On Monday, we walked around Bordeaux’s city center and along the river. The majority of the city is beautiful and kept very clean. The architecture and streets reminded us of Vienna, Austria with a twist of French flavor. There were a lot of retail clothing stores lining the streets as well as wine shops. We had the opportunity to walk into St. Andrew which had a vast gothic exterior. Inside, it was absolutely beautiful. There were stone carvings everywhere and the organ above the entrance was the largest of its kind that we have seen in Europe! We decided to make it a supermarket dinner night and inside the massive market, what do you know, we ran into our fellow backpacker friends from Canada, Rebecca and Colin. It was great seeing them once again and we all shared a good laugh of how strange the coincidence was, again! The two of us returned to our hotel and enjoyed a meal of ham, chorizo, brie and gouda cheeses, fresh cherry tomatoes, olives, fresh baguette, a delicious coos coos, gala apples, and a good bottle of the local vino. While it was not your traditional French meal with all of the pizzazz, it was a delicious meal shared with the best of company.
Tuesday was a day like we have never had before. With Colin and Rebecca we traveled east to the St. Emilion region to see the county, vines, and taste the local drink. From the train station we walked 20 minutes up the hill to the medieval town of St. Emilion. Along the way were rows of vines after rows of vines. Beyond those, more vines. A few vineyard estates before the entrance to town were an enjoyable sight of homesteads and businesses with their personal and unique character. The age of the old town of St. Emilion is inescapably shown by its cobblestone roads. Much of our trip has been paved by cobblestone, but this was the real deal cobblestone – deep grooves with uneven rock. If you were not careful, you could lose a foot!
Within the town our uphill climb continued. Three out of four stores were wine shops selling all of the surrounding region’s best, and each one was proud and darn sure to advertise “we ship wines worldwide!” Ben joked at the time that he had some family members that those signs were made for knowing they would definitely not leave without sending a case or two home. Our first stop was in a ‘vino haus’ or wine house to see a large selection of wines from all around the St. Emilion region. People with the shallowest or the deepest pockets could view and purchase wine. We picked up a bottle for lunch and proceeded to enjoy our meal nearby and people watch. With our stomachs full, we climbed a tower that placed us at the highest point in the town where we soaked in the bird’s eye view of the region. The small medieval town was a small island in a sea of green hills covered in grape vines and sprinkled with homes and estates. It was definitely a Kodak moment.
Our next stop was to a winery/estate inside of the town with a main attraction of wine cellar caves. Not knowing what to expect we were blown away by the underground fortress of tunnels and nooks simply stuffed with wines that were perfectly stacked by the thousands. 2005, 1984, 2000, 1994, 1967, 1971, regular sized bottles, barrels, magnum sized bottles, private reserve, non-private reserve (I forgot what they called it, woops) was all there in this place of wine hibernation. At a closer look all of the bottles were without a label and could only be identified by looking at the cork. The older vintages were beyond covered in dust, dirt, moss, etc. Back above ground we enjoyed a tasting of the estates’ 1994, 1995, 1998, and 2005 Bordeaux. Each vintage had an individual taste, smell, color and experience. It was a terrific treat.
We finished our time in St. Emilion with a walk through more of the town and a stop to purchase a few bottles to take back with us. The walk downhill to the train was along the same path, but this time under a sun beginning to set. It was a wonderful sight and a perfect finish to our day in the wine country of Bordeaux.
The following day we left as big fans of Bordeaux and headed down the coast for Spain and the Basque city of San Sebastian.
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