The last few days saw us taking several walks around the neighborhood where we are staying in Bordeaux. We also took a trip up to the Médoc Region where we—you guessed it—did a little more wine tasting. First: the ‘hood.

We are staying at the Adagio Hotel while we are in Bordeaux. It’s kind of an efficiency long-term stay hotel. It’s a nice neighborhood and a short walk to the tram that takes us to school in the mornings. 

Last Wednesday we made a visit with the Road Scholar group to the Médoc region where we visited two wineries. There were some presentations on grape-growing and wine-making and then, needless to say, there were  wine tastings. Also needless to say we participated in the wine-tastings. 

The wineries we visited were named Pedesclaux and Boudan. Pedesclaux was large and very modern; Boudan was family owned, much smaller and more traditional.  

This coming weekend we are scheduled to take a train to Sarlat in the Dordogne Valley. We have a guided tour scheduled which includes a stop in Domme.  We’ll spend the weekend there before getting the train back to Bordeaux. And French classes. 

Au Revoir

Joe

We have been very, very, awfully busy. Just this last weekend we visited the French section of the Basque Country. It is French enough, and Paris exercises sovereignty over it,  but apparently the people also consider themselves to be Basque which comes complete with its own language. Not an unusual situation in the world when you think about it. 

The cities we visited along the way included St. Jean-de-Luz and Bayonne (not the one in NJ). From there we went to the famous and very affluent shore town of Archachon, which has a certain similarity to Spring Lake, NJ. Also on the list were Espellet and Biarritz.  

St Jean-de-Luz, a sort of fishing village where we first stopped is fairly small and known for its oysters. (We didn’t try them.) After the stop in St Jean-de-Luz we headed to the reasonably large city of Bayonne where we stayed for 2 days. From our base of operations in Bayonne we made our way to Archachon to do a walking tour of the city. 

Later we went to the town of Espellet where we had lunch and went on a walking tour with our guide Luciano. 

The last town we went to this go-around was Biarritz. It is super posh, as they say, and is filled with all the shops you would expect…Hermes, Cartier and the rest of the usual suspects. Biarritz from which the expression “putting on the Ritz” originated, also had two magnificent cathedrals which we saw. One dominated the main square, the other was on top of a hill. Last, but not least, Biarritz is the site of an historic lighthouse looking out over the Atlantic. All in all a very nice and very active weekend. 

And that doesn’t count French class and the homework. Or the wine tastings. More about those later.

Au revoir

Joe

We continued our adventure in Bordeaux with a photo walk with a photographer around a few parts of town. On our walk we went to the public garden—a botanic garden that is open to the public. Both the public garden and nearby surrounding areas have Roman ruins that have been preserved through the centuries. 

A few days later, over the weekend, we headed out on the train to Saint-Emilion in the heart of the wine country. It only takes a half-hour ride on the train to reach Saint-Emilion, and then maybe a 20 or 30 minute walk into town. The town and the surrounding vineyards are truly spectacular. 

It is a medieval city, and you can easily imagine what it must have looked like centuries ago. The old winding streets, the grand churches and little shops and restaurants provide a feast for the eyes. Along with Tai-Chi and Geraldine we had lunches consisting of  Coquille St Jacque and duck at a restaurant named Lard et Bouchon, which we could get into because Mary Anne had the foresight to make reservations. 

Anyway some photos from Saint-Emilion are below. Also—Mary Anne went on a tour of an outdoor market and took some photos. We’ll post on that before too long.

Au Reviour — Joe

We have been awfully busy lately. Among other things, we have been looking at the architecture of the city, which is pretty incredible and we still have a lot to see. Below, for instance is a iPhone panoramic photo taken inside one of the churches in St Emilion in the Bordeaux region of France.

In addition to these types of visits, we have 3 hours of French class daily (sometimes with homework). After class we often have some other activity organized by Road Scholar. For instance, just recently we went to an outdoor market in Les Halles (with the Road Scholar group) for lunch.

From there we went to the Cite du Vin where we visited the Wine Museum.

Of course we had a glass or two at the top of the museum while overlooking Bordeaux. 

A few days later we went back to the Wine Museum to participate in a wine tasting presented by a professional taster. I wonder how you get that job! Anyway, it was a terrific presentation and we learned a lot about how to evaluate different wines. 

A few iPhone shots from these activities are included in this blog post.   

There are lots of other things we have to report on, including a photo walk and a day trip to St Emilion. More about those later.

Joe  

Well, we made it. We made it in spite of the fact that on our scheduled day of departure Air France sent us an e-mail a little before 6:00 AM informing us that our flights were cancelled. Just like that. Not even an explanation—even in corporate speak—as to why. Based on news reports we surmised that it was a targeted strike of sorts.

Needless to say, Air France was incapable of rebooking us on alternate flights and the Air France website was useless. So a mad scramble was on. Fortunately we managed to book flights into Atlanta and from there to Paris and from Paris to Bordeaux. When we got to Atlanta we managed to get to the gate for the flight to Paris just as the plane was boarding. But we made it. So, as they say here: Voila!

French language classes start Monday and they will go on for 3 hours each weekday for 6 weeks. They are not kidding when they refer to language immersion. After classes we will be visiting museums and going to French cooking classes. On the weekends we plan to visit some vineyards. Saint-Emilion, Pauilac and St Estephe are all high on the list. 

We are just settling in, so we’ll report back after some classes and touring around. In the meantime here are some iPhone photos. 

Joe