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Published: December 29th 2008
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December 16th-18th: Bourdeaux, The Wine Country
Our train pulled into the station around 9:30 pm, a 7 hour train ride from Marseilles. We were a little worn out from the long haul, but the train ride is so much more relaxing than a plane ride that we really couldn’t complain. We were not prepared at all for what we were both in store for, it was far far beyond our expectations. It was dark outside, but the city was lit up with a thousand lights. We haven’t seen Paris yet but this must have been a mini Paris. OH MY GOSH! It was just unbelievable, the lights lit up these magnificent buildings and the streets were so alive with people, music, and restaurants just teeming full of delicious foods. Mitch and I were sooo excited! Our hotel was a little bit on the outskirts of town so we had to take a tram in which is always an excitement because you never really know if its going the right way (oh wait, I’m sorry, Mitch always knows if it is….men and their infallible sense of direction). Anyway, we chose this incredible restaurant, Le Provence, on one of the alleys
and had the greatest dinner of our time yet in Europe…I had the duck, a huge salad, and crème brulee and Mitch had the same thing except with salmon. It was so awesome having vegetables, I know our moms are happy with that. Unfortunately for me, I think medium means raw in France and my duck came to me still half alive, but hey…I ate it anyway. I mean as Mitch’s mom says: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do…”
In the morning, the first thing we did was rush to the tourism office to try and see if we get into one of the wine tours as Bourdeaux supposedly produces the best wine in France and arguably Europe. Neither of us had been on an official wine tour before so as usual, excitement levels were running high and we were just two giddy little kids with our American smiles and accents. I must admit, the only French word we don’t butcher is “Merci”. We pretty much kill the rest of them. Mitch likes to pretend he is a native to whatever country we are in and it gets pretty damn annoying but luckily he sucks at French and
doesn’t do it too much….When we were in England, oh my gosh…way worse. I’m getting side tracked again, so we got to book the tour which was awesome because they didn’t have many spots left. The tour was in a few hours so we decided to explore the sites of the city before we go drink some wine with the Frenchies. The city is pretty big but there are no tourists there at all right now so we were like elephants among mice, with our bulky cameras and lack of French…I’m sure it was pretty hilarious as nobody would speak English with us. There were some very beautiful and old cathedrals in the city that we took some pictures of and went inside. The paintings inside the churches are just unreal. The wine tour came faster than we thought it would and before we knew it, we were on the bus to the vineyards. We were going to the Merdoc wine country which produces the best red wines of France. I found this really interesting, the only difference between the different regions of France is not the amount of water or the type of grapes but rather the soil. The
soil is what makes the wine have a certain flavor or taste. The first chateaux we went to was extremely old and owned by one family who had worked it since the 1700s. They had four châteauxs on the their land and they produced some really nice red wine. I am not a huge red wine buff, but I did enjoy it. We were planning on buying a bottle but you can’t ship it to the States because of all these rules and regulations so we just had to stick with the free tasting. The next chateaux we went to was much more impressive than the last, it was old as well, but it was clear that they were more successful than the last….where the first winery had rusty tubes and pipes this one had big shiny basins and drains. The wine here was very famous and cost a pretty penny to buy in the wine stores in town and around the world. The good thing about buying it directly from the winery is that you get the wholesale price, it’s too bad we couldn’t because we didn’t want to drag it with us throughout the rest of our trip (ok ok ok and we have no money). The grounds on which the grape bushes are planted is very rocky because its good for the plant, it doesn’t need much water to produce a good grape. The wine at this winery wasn’t released until it had sat in the barrels for at least 3 years, the oak barrels is what gives the wine the flavor, they pay up to 600 Euros for a set of barrels and they have thousands of barrels. Each acre of grape vines produced around 1 million in revenue and they have over 50 acres…that’s not taking into account the value of the land or the châteaux. I couldn’t believe this…there are only 18 people who work the vineyard. All of the grapes are hand picked and hand sorted, there are no machines doing the picking, its all human labor. Each plant is hand groomed in the winter, and let me tell you…there are millions of plants. Not a fun job. We got back to the city around 7 pm and we were both starving and had another good dinner in the city but not quite as extravagant. It had been a wonderful day and we both felt really lucky that we got to do the wine tour since we scheduled it at the last minute, God is good to us. We are headed to Tours in the morning, and then Paris 3 days after that.
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Mom Amy
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Beer?
Okay, what's now your favorite? I can't wait to hear!