Day 12 - heading home

It has been a wonderful trip, but it is time for me to head home. I'd like to thank Steve for being my personal photographer, chauffeur and translator. Lest you think Steve did all the work, I was his personal navigator and DJ keeping the car stereo humming with CD's and tunes on my iPhone.

Au revoir!

l'Orangerie

I wanted to see some Monet paintings, so we went to l'Orangerie and saw the panoramic painting of Giverny.




There are two rooms with four large paintings in each that are attached to rounded walls. It is so peaceful that it is almost like being in Givenry. The paintings are about 6' high and maybe 18' long. Just amazing!

Days 10 & 11 - Paris

No trip to France would be complete without a few days in Paris. We stayed in the 7th near the Arch de Triomphe.



This is a great location, if you have enough Marriott points to stay without spending an arm and a leg.

We got up early and drove to Bordeaux, turned in the rental car and hopped the train to Paris. We arrived on a Sunday and the Champs-Élysées was packed with people walking in every direction. It was so crowded at times you could hardly move. I loved it!

Day 9 - Biarritz

If you visit Paris, I recommend you get Rick Steve's book on France. It is full of useful information and well written. However, when he says there is not much to see in Biarritz, don't believe him. Biarritz is beautiful and there are lots of areas to see.






Walking along the beach we noticed this cool house in the distance.






We walked to it and found it is a bed and breakfast. It was full, but the owner was happy to show us the first floor and the balconies with an amazing view of the coast. We decided to spend the night in Biarritz and explore more of the city. We found a nice hotel, had a great dinner and wound up staying out until 1am listening to live music. What a great city. I want to go back someday and spend more time there.

Saint Jean du Luz

Saint Jean du Luz is probably most famous for being the place that Louis XIV was married. The celebration lasted 40 days. That dude knew how to party. And it is a nice place.

Swimming in the Atlantic

Shell bay in San Sebastian just looked too inviting. I couldn't leave without taking a dip.



It was the longest 12 second swim of my life, but I'm glad I did it!

Gernika

Since Franco didn't like the Basques he told his buddy Hitler that he could use the Basque town of Gernika for bombing practice. So on the afternoon of April 26th in 1937 for fours German planes rained bombs and bullets on the town killing hundreds of people and destroying most of the town.

I learned all about it in too much detail at the Peace Museum in Gernika. I'm sharing this tragic tale with you because I believe that remembering history is a good way to help keep terrible things like this from happening again.

Peace.

Bilboa

We drove to Bilboa to see the Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Gehry.



We didn't see the exhibits, we just wanted to see the building. We walked all around it and had lunch (excellent!) inside.



Bilboa also has really cool public benches. These are just on the sidewalk, but they are attached to the sidewalk so they can't be moved (or removed).

Pintxos & Txiquiteo

In Donostia (the Euskara name for San Sebastian) a popular food is pinxtos (the tx in Euskara is pronounced like ch in English) which is called tapas in Spanish.
The bars put out a spread like this and you get a plate from the bar tender for your group and you put whatever looks appealing on your plate. Then you show your plate to the bar tender (so they know what to charge you) then order your drinks from the bar tender as well. Then you grab a table and enjoy.
A popular activity is txiquiteo, which is where you don't eat pinxtos at only one bar, but hop from bar to bar sampling different things. Like dim sum, I'm not always sure what I'm eating, but it's mostly all yummy!

Days 7 & 8 - San Sebastian

We have a terrible view from our hotel in San Sebastian. We have to look out at Shell Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.



San Sebastian is in Basque Country, which is an area that spans Northwestern Spain and Southwestern France. The Basque people have their own language, Euskara, that is not related to either French or Spanish. Euskara is the oldest language in Europe that is still spoken.

Although Franco tried to irradiate the Basque culture in the early 20th century, fortunately, he was unsuccessful. Now Basque heritage is encouraged and most signs have Euskara first and Spanish second.
In Southwestern France it is Euskara first and French second. English is a distant third around here.

Armagnac of the Day

Since we are in Bas Armagnac, it seems only appropriate to have an Armagnac of the day. And the winner is... Domaine de Guilhon d'Aze 1987 Bas-Armagnac. Smooth, not too much bite. Excellent bouquet. And beautiful tears. In French, they don't say "legs" they "tears" to describe the way the booze flows down the inside of the glass after you tilt it.

Day 6 - Barbotan

In the heart of the Bas Armagnac region is the resort town of Barbotan with hot springs and a pretty lake--also a big casino. But we weren't interested in any of those things. We came to taste Armagnac. And there were a few stores that were happy to accommodate us. We hoped to find a nice bar, but we couldn't find one with a selection of Armagnacs.

Armagnac Tasting at Chateau Maniban

After phone calls and stopping to ask directions twice, we finally found Chateau Maniban, home of Castarède Armagnac, just outside the town of Mauleon d'Armagnac in the Bas Armagnac region.

Armagnac is similar to Cognac, but you may have only heard of Cognac because the Cognac region had a distinct advantage over Armagnac--the Charente River which gave it the ability to ship it's products out to the Atlantic and the rest of the world.

The Armagnac region is divided into three different growing areas: Bas Armagnac, Haut Armagnac and Armagnac-Ténarèze. I think "bas" in this context would translate as "lower", meaning the Bas Armagnac region is at a lower elevation.

Steve had called ahead and spoken with Florence Castarède and even though she was not at Chateau Maniban today, she let her groundskeeper know that we were coming and asked him to give us a tour.

Here is a view of the vineyard from the castle. Pierre, the groundskeeper told us they have 18 hectares of land (about 44 acres). We also learned from Pierre that a hectare is a square area that is 100 meters on each side (10,000 square meters). I love the metric system. It's so logical.



After the grapes are harvested they are crushed here:



Then the juice is pumped into vats here and made into wine in 10 days.



The vats are currently full of wine.



Next the wine is pumped into this still. This is Pierre standing in front of it. They have just this one still for their entire operation here.



Here is how the still works. The wine (yellow) is pumped to the left where it is heated by a wood fire and turned into vapor (blue). The vapor is forced under pressure back to the right where the cold wine causes it to condense back into liquid, Armagnac, which is captured in the barrel.



The Armagnac is aged in these barrels. Pierre only spoke French, and while he was very gracious and spoke very slowly, we didn't learn much about the aging process.


Finally, we saw the bottling room where Mr. Jean, who is the vintner, let us taste some Armagnac! Here you can see he is putting some 1973 into a glass. It was wonderful. We also tasted the XO (a blend of different years), the 1971 and the 1939. The 1939 was really good. And only $1092 a bottle!
No, I didn't buy it. Strangely, it made me think of Hitler and WW2 which started in 1939 when the Nazis invaded Poland. I bought the 1973 which had a few less digits in the price.

Day 5 - Rocamadour

East of Sarlat and Beynac is the town of Rocamadour, which is built into the side of a cliff.


It is lit up at night and looks even cooler.



Well, the picture doesn't do it justice.

Foie gras of the day

We have left the Bordeaux region and are in the Perigord region, which is know for truffles and foie gras. So instead of a wine of the day, I'm going to have a foie gras of the day. But I may get kicked out of the international bloggers society because I can't remember the name of the restaurant. But it was in La Roque-Gageac. Here I am in La Roque-Gageac.



The restaurant is on my left--not pictured. It is the last restaurant at the East end of the town, across from the boat dock, on the 2nd floor. I think it was the best foie gras I have ever had, perfectly grilled with a raspberry sauce. Mmmm, I'm drooling on my iPad now just remembering it.

Castle Beynac

The town of Beynac grew up around Beynac Castle at the top of a hill. After breakfast we walked to the top of the hill to tour the castle. Our hotel was at the bottom of the hill on the edge of route D-703. Literally on the edge. The outside wall of the hotel restaurant is less than a meter from the cars traipsing by. It is a small two lane road, even though it has a highway number. It is probably not wide enough for two large American cars to pass each other. Fortunately, we have a small European car.

After breakfast we wandered up the hill. A passer-by took pity on me trying to take a self portrait with my iPhone.




So we have a decent picture.


Most of the castle is empty and looks like what you see in Hollywood movers. In fact, some scenes from the 1999 movie "Joan of Arc" were filmed inside Castle Beynac. Some rooms are roped off, well more like gated off, with a huge gate like you might use in a dungeon. These rooms are furnished and look like someone could live there. Though I wouldn't want their heating bill!



Across the Dordogne River is Caste Naud (in the fog today.) These two castles were rivals for two centuries. And I'm not talking about a sporting rivalry. I'm talking about boiling oil and crossbows.

Wanna see my etchings?

This must be the oldest pickup line in the world. I can see Cro-Magnon man saying this 13,000 years ago. And some of these cave drawings are pretty cool. Though I think Monet's reputation is safe.



We were able to get in to see a cave on Monday, just in advance of the French strike on Tuesday which has now closed the caves--at least for today. Our tour guide described the cave etchings, and even some paintings in both French and English. Most of the drawings are of animals-- Horses and wooly mammoths. There are some drawings of women, but the animal drawings are much more numerous and more detailed. I guess that says something about their priorities.

Day 4 - Beynac

We were on our way to Sarlat, when we saw this cool castle in Beynac and decided to spend the night here.



We have left the grapes of Bordeaux and are now in the Dordogne River valley to see castles and Cro-Magnon cave art.

Grapes!

It is harvest season so while we have seen vines everywhere, we haven't seen grapes before. I think these are probably merlot grapes since they look too big to be cabernet grapes, but I don't really know. And I guess it doesn't matter, all we need to know is that they are Saint Emilion grapes, right?

Winery tour at Lynch-Bages

Steve really wanted to tour this winery and had booked a tour online in advance. Our tour guide Hélènne was great. She told us all about how the wine was made. Blah, blah, blah, yeast, blah, blah, settling, blah blah cabernet, merlot and cabernet franc. Finally we got to the barrel room and the interesting part--the math.



This is the 2009, aging in French oak barrels. They only use French oak and they only use each barrel twice. Some wineries use each barrel 3 times, but not Lynch-Bages. After 2 uses they sell their barrels to those other silly wineries. The 2009 sold out in 2 hours for $140 a bottle! It is now up to $161 a barrel, but Lynch-Bages doesn't own it any more, they sold it all (at $140.) But here it will sit for 9 months. Each barrel holds 300 bottles, so each one is worth $48,300! I told you there would be math. And it won't even be ready to drink for 2 years!

In the tasting room we did get to taste the 09. Yep, definitely not ready to drink yet, but it'll probably be spectacular some day. Most surprising of all is that the tour doesn't end in the gift shop. They have no wine to left to sell. Not that I would ever spend that much on a bottle of wine anyway, but it was a fun tour.

Wine tasting at Le Châtelet

Saint Emilion has many wineries. We were very selective in choosing one to tour. We pulled into the first one we saw. And it was spectacular. Le Châtelet has been in the same family for 5 generations. Patrick (4th generation) was charming the tourists in the tasting room. Their wines are 80% merlot and 20% cabernet franc. No wonder I liked them. We tasted the 2007, 2005 and 2008. The 05 was clearly the best. The 09 was also for sale, but would need to be put down (wine slang for "don't drink it yet") for 2 years. No, I'm not that patient.

It cost about $100 to ship a case to the US. But they can't ship to Washington, though they can ship to Oregon and California. I guess the states do have some freedoms. Congress can only regulate commerce between the states. And at $54 a bottle I wasn't going to be buying a case anyway. Although the 07 and 08 was cheaper, they must agree that the 05 is the best also. The 09 was also $54, so that's probably going to be really good in a few years.

Cassoulet

Duck, pork and sausage with white beans. One of my favorite French dishes. I used to love this at Cafe Campagne in Seattle, but it's even better in France! They seem to have a love affair with duck here. It's always on the menu in one form or another, or two or three forms. But cassoulet is like a tasting plate and stew all in one!

Our biggest challenge so far is that most French restaurants don't serve lunch after 2pm. So we have to get up each day, check out of the hotel and drive to the next city by 1:30 so we don't miss lunch. They do actually have McDonald's in France, but I refuse to eat there. I'd rather skip a meal than eat at a McDonald's. Puh-lease!

We pulled into Saint Emilion at 1:30 and found the Bistro du Clocher with cassoulet on the menu. Divine!

Chateau Rozier 2006 Saint Emilion Grand Cru

The wine of the day (for Sunday Oct 17th) is a Grand Cru from grapes in the Saint Emilion area of the Bordeaux region. In the middle ages Catholic monks noticed that certain areas consistently produced similar wines and started labeling these areas as crus (cru means growth in French). Napoleon III made this official in 1855, but only for the Médoc region. Since Saint Emilion is not part of the Médoc region, I have no idea what this means for this wine. But someone somewhere thinks this is a great cru. It sure did taste good. And for some reason 4 glasses was cheaper than a bottle, so we didn't actually buy a whole bottle.

Day 3 - St. Emilion

The cabbie that picked us up at the Bordeaux airport recommended we go to St. Emilion. Rick Steve's says it is probably the most beautiful town in the area. We drove South back to Bordeaux then East.





A view from the top of the town of St. Emilion.

Chateau Pomys 2000 Saint Estèphe

The wine of the day (for Saturday Oct 16th) is a 10 year-old Bordeaux from the St. Estèphe area. We had this with dinner at our chateau in Puillac.
Smooth, full-bodied and delicious.

On the road

On the way to Poillac. We drove past kilometer after kilometer of grapes (that's the stuff on the left.) 20 km to Poillac, let's see that's about 32 miles and we're going 60 kph, so that's ... wait a minute, I don't need miles. 20 km, 60 kph ... We'll be there in 20 minutes.
Hey! What's that we're driving past?



Chateau Lafite Rothschild. One of the most expensive wines on the planet. Over $1400 per bottle. We won't be drinking any of that!

Day 2 - Puillac

Today we picked up the rental car and drove North. We took the tram from the hotel to get the car. 1.40 euros to ride the tram--not bad--about $2, but the ticket machine wouldn't make change, so we had to buy 5 tickets (warning math coming! 1.40 * 5 = 7) to get to whole euros.



We stopped in Margaux for lunch. At first I thought that maybe I had had too much wine the day before, but no! It was just that the water glasses had been designed by Picasso. Excellent food and a lovely bottle of wine.



Since Steve was driving I had to drink most of the wine. I'm a good travel buddy. If you've been reading my blog you'll know that all we know about this wine is that it is an 05 Bordeaux from the Médoc area. Oh, and it tasted really good!

Walk, wine, dinner, wine, dessert, wine...

On Friday after my lunch and Steve's nap we walked to the Bordeaux city center along the Gorgonne River. There's a beautiful pedestrian path along the water--just perfect for a pedestrian guy like me. First stop: Maison du Vin. It seems every city has a House of Wine. Maybe I should open one in Seattle. Hmmm. Steve was wearing his customary UW baseball cap, not haute couture as far as I know (you can learn a lot watching The Devil Wears Prada seven times!)
Another patron of the wine house asked if he went to the UW. Turns out this gentleman went to Indiana also, my alma mater. Before I could take a sip of my wine we were sharing our table with Tim and Lesley. Tim just moved to London for a new job... I think wine exacerbates CRS disease (a terrible condition where you Can't Remember Shit) ... Lesley works for Razorfish, a hot web-based marketing and advertising company. Maybe Tim does something boring like bond trading or brain surgery.



After wine we decided to have dinner and more wine. This place has cool couches facing into a court yard. Although Paris no longer allows smoking in restaurants, that doesn't apply to eating outside. This may have been a great meal, but I couldn't really tell with the occasional gusts of cigarette smoke. I took my dessert out to one of those red couches to get up wind of the smoke. They aren't as comfortable as they look. But they are definitely up wind! And the view is nice:



After dinner, you'll never guess what we did. Found a place to have some more wine! Or maybe we moved on to armagnac. But what I do remember is that they brought us out some homemade madelines. Just take a look at these beauties:



I didn't even recognize them at first. I love madelines, but I've only had store bought ones. Yum, yum, yum-my! I may have to buy a madeline pan.
I stayed up till 11pm and crashed into bed. I woke up at 3:30am. Steve slept like a baby for 9 hours. And he was the one that took a nap! Oh well, I'll get unlagged from this jet setting soon.

Chateau Charmail 2007 Haut-Médoc

The wine of the day (for Friday October 15th) is from Chateau Charmail on the Médoc Penninsula in the Bordeaux region of southwestern France. The appellation (or Appellation d'Origine Contrôllée abbreviated AOC in French) is Haut-Médoc. This is a controlled name, like Napa. I'm not sure who controls these names, but you can't call your wine whatever you want. You need permission from the powers that be (or PTB in Buffy-speak.). So what grape is the wine made from you might want to know. So do I. But the bottle is mute on that subject. See, here's the back:









I think Bordeaux wines are mostly made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. But I'm going to visit some wineries and find out the real scoop. Stay tuned. But in any case, it tasted yummy swell! And I guess that's all that matters. ...wild blackberries with a hint of snail dung... Just kidding--it tasted better than that!! Maybe raccoon dung.

Grapes growing everywhere

Can you believe they have grapes growing at the airport? You can't tell in the picture, but this is outside the Bordeaux airport! We arrived in Bordeaux after about 15 hours at noon local time. I decided to stay up as late as I could. I made it until 11pm.

Day 1 - Bordeaux

I think this is going to be a great trip with my good buddy, Steve Robinson. We were greeted at baggage claim with some apropos decorations.


I plan to be drinking some wine on this trip. Yes, indeed!

Location:Cours Saint-Louis,Bordeaux,France