Sime in Paris: Bordeaux

Last weekend we travelled down to Bordeaux, located in the south west of France and of course home to one of the great wine producing regions.

We flew down there (as it was cheaper than the plane), it is only about 500km from Paris, so the hostesses on the flight had barely enough time to serve all of the drinks, when it was already time to begin our decent into Bordeaux.

We arrived late on a friday night. After a short bus trip into town from the airport, we quickly checked into our hotel and made our way out into city for some dinner. One thing that quickly struck us was the size of some of the churches there. Immense is easily the most apt word to describe them. They were enormous. With nice flying butresses (thanks Rach) and spires that seem to reach the clouds, they certainly were a little different to some of the grand eglises that we see around Paris.

We found a hearty local resturant, and despite the late hour (almost 11pm) we were greeted warmly, and with confusion over where our French accents were from. (The waiter thought we were from Canada). I think he was a little confused that some antipodeans could speak French relatively well. Personally I think our French was a little crap, (well mine was anyway). We ordered some local delicacies (including a salad with an entire wheel of camembert baked and sitting on top) and washed it all down with a nice bottle of local red before retiring back to the hotel.

Next morning was an early start in order to get going on our full day wine tasting experience. We arrived a little tired at 9am at the meeting point for the 1st half of our tour, which involved a trip around town, and a visit to the Bordeaux Wine Museum. This was to be followed by a hearty lunch at a resturant specialising in local delicasies, followed by the afternoon visit to a couple of local wineries for some wine tasting.

Lets face it, we went on the tour to sample some local wine, so the two hours we spent at the wine museum positively dragged on. Yes it was mildly interesting to hear about all of the history of wine in the local area and to look at all of the old machines etc etc. But everytime the guide said "Are there any questions?" I was itching to put up my hand and say, "Do we get to try the wine now?" Finally at the end of our tour of the musem, they cracked open a couple of bottles of local red, and we were able to get stuck right in. Although it was only 11am, I quickly polished off my two generously portioned glasses. I did however savour it properly first, with the nose and all of the other things that it is suggested you should do when you are a massive wine connoisseur.

After the musem it was onto a resturant for lunch. We had some goats cheese with cream thing

for entree, (i have no idea what it was called) and the main course was a confit du canard with some assorted vegetables. Very nice. I however, was most looking forward to dessert, which involved us all venturing down into the cellar. There we were all provided with a knife and plate, at which point they opened the door to a large refrigerated room containing about 100 different cheeses, and told to go for our lives. So we wandered into the cold cheesy nirvana, and immediately I went to work with my knife, cutting off large chunks of Brie, Camambert, Mimollete, Blues', Munster, Roquefort and any others that took my fancy in the cold cheesy heaven. We returned to the table to gorge ourselves on our soft creamy treasure. Full bellied and ready for a nap, it was difficult to pry us up out of our seats for the afternoon trip out to the wineries.

We left Bordeaux and headed North West to the Haut Medoc

region of Bordeaux, which predominately produces Cabernet Savingion and Merlot varities of wines. We arrived at the first winery after about 45 mins in the bus, and on the way we went past about 50 or 60 other wineries. Infact all you can see for miles and miles around are grape vines. We had a bit of a tour of the winery. Had a look at a few vats, some barrels of wine, and generally paid little attention whilst the winery owner lectured us for about 20 mins on the vagaries of wine production in the local area. (Its so dry that each vine produces less grapes than normal, but because they produces less, the grape bunches they do produce is more concentrated in its colour and flavour which is ideal for wine. All of the bunches are picked by hand) Again at the end of the talk, it was asked "Are there any

questions", I found it difficult to keep quiet and not ask, "When are we tasting the wine". My impaitence was rewarded however, as we wandered into the next room. Glasses were already being laid neatly on the counter, each with a generous helping of their quality Cab Sav contained within. A quick smell, a swirl in the hand, and then into the mouth it went, nice and sweet. This was then followed by a glass of their merlot, which was also pretty good.

After this it was back onto the bus and off to the next winery. We travelled along for another half an hour, and again went past another 50 or 60 wineries, before we came to ours. Once again out the window the view was mainly rows and rows of neatly laid out grape vines, with the occasional field of corn, smattered in amongst them.

The next winery, and the whole process was repeated. We got another long talk on how the wine is made, and how the grapes are harvested and how it is all transported etc etc. Again, we grew

impaintent and longed to get to the business end of the visit. It was finally obliged to us and we had a couple more glasses of some tasty red goodness. After which we piled back on the bus and headed back into town, with full stomachs and tired eyes.

The following day (Sunday) was spent wandering around the town, taking in the sights, checking out a few of the other large churches, and sampling some more of the local delicacies. Another famous delicacy from Bordeaux is called a Canelé which according to wikipedia is "a small French pastry with a soft and tender custard center and a dark, thick caramelized crust. The dessert, which is in the shape of small, striated cylinder approximately two inches in height, is a specialty of the Bordeaux region of France but can often be found in Parisian patisseries as well. Made from egg, sugar, milk and flour flavored with rum and vanilla, the custard batter is baked in a mold, giving the canelé a caramelized crust and custard-like inside."