We didn't go for our intended walk to the reflection pool at Bordeaux last night as our dinner date with friends didn't end until almost 11pm. Instead I took a couple of photos from our balcony.
Today our ship re-positioned from Bordeaux to the small coastal town of Pauillac (pronounced po-lac) - just 23 nautical miles. Rather than stay on the ship we decided to do a tour that would take us from Bordeaux to Chateau Fluer De Lisse for a wine tasting and tour, then on to the little village of Saint Emilion for lunch. In the afternoon, the bus would take us to our ship at Pauillac via the Chateau district.
Chateau Fluer De Lisse is impressive. It is so clean and newly renovated, and I have never seen so much stainless steel in all my life. As you enter the building the first smell that hits your nose is the smell of oak. Outside, the last of the harvest of grapes is being processed. We are first walked into the bulk storage area and then we move to the cask storage. The majority of the wine is stored in the wine casks but surrounding the edges of the room are large ceramic containers holding more of the bulk wine. Our guide then takes us to the cellar door for our wine tasting. We taste three different wines but as these are all reds I don't bother with the tasting. I just don't like the taste of red wine.
From the Chateau it is a short but very scenic drive to the medieval village of St. Emilion that is another World Heritage listed place. Our drive takes us past thousands of hectares of grape vines, so many vines. Our guide tells us that drinking of red wine in France is on a downward trend so I do wonder at the wisdom of planting so many vines.
St. Emilion is absolutely gorgeous. Our guide walks us through the narrow cobblestone roads that are only wide enough for pedestrians, to a vantage point that overlooks the town and beyond. St Emilion attracts over a million tourists each year and there is plenty to see and do if you love Merlot Wine and excellent food. There are numerous restaurants vying for your attention and we even pass a couple of Michelin starred. The one that we eventually land on for lunch is a recommendation by our guide and the food was some of the best I've eaten, and that said after being on a cruise ship for three months! St. Emilion is divided into the upper and lower and it's quite a steep walk to the lower section. This is where you will find clothing, jewellery, craft shops, to name a few. I purchased a bamboo scarf but that was the sum of our spending today. Still, it feels good to give back to these small villages.
The restaurant we chose to dine at was called L'Envers Du Decor. As soon as we entered we were taken straight to an inside table (grateful for that as it was cold outside) with street views. The menu is written on a large blackboard that is positioned so that you can easily read it. The waiter explains the menu to you and he is very attentive and our questions are answered easily. The entrees we chose were the Brie soup that intrigued me, and Philip went for the grilled octopus tentacle. For our main we went for a share dish that was Slow Cooked Roast Lamb Shoulder. We also ordered a glass each of Rosé. As a complimentary dish we were brought a chive dip with very crispy toast to eat while we waited for our entreé, that came out as soon as we ate our last piece of toast and dip.
My soup was brought to me in two parts, a large tureen with the brie cheese soup and a soup bowl with a very lightly poached egg and croutons. I mixed the soup with the egg and took my first spoonful. Wow. That was one of the most creative and delicious dishes I have even eaten. Philip's entreé was equally creative and I particularly liked the plating. We ended up swapping our dishes half way just so we could get a taste of each.
After our entreé our main was almost an anti-climax, but it was delicious if not the prettiest dish I have ever seen. The meat just fell apart and the jus, with a hint of mint, was perfect. Gosh. I'm such a foodie…..
After that huge lunch, we walked around St. Emilion a little more before heading back to our waiting bus. We have to head back to Bordeaux in order to reach our final destination of Paullic, but our driver takes us a different route. This route takes us past some very impressive Chateau's. We don't stop at any to get photos so they have to be from the bus window but you still get an idea. There are over 7,000 Chateau's in the Bordeaux region and our guide tells us that these days they are owned by either Banks or Insurance Companies, that is a bit of a shame but it seems the way of the world these days. The little fish get gobbled up by the big fish. The drive takes us just over two hours and once again it is gorgeous. Here is a sample of just some of the Chateaus that I could photograph.
I don't know whether any of you have watched the tv show "Escape to the Chateau" that followed the lives of the Strawbridge family as they were renovating their Chateau. This is close to the area that they have their Chateau.
As we draw close to Paullic we see the hulking form of our ship. It seems to be sitting in the middle of no where again. The village of Paullic looks interesting as we drive through it but we have no interest in walking back into town to check it out. It is very overcast and we have just been on tour for 7.5 hours so our bed will be calling us very early tonight. Tomorrow is another day and another port.
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