Bordeaux, France

 Bordeaux, France                                                               June 9 & 10, 2022

            Wine country!

            Spring gardens country!

            Luxury and color and taste and smells.  Does it get better than Bordeaux?  Probably not.

            We arrived at the port in the late afternoon and dressed up for the 5:30 boarding of buses for the ATW event w#2 at Chateau Giscours which was about 40 minutes north of the city, out in the countryside with vineyards, cattle, a few horses, and lots of space.  There are just a few chateaus left in France, and we passed the signs for a couple of them.  Tourists and weddings and special events help to fund these large estates. 

            Upon arrival, we were met with four peasant-dressed locals who were on stilts.  Never really knew why, but they stayed on those stilts all the way through the appetizer course.  Whew.  We were on the first bus and poised to take photos before the hoards arrived, to get overall photos of the chateau and some of the grounds.  Having walked through a living room of sorts and marveling at the large fine-wood fireplace and vintage paintings, we spilled into the elegant backyard where tables of 4 (seated or standing) welcomed as red, white, and rose’ wines were generously provided.  Background music provided a nice backdrop as we sampled huge oysters (no, thanks), breads and large pats of locally made butter, and appetizers I took photos of to try on my own.  Jerry and I wandered out to see the pond and two nice bronze sculptures.

            Then the march to the open barn with hanging sheets to block sun and some wind.  Marilyn and Charlie had preceded all of us to reserve places at the very end of the long benches.  Table accessories were profusions of wildflowers and vases with showy vegetables—great ideas for the countryside flavor.

Highlights of the evening were lining up for “Girls Just Wannna Have Fun” and lots of photos.  Got back to the room by about 11:45.

            Cruise Specialists (our booking agent for this cruise) had a wonderful tour for 8 of us at about 9:45 the next day.  In a smaller tour bus we drove around the old town area with our guide giving a constant patter of history and pointing out important points like the oldest stock market in Europe and the two remaining gates to the city.  After the driving tour we exited the bus for a walking tour of the same area.  The architecture was very interesting and it is a lovely city.  We surprised ourselves by recognizing that we essentially ended up walking in a big circle.  After the walk we visited a small café and sampled from baskets of pastries with a drink of choice (note the whipped cream topped hot chocolates).  Hopping back aboard the bus we were driven to the newer section of town where we saw the submarine base from WWII.  We were dropped off at a large food court with little kiosks of upscale tapas (small plates). We saw and the sampled a lunch sized variety of local oysters, thinly sliced pork, cheeses, bread, and of course, WINE.  We were right next to the wine museum which is a very modern building recognizing Bordeaux’s most famous product. 

women are holding up this building, the men are doing the same on the other side (if there isn't a photo, did it actually happen? ;-)

I suppose you could call this wine country

Tapas (appetizers)

A cup of whipped cream and MAYBE some hot chocolate with it. 

Sculpture marking the entrance to the newer part of the city

After returning us to the boat we took off on our own.  We visited a large park and some of the shops that had caught our eye on the morning tour.  We walked through an open air antiques swap market.  We were looking for a wine shop to top off our wine supply for the end of the trip.  Wine on the ship is expensive.  You could buy the drinks plan which costs some $40 a day, PER PERSON, but we don’t drink like that.  Alternatively, you can buy a seven bottle plan that reduces the cost to more or less acceptable levels.  We are on like our third or fourth plan, but we recognized that the wine in our plan would run out before the end of our trip.  We have found ways to reduce the cost of having wine with dinner by using the many parties offered with free alcohol to get a glass of wine and carrying it with us to dinner.  Getting a couple of bottles to get us to the end of the trip in one of the most famous wine growing regions in the world seemed like a good idea.  The wine shops we found were intimidating to say the least.  When I told the clerks I was looking for bottles in the 10-20 dollar range they would look at me with disdain and wave towards the two or three bottles stationed by the door to get you inside the establishment.  Looking for ten seconds we would smile and walk out.  We walked a fair distance down what is purported to be the longest shopping street in either France, or possibly Europe.  It was long.  We did not walk all of it.  Lalique glass is really expensive.  We were returning to pick out wine from one of the wine shops when we spotted a smaller establishment a little off the main tourist area.  We stopped in, told them what we needed, and lo and behold there were multiple options of a reasonable price.  We bought three bottles and returned to the ship. 

After dinner we went out one more time to see the city lit at night.  We had learned yesterday that we were going to leave Bordeaux after midnight, skip the next port because the rough seas were going to make tendering impossible, and be back on schedule in Gijon in Spain.  They told us in such a way that it confused almost everyone because they did not seem to want to say that we were about to have an unscheduled sea day.  At this time of year seeing a city lit at night is not the easiest.  We left the ship at 9:30, lights did actually come on at 10:00, and it was dark enough to enjoy by 10:30.  That is late for us, but with a sea day tomorrow, even if they won’t say it, we can rest up a bit.

...the moose are loose

(The pool cue is from a hanger, and the balls are shoe balls)