So dinner last night was amazing! Michael and I walked into town and found a restaurant that had a special for one entree, main and dessert for 16,90 euros. The entire menu was in French but Michael was able to translate it! For an entree we went halves in a cheesy mushroom soup and....six escargot. Snails! And guess what? They were delicious! I'll probably order them again while I'm in France! Who knew I would like those. For a main I had salmon with pasta and then we each had a creme brûlée for dessert which was the best one I've ever had. Yummmmm! I also had a glass of wine from the region the lady in the wine museum yesterday told us produce sweet wine because of the fog that causes fungus on the grapes. It was really nice as well.
I slept really well but didn't get to sleep until technically 2am, because daylight savings began here last night so we lost an hour!
Today I slept in a bit then had brekky. Then due to having to be out of the room11am-4pm I watched some TV on my iPad downstairs. I felt like I had seen everything I wanted to in Bordeaux and I wanted to relax a bit!
I then walked into town hoping to buy some groceries but everything was closed! I don't think me and Sundays are going to be friends in France. I'll have to be prepared for Sunday closures in advance!
I met my winery tour at 1.30pm at the tourist information office. It was me and 47 other people on a coach, but I actually quite enjoyed it. We had a 40ish minute coach journey to St Emilion, one of the most famous wine regions of Bordeaux. It's on the right side of the river which means it produces richer and more fruity wines due to having only limestone and clay in its soil and no gravel u like the left side.
Our guide told us on the coach that the wines here all have to be named according to the chateaux where they were produced. And FYI - chateau in French normally means a castle. But in Bordeaux they call all wineries a chateau! In this area the smaller villages produce better quality wine because they have more strict rules and regulations. Also, the Bordeaux region produces over 800 million bottles of wine a year! 90% of these bottles are red wine.
Our first stop was the village of St Emilion itself. It's 40km east of Bordeaux, has a population of 2000 people and since 1999 has been a UNESCO world heritage site. We started at a pretty view point and then our guide took us on a walking tour to the monolithic church, an underground church built on the site where St Emilion found a cross in a cave and decided to create a town. We also saw the main church and some other churches (which are now wineries!!). Then I walked around by myself and bought some macarons from a shop the guide recommended that has been making them since 1620 with the same recipe. The ones in St Emilion taste a little like mascarpone! These were my lunch sadly, as I was still unable to find anything open to buy anything substantial. But hey, no complaints here! I bought a magnet in a cute little street and the shop owner was so kind. He asked if I spoke French and I replied in French saying not really but I come from Australie. Upon finding out I was an Aussie he gave me some free postcards because he said he loves Australians! So lovely.
Then we got back on the bus and went to our second and final destination - Chateau de Pressac. It's one of the best wineries in the area. 82/800 wineries in this area having achieved the status of 'Grand Cru' meaning they scored 14+ points on the rating system that occurs every ten years. This one was one of them!
We had a tour around the grounds and the medieval castle the winery was set in (so this one actually was a chateau!!!) including where the vats and barrels were kept. Even though today was cloudy it was quite beautiful. Then we tried two wines, one from a wet year in 2007 and one from a dry year in 2009 meaning it was sweeter (more sun = sweeter berries). I didn't really like either of these, but I didn't hate them either. Had a good chat to an English couple from Portsmouth (near Brighton) during the tasting.
The guide told us in the barrel room there were 150 barrels each with a capacity of 225L which produces 30 bottles of wine. This winery produces 150,000 bottles of wine per year.
We got the bus back and I got some dinner from the same place I did the other night with the yummy cheese roll. I've not got a nice French girl in my room, she invited me to dinner but I've already got another baguette to eat while I watch some tv! She's really nice but doesn't speak much English. We are having fun playing charades!!!
I've really liked Bordeaux but feel I've done everything here so am looking forward to a change of scenery tomorrow - Châtellerault!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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