Bordeaux part two

Bordeaux  Part Two

We left Bordeaux on Sunday morning July 31 and took the train to Carcassonne, France.  

We are headed on a train to Carcassone for one night after a fabulous week in Bordeaux.  The first part of the week was spent exploring the lovely town.  The second half of the week was spent exploring the area with our friends, Betsy and Alan Towne from Richmond.  And what a second half!  

We picked them up at the train station on Wednesday.  One of many lessons: if you don’t know the train station, try to pick a logical meeting point, like an information desk, although I don’t know if that would have helped because there were two at opposite sides of the station.  After an hour, we finally Locatedeach other and off we went.  Our first stop was the apartment.  Cham and I had searched it out earlier and gasped a little bit because we thought we were at the very top and boy, was a long way up.  Charles, our landlord, met us and took us up one flight of wide, curving stone steps, a welcome sight after the many flights in Paris.  No air conditioning but two strong fans, a fantastic kitchen, washer and dryer, large living room and two en suite bedrooms.  Perfect!  Our first stop was the Maison de Vins, the first wine bar Cham and I had visited when we arrive in Bordeaux. After a sampling of wines and some cheese and meat platters, we explored a little bit of the town and decided to call it an early night.  So, this is the deal with the apartment; if you were looking for the party, this was the neighborhood.  We had to sleep with the windows open due to no air conditioning.  There was a bar with outside seating which closed at 1:00.  This was a huge surprise, but the garbage was picked up at 3:00 a.m. and because the weather is so fantastic, there is a huge homeless population.  I didn’t realize they wake up at 3:00 as well and are really loud. The apartment is located in an area that is gentrifying, but that’s years away and it is currently party central.  Okay. . . 

After a not so great night’s sleep, we went to the tourist information center in the center of town to meet our guide at 9:30 a.m. for an all-day wine tour of the Pomerol and St. Emilion wine regions of Bordeaux.  Cham did an excellent job of picking the tour. There were 8 of us on the tour – ourselves, a couple from Ft. Worth and a brother and sister from San Francisco and Raleigh.  We had a wonderful time.  We visited 3 vineyards, all different in their production methods which was quite interesting.  The first one was more traditional, the second one was Gaudet is in the middle of St. Emilion and is the sister vineyard to the world famous Petrus (wines that sell in the$2,000 range when you can even get them) very small production and things done as they’ve always been done and the third was a very modern facility with Belgian owners.  What struck about the last is that they had several barrels wrapped in tape with things written on the tape.  We asked what that was for and it was for their kosher wines.  They also had a huge vat that had been sealed that is getting ready for next year’s barrels.  Very, very interesting.  We came back to Bordeaux and had a lovely dinner on one of the many squares.  The weather is so absolutely perfect that of course people want to spend all of their time outside, plus, it stays light so late.  We came back to the apt and got ready for bed.  Who knew they picked up garbage the following night as well!  This time was 12:00, but still . . . then we had some guys who started chanting and then someone who was very clearly crying and very upset around 3:00.  This is a very lively neighborhood.

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The next day Cham had made arrangements to do an oyster tour of the Arcachon Bay. It was a day I will never forget.  You drive about an hour outside of Bordeaux and you’re at the Arcachon Bay.  You can also see the largest sand dune in Europe from this bay. Our skipper of the boat / tour guide was Thibault, a lifelong resident and oysterman of the area, but talking with him, you knew he was more than a simple oysterman. He had a deep commitment to the environment and the continuation of the traditional way of life in this area. He took us on his long flat boat which is called a peniss, yes and pronounced like penis, and showed us his oysters beds. They are marked by long poles.  He has four of them and it takes 3 years to get the oyster from its’ infancy planting to maturity for harvest and the market where he sells his oysters at two different locations in Toulouse which is about two hours away. There is a great fluctuation in the tide, five to six meters, and if you don’t know where you’re goingand use the correct channels, you can easily get stuck.  They also have a limited daily time to work with the oysters because of the tides.  He also showed us two houses on sticks which are watchman’s houses to keep pirates from raiding the beds.  A quarter of the way through the visit, he stopped to show us his oyster beach house.  They’ve set up a system that oysterman can own these small houses right on the beach that they use when they’re working and include a small kitchen and bath area. It’s basically a studio house made of wood and they’re in a special section of the beach.  Homeowners have their homes in another area and they’re made of concrete.  These segmented communities line the bay.  These, as he called them, nonprofessional homes are in line with the oyster beds.  People were swimming and boating around them, very interesting.  He told us that they are allowed to be close to the beds for 6 weeks during the summer and that’s it.  We were very touched he would show us his home which had also been owned by his father and which truly was all you need.  

Then we went to an oyster lunch at a restaurant located right on the water.  Oh, la la!  They were fabulous, we each had a dozen on the half shell.  I think they were the saltiest oysters I’ve ever had.  We ate them with a heavy brown bread and butter chased with a delicious white Bordeaux produced from Entre De Mers, which means “between the seas” but is actually from the area between the two main rivers in Bordeaux, the Garonne and the Dordogne. Cham and I had enjoyed this wine both at home and in Paris but having this native white Bordeaux in its’ own region seemed to make it taste even better than normal. An incredible experience.  The owner’s daughter was in medical school in Toulouse getting her degree in Psychiatry and had a great conversation en Francais ir’s with Alan.

After the lunch we continued on our voyage.  As we were getting closer to the Atlantic, the air and the water temp changed.  I would have gone swimming where we had lunch, but not where were now.  We could now clearly see the largest sand dune in Europe.  I asked if it had been deforested or if it was natural and something was lost in translation there.  I’ll have to do more research.  You can see how clearly it stands out in the pictures.  

Each portion of the bay has a different feel.  Some areas were more urban and more like Myrtle Beach.  Others were like Pawleys Island.  I’ve already chosen where I’m coming back to rent – Mollieau.  Absolutely perfect.  More of the Pawleys feel but close to some restaurants.

At the very end of the tour, Thibault took us to his oyster house.  What an education.  We finally understood that Chesapeake oysters are grown the wild way while theirs’ are cultivated.  There is a picture of some curved tiles that have been coated in calcium.  They put these in the bed, oysters attached to them, they pick them up after 6 months, pick the oysters off and put them in large net baskets.  The transfer the oysters by hand for three years.   While it seems very labor intensive, I guess it depends on whether you want the labor at the beginning or the end.  In the end, they pick up the baskets, put them in tubs of water for two days to get rid of any sand and take them to market.  I think with our process, the oyster attaches to old shell so you have to hammer the new oyster off of the old shell.  It was very, very enlightening. It makes you appreciate why they’re so expensive. We went back to the boat and shared a glass of another Entre De Mers wine with Thibault who is very interested in our country.  He has visited the states once when he went to see his sister who sells real estate in Manhattan. This day was just marvelous, a day we will always cherish. I have to thank Cham for all of his research in finding these great excursions.  He booked both of these through Viatour and they were all they had promised.

That night we were very tired so I went to a local pizzeria and picked-up two pizzas and brought them back to the apartment. Luckily the garbage men came at 11:30 right after we went to bed so we were not disturbed that evening. Also by keeping the apartment closed up during the day to keep in the cool and then opening the windows and closing the shutters at night cut down on most of the noise and definitely the light, but I have to confess, a little Ambien is a good thing, too!

We said good bye to the Townes the next day on Saturday July 30 as they are off on a bike riding adventure through the Dordogne region. Yesterday they visited some pre historic sites and were very happy with their accommodations. I can’t wait to hear about the bike trip.  Cham and I spent the morning onlogistical business and in the afternoon we had a very nice visit with Declan Pratt’s mother, Mary, who has a very nice home located near the public gardens in a great neighborhood. It was a lovely way to end our visit in Bordeaux.  Since it was Saturday night, the garbage men came at 10:35 p.m. I have posted a picture of them enjoying a beer at the bar after the pickup in our neighborhood and then they were evidently off to their nextstop.

So, now we’re on the way to Carcassonne for one night and then four nights in Avignon.  We absolutely loved Bordeaux.  It has something for everyone – wine, history, nature, great food, wonderful people and fabulous weather.  We can’t wait to return.

Some thoughts:

1. I should write a book on French appliances.  They are so extremely complicated.  I’m not exactly sure why that is.  I cooked on the convection stove top last night. I have no idea how I turned it on and once it was on, it got extremely hot very fast and I burned one of the pieces of veal. And the washing machines!  What a challenge!  Oh, well.  I’m sure I’ll get all of this down just in time to leave to leave France.  On the positive side, they have terrific irons, the way they used to be.  I don’t know how many of you have recognized that irons reach a certain point and then cool down because I think the industry is afraid we’ll get burned and they’ll get sued.  These irons are so great; they get hot and they stay hot.  I would love to have one at home.  They have old timey cords wrapped in nylon perfect for fraying.  How’s that for a blast from the past?

2. The logistics of extended individual travel in a foreign country can be a challenge even for ourselves who consider ourselves fairly experienced. While we have been remarkably efficient and lucky in making connections, finding our way around etc. it has required some work, good GPS in the rental cars, some last minute changes in plans, dealing with telephone and banking / credit card issues, extra money for unforeseen expenses and the help of many kind and patient locals. So far our lessons learned include don’t try to do so many areas too quickly, stay four or five nights in less places as opposed to two or three nights and do day trips from the larger cities to the smaller towns; also rely more on public transportation as opposed to rental cars, the trains really are marvelous plus that way everyone enjoys the countryside without having to concentrate on driving and dealing with all the associated stress. It makes one appreciate small group travel and having a tour operator who handles most of the logistics though you do give-up some flexibility and setting your own schedule.