Repose in Bordeaux-St Emilion.

 

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We visited the region of Bordeaux, in the south-west France, in July 2017, as part of our french summer holiday. After landing in Paris we stayed on for a few days, showing the basic sights to the little one, including the Eiffel Tower, the lit up pyramids and Seine river cruise. (The entire trip was planned around his obsession with Eiffel Tower souvenir back home)!

The second leg of the road trip was Bourgogne (Burgundy). We stayed in Beaune, thoroughly enjoyed the road trip despite having met with a road accident, which delayed us by a day, shortening our furlough to Bordeaux…the details in the previous post, A ride to remember, in Bourgogne.

I titled this trip as “A Repose” to Bordeaux, because that is what it was. Resting time. Repose time. After the mis-adventure in Beaune, the consequent delay, and the long drive between Bourgogne to Bordeaux (nearly 8 hours), we just wanted to relax. The Air B&B that we booked at St Terre, a 5 minute drive from St Emilion, was just what the doctor prescribed!

 

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We chose to stay at the outskirts of the town to be able to stay amidst the serene lush vineyards, away from the touristy Hum-drum, get into the feel of the countryside and still be in close proximity to the beautiful town of St Emilion.

We were hosted by Sabine and Jean Baptiste, in their Gîte (french country house), amidst the Vignobles Daniel Mouty (vignobles meaning vineyards in french), the latter being a well known Bordeaux wine producer. Jean Baptiste is a charmer, and received us with wide arms and pleasant smile, making us feel welcome, at once. He showed us around the beautiful property and the two storey house, all open to us, the vineyards, the small plunge pool and the gardens, equipped with a TT table and even a sand pit for the little one! The Gîte was very well equipped with all basic essentials, and some more. He bought along a delicious deep Pomerol from their vineyards, as a welcome gift and welcomed us to visit their winery for a tasting, anytime!

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We immediately settled in, feeling at home in our beautiful surroundings, uncorked a bottle of wine and parked ourselves on the lounge chairs in the garden, (which was nothing but a large, cleared patch within the vineyard), commanding a spectacular view of the verdant landscape.

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The raw grape vines swayed gently in the cool breeze, as the evening sun still shone brightly and the little one squandered about checking out the property. No one had any intention of moving from this otherworldly nest, even for dining out, since we were well stocked with essentials, thanks to a prior detour to Carrefour- Liburon.

Day after, was another lazy morning with staggered breakfast almost amounting to brunch, when we all voted to finally venture out of this blissful country existence.

Of course, DH had wine tastings lined up, and we started by visiting Chateau Gueyrosse, in adjoining Town of Liburon, at the edge of the river Dordogne. DH, is a meticulous planner and always takes into consideration, every member’s needs. That is inclusive of the youngest, who’s 5 yr old. There are many wineries and Chateaus which provide activities to engage the younger ones. Chateau Gueyrosse has beautiful gardens, a river flowing by and an overall picturesque property where the little one could wander about and explore.

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Here the grown ups learnt about the organic farming methods and manual harvesting techniques. We took a tour of the vineyards, the grounds of the chateau as well as their winery, tasted some great wines and bought a 2011 Ch Gueyrosse.

This would be a good place, to touch-upon the unusually complex topic of Bordeaux wine classification system. For a generic wine enthusiast, like moi, this was an engaging discovery!

It is a convoluted system, especially enigmatic for the New-world consumers, since here, the wines are classified according to where the grapes are grown i.e the “Terroir” and not by the grape varietal. A bottle of Bordeaux wine will detail the Region/ Chateau, Year and appellation, but not the grape varietal, that one usually expects.

 

Bordeaux produces red wines in majority and they are always a blend, usually of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, in varying proportions.

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The Bordeaux region is divided broadly into the “left bank” and the “right bank” by the river Gironde and its tributaries, the Garrone and Dordogne. While the left bank (the Medoc and Grave region) enjoys an elite status following the famous 1855 classification, and mainly highlights Cabernet Sauvignon (with blends of merlot and Cabernet franc); the Right bank relies more on the Merlot with blends from the others, and follows different appellation systems, most prominent being the St Emillion appellation.

Though the elitist wines from the 1st to 5th growths, on the left bank are clearly un-affordable, there are many very well priced Bordeaux wines in the market.

Coming to our day out. Next we steered towards St Emilion! Typically google maps, on the “shortest route available mode” navigated us through vineyards and narrow lanes towards the town.. though not the best possible approach, it was quite picturesque!

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From far we spotted the church spire first… which loomed large as we reached the town centre.. where expectedly there wasn’t any parking to be found. So we drove some distance, parked next to a restaurant and walked the short distance to town centre.

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St Emilion is one of the best looking small towns we’ve ever been too.. closely competing with the Andalusian towns of Cordova and Ronda. When I picture it, I see medieval, pale yellow ? lime stone buildings, lining narrow cobblestoned streets, sloping down to the town periphery and rising upto the bell tower and winding alleys meandering through the town.

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The architectural highlight is the church and bell- tower, towering above the beautiful town and its surrounding acres of lush country-side. The views from the bell tower are breath-taking!

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Spent couple of hours just sauntering through the town, the boutique shops and eateries at a leisurely pace and soaking the views.

Then literally walked down to nearby Chateau Cadet Bon for another Grand Cru tasting where the no-more- wine inclined folks just enjoyed another view of the town from this side of the vineyards.

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We wanted to really go easy so didn’t venture to the left bank at all. Visit to the city of Bordeaux was originally on the itinerary for the this evening…but we forgo it to relax at “our” wine-stay! 😊

Did visit the winery at Vignoble Daniel Mouty, a really short walk from the Gîte, for one last tasting in this wonderful wine country!

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Adieu Bordeaux.

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Maybe, not just yet…

The trip out of Bordeaux, next morning was nothing short of a thriller movie- an early morning flight from city of Bordeaux, so an even earlier departure from St Terre(an hour long journey to Bordeaux Mérignac airport) at 5 am; driving the country roads and eventually the highways, in torrential downpour; couple of detours thanks to poor visibility and GPS re-routings… when we finally approached the airport, the GPS, as usual, lost it, and couldn’t direct us to Avis Rental car drop. By sheer poor luck, we entered a long term car parking.. and could not exit!! Literally.. it was like the song “Hotel California- you can enter but you can never leave! “. As we later understood., with long term parking, one parks the car, collects the ticket, flies out, on arrival, one gets the ticket validated inside the airport and uses that ticket to exit the car park. Since we were not that smart to begin with, we tried to exit using this ticket when the machine flashed ” validation required” in french.. translated it using google translator, tried to ask around for help but there was nobody to ask! Once we figured things, one of us went running to the terminal, a good walk away, tried to validate the ticket, but failed as the machine pointed out.. “this ticket has been already used to exit”!! Now what? .. in the cold weather we were sweating Bricks, couldn’t leave the car there, couldn’t exit, sure to miss the flight!! Made one last effort to talk to Avis rental at the airport who directed us to Avis drop off facility, ran from one place to the other.. and I guess it was the panic on our faces.. and the convoluted way that we tried to explain the situation which garnered sympathy from those officers who told us to leave the car where it was, and walk out with our bags!! Phew. Even then the ordeal was far from over.. we had to lug the heavy duty luggage from the farthest available parking slot in the pouring rain to be able to reach the boarding counter .. just in nick of time.

A ride to remember- in Bourgogne.

IMG_6507Beaune will be etched in our minds, amongst other merrier reasons, forever, as the place, where we met with our first ever Road accident, internationally.

To get that out-of-the-way, it was a low velocity impact.. being on country roads, close to Beaune, thankfully the metal took the brunt and the bodies involved were all safe, this incident highlighted the attitude of french..

1. The other party involved who were local french family were much more worried about us, than being bothered about their battered car.

2. The “french” locals as well as the Gendarmerie, won our hearts, with their sympathetic and uber helpful attitude helping us with everything including language constraints.

3. It’s highly advisable to get comprehensive car insurance! Can’t speak about it enough. This made the aftermath so smooth with pick ups and transfer to Dijon, the next big town, and smooth transition to the next car, all arranged by AVIS.

4. Never drink and drive. Especially take care to spit and not swallow if you’re wine tasting in a wine country. A lesser mortal might be tempted to take in a few swigs.. especially if there are Grand Cru and premiere Cru wines from the worlds best wine country, on the offing! But not dear hubby!! I already had enough confidence in him which only peaked after this episode. We were incidentally returning from a wine brunch when this happened. His breath analysis for alcohol came out negative.

5. Never give up, keep faith. Some of the members wanted to give up on the trip.. (imagine!).. but no way were we going to shelve a wonderfully planned journey and we carried on!

Beaune is a beautiful small town in Burgundy (Bourgogne) and also considered its wine capital, nested amidst the lush vineyards of Côte d’Or region.

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We travelled from Paris on a Saturday morning so we could visit the weekly market at Beaune centre. Started from Paris about 10:30 and reached about noon.

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The market area is divided into a large food plaza and a clothing / home decor section; sifting quickly through the latter we lazily strolled trough the food section, sampling local delectables and picking up freshest of baked goods and veggies, cheeses, mushrooms etc. Bought a whole lot of Truffle and truffle infused products, the regional delicacy of Bourgogne. A quirky thing on sale was dried onion flowers which is crisp and flavorful when sprinkled on salads and dishes.

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We unfortunately missed out on the yearly wine fest in village of Volnay on the same morning, held every year about this time. So those travelling in end June should check this out.

Lunch was pre booked at a wonderful restaurant, recommended by a good friend, and is called L’ô à la Bouche. And what a recommendation.. for a perfect sunny brunch, by the side of a tiny brook and a pond with ducklings.. straight out of an Enid Blyton book! Only thing missing was a picnic basket, the lack of which was made up by the delectable lunch in the offing. This reminded me of the song The Perfect day, by Lou Reed!

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After lounging about for an extended meal, we laggardly headed to our B&B within town, having chosen this for its proximity to the town centre as well as the bike rentals. Since we’re the “go-getters”, we headed straight out to “Bourgogne Randonees” to pick up our bikes which were previously reserved, since they’re much in demand!

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The gentleman at the shop was very helpful but somehow we muddled up the directions that he gave for the bike path. We went round the town at least twice..had some not so serious falls, (first mom, then dad).. which pretty much shelved biking plan on that day!

Not losing hope, we strapped ourselves in the car seats and drove to the nearby village of Pommard, instead of cycling to it.. to meet for an appointment at a winery called Domaine Rebourgeon-Mure. Have to say that the owner, completely floored us by patiently waiting for us to show up for a tasting, beyond usual hours, at least 2 hours after our appointment… thus breaking the ‘myth’ of snooty uptight, french wine makers of burgundy, worlds oldest wine country! Here we could venture into a true vine cellar, centuries old with moldy dusty walls, cobwebs and candles, thankfully did not bump into any vampires!! Picked up couple of delicious Premiere Cru wines from this winemaker.

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Day 2 was devoted to visiting nearby villages and their famous wine makers. These include Puligny Montrachet, Aloxe-Corton and Meursault.

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Serendipitously ventured into an amazing restaurant in Meursault called Chez Richard, where we sampled the famous Epoisses cheese and the regional delicacy, the escargot!

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After sating our appetite, and not sure about the next plan.. we decided to again give cycling a go. Having experienced other wine countries on a bike, we didn’t want to miss out on this experience in the french country.

So instead of renting the bike in town centre, we researched and reached Bougogne Evasion, located very close to the entrance gate of the Véloroute (bike-path) and thus minimising chances of our getting lost again!!

A pillared gate welcomes cyclists to the -Véloroute of Voie des Vignes, and right after entering, one is transported to serene, lush wine country surrounded by pallisading rows of verdant green vines and clear blue skies.

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The stillness is interrupted only by the whirring of the bicycle wheels, chirping of the birds and the camera clicks! It’s a perfect detox for an urban dweller.

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Being later in the day and considering the fitness levels of all, we chose to bike the shortest path from Beaune to Pommard, a short 20-30 minute ride, the terrain being mostly flat, with mild undulations. Path to village of Volnay is quiet steep and we skipped it. Do remember that wine countries are hot and sunny so be prepared with caps, sunscreen and lots of water, as there are no pit-stops between villages. Another point to remember is that cycling/ walking path is through vineyards but there’s no wine tasting rooms in between. Tasting is localised at abundant wine shops and in cellars in the villages or available with meals in the restaurants, latter being a wonderful idea after a bit of exercise 😊

Done with cycling, we had only managed to touch 4 o’clock on the watch, with the sun shining brightly and too early to call it a day. Guess what? We decided to visit Dijon, a half an hour ride away from Beaune. Despite knowing that Dijon is a big town, we were quite overwhelmed by its size and the traffic on the roads. I guess we were lucky that it was a Sunday and there were no major traffic snarls!

Since we were running against time, we headed straight to the town centre to see the Notre Dame cathedral and to follow the famous Owl Trail.

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Within the city centre are many owl plaques, engraved on the pavement with numbers, guiding the tourists around many important landmark including the cathedral. One can buy a book from the town centre or easier, can download a mobile app, which tells in detail about every structure/ monument on the trail.

Saying goes that if you spot and touch the owl on a corner wall, at the end of the trail, it’s supposed to be lucky in getting you back to Dijon!

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Another incident to remember, happened in Dijon, where for some reason our parking ticket was defective and we were sort of trapped in an underground parking. Again, a helpful local Frenchman, who didn’t understand a word of English, came to our rescue!!

We started the next and last day in Bourgogne, on a spicy note by a visit to the famous, Edmond Fallot Moutarderie, a mustard factory/ shop.. famous for the Dijon mustard! Bought few varieties of mustard and other products.

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Following this, we set course for the adjacent commune (region) of Nuits-Saint-Georges. Both Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits-Saint-Georges are the famous wine regions in Burgundy (Bourgogne) with the former popular for its Chardonnay and the latter for its Pinot Noir wines!

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map obtained from this “website”

 

It’s fascinating trying to understand the French wine appellation system. Breaking it down very, very broadly, the lowest in class would be a Regional wine (for example a bottle saying Bourdeaux or Burgundy), followed by Subregional category (example Côte de Beaune), followed by Village wine (example Pommard in Côte de Beaune) and finally the top most category is a single Domaine or vineyard. Then ofcourse there are Grand Cru (Burgundy regions best wines) and Premiere Cru (second best wines). Best refer to THE INTERNET for the same!

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Go figure!

 

 

We did another wine tasting in Vosné Romanée, at Domaine Bernard Rion and bought some more wines for consumption! Hubby dear believes in bringing some back and I’m always worried about the Packing!

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DH had earlier reserved a 4 course wine lunch at Olivier Leflaive. They serve a basic lunch menu to highlight the wine, but despite knowing this, ‘the vegetarians’ were disappointed with the serving of Boiled beans and cheese. At least, dear hubby enjoyed the Beouf Bourgogne with the paired Grand Cru andPremiere Cru wines.

One can also do Truffle hunting with tasting in this region, but the same wasn’t available on the dates when we were in the region.

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To summarize, Burgundy was wonderful; the highlights being the cycling through the vineyards and the Pinot Noir! Hoping we’ll be back soon, especially with the blessings of the Dijon Owl.