France on a bottle of wine a day (Writing by Maria)

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France
We arrived in France to accomplish two specific things: Matt had a fantasy of having baguette, wine, and cheese under the Eifel tower and I really wanted to finally learn how to distinguish a 3 buck chuck from a $65/bottle 2006 merlot something something followed by fancy french words. For this, we stopped in Paris, the romance capital of the world, and then Bordeaux, the wine capital of Europe.

Paris
A day and a half in Paris went by quickly. Before the wine and cheese stop, we made a long walk around central Paris. For me, NotreDam has always been magical and we lingered longer looking at the spectacular architecture and then witnessing the rituals of mass inside the cathedral.

By the end of the day, Matt happily dragged (did I say happily?) me to the Eifel tower with a full bag of wine, bread, and cheese. And although I honestly wanted to share this moment with him, I was not ready to do it in the cold wet rain (thanks Paris). As the rain fell, the sun set, it got cooler and I got grumpier. Between Matt's little fantasy and my lady like persuasion he didn't have a chance....... and what do you know, he suggested moving this little feast inside our cozy hotel room. 😊

The next day, we made a few more stops in Paris and took a train to Bordeaux. For those who want or about to travel, I can recommend staying at Citadines Apart'hotel Bordeaux, basic apartment style room close to the city center and all tram lines.

Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a very interesting place and one could easily have a three day program of activities there such as cooking classes, wine tours, wine tasting classes, and others. Gourment Touring is one of the tourist companies that comes highly recommended. I have been in touch with them over the email and from what I've seen, they are professionals.

Considering little time that we had, we chose a wine tasting class. Check out l'Ecole du Vin in Bordeaux (Travel tip: one can easily register for a class in a local tourist office).

Our friends know that neither Matt nor I were wine consieurs by any stretch of the imagination (I usually go with the wine my friends order), but we've been told this comes with age, so I just say we're too young. The wine tasting class we took was short, but it served us well in that it really opened our minds to the different sights, smells, textures, and tastes wines can elicit. First, we learned that the Bordeaux region has this magical equation of microclimate, soil, and, of course, the secret to the elegance of Bordeaux wines ( that is know-how...... can you tell the instructor was from France?). Then we also learned about particularities of growing varieties of grapes in designated areas, especially if wine comes under the Appellation d'Origine Controlee ( AOC) system that means it has to keep with strictly regulated winemaking techniques and only in authorized areas. Sparing other details on the techniques of winemaking in bordeaux (which were genuinely interesting), our group jumped into wine tasting.

I always knew the three ways of tasting wines, but I was never sure about the order or about the way to describe wines. After the lesson, I confidently knew that vision comes first. You smell second (first you smell wine in static and then you smell it again after swirling wine in your glass). If you do it enough times, you'll start seeing and smelling the difference. Finally, and where I never reached a full understanding, is tasting sensation. What I do remember, however, is that with white wines you mainly look for acidity levels on the entry and sweetness. Red wines are more complicated and they are mainly described by acidity, body and suppleness. At this, my confidence stops and I admit I would not even try to say whether a red wine has flabby, full, fat, structured, or powerful body........or similarly, whether in it's suppleness, the wine is fine, elegant, silky, sound, astringent, or dry. Our group just trusted our instructor to tell us what this or that wine really tastes like.

With this said, however, the course was great and since taking it we have sincerely started appreciating wines better and also, more importantly, TASTING THE DIFFERENCE!

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Photos

Matt
Weren't you wearing that yesterday?

ET by night
She wants to go home here, can you tell?

Bordeaux
A mist fountain near the river

Best Lunch
Matt had a weird French lunch that included apples, cheese and ham. He was very surprised he liked it.
I had raw salmon.

Second best lunch
The next day we came back to the same restaurant and had another great lunch!

Bordeaux
High School kids had an interesting day. 1st they tied themselves together and asked for donations while passing out candy, then everyone smashed whip cream into each other's faces, than the girls crawled along the bellies of the boys' stomachs. Sounds like fun.