spent in queues…. 3hrs queuing to get re-ticketed, followed by re-queuing for check-in, security etc etc….. Hardly the start to a nice weekend away we had hoped for! Still – at 6hrs later we found ourselves in Bordeaux - ok… so we were queuing for a rental car… but we were there!

Driving on the wrong-side of the road for the first time (more on this later) we found our way to our accommodation – a Chateau in the heart of Bordeaux – our room was in the loft of the old stables… very cool.

After the trauma of the day (flights and then driving…) we were ready for a treat. Thierry (our host) sorted out a great seafood restaurant. Although we couldn’t do French, and our waiter didn’t do English, he read us well… and proceeded to ply us with all sorts of interesting drinks?! He obviously noticed that we really enjoyed the aperitif he gave us (‘Lillet’ – kind of a light liqueur from Bordeaux – yum!) so took it upon himself to give us a couple of glasses of a Sauterne white after our meal. Those of you know Michelle will know that she has a soft spot for dessert wines – she was very taken with Sauterne!

The next day we had arranged visits to several of the Chateau in nearby St Emilion. Driving in France was a bit of an adventure for us… afterall it had been over 6 months since I had driven… let alone on the wrong side of the road. Each time we went to get into the car Michelle would find a steering wheel in front of her and we would need to swap sides. Fortunately although we made this error consistently, we only found ourselves on the wrong side of the road once… and only very briefly!

Finding our way to various Chateau was also a bit of an adventure… our maps were not the best… but we got there in the end and saw some great French countryside in our travels! The three Chateau we visited were all very different. One had recently be acquired by a US investor and had a lot of money poured into it. The second was family owned – and recently been awarded a special classification…. quite an distinguished honour. The third was an immense castle-like building with huge caves underneath which were home to its various vintages not yet released.

St Emilion has a lot of history – and the remains of the seven huge walls that once surrounded the city in medieval times are still clearly visible. St Emilion is named after a Saint who moved there to live in isolation in a small underground grotto. In keeping with this idea, monks later carved a huge church into the hill on which St Emilion stands – very impressive – and our second fairly unique church in recent times (see Amsterdam)! [Church in hillside to right]

Sunday brought with it Michelle’s birthday. It was a beautiful day so drove to the coast (only 45mins away if you drive at the 130kph speed limit?!). On the way we turned off to Gujan Mestras – an old oyster port with the huts of oyster fishermen dotted everywhere! When in Rome right? So we settled in for a feast of oysters…… mmmmm! From here we headed on to Arachon a wealthy coastal holiday spot and host to tourists on the cruise ships that stop here. Nearby is Dune de Pilat – Europe’s largest sand-dune which is slowly moving inland and swallowing up a pine forrest as it goes! Quite a climb up – but it takes no time to run down!

We had a great time in Bordeaux. We enjoyed the wines… although we were surprised that the sweet whites had stolen the show from the famous reds. The surrounding wine region was extremely picturesque and was just like the image we had of what the French countryside should look like (more so that Champagne). Our thirst for exploring in France is far from satisfied….. perhaps Provence next?