L&LTravel: The River Cruise is Ending

I have written most of this on the train from Bordeaux to Tours. This is the start of the next part of the trip - a few days in the Loire valley. What follow is the report from the past 5 days but before I do that I thought I'd throw a few pics from the July 14th fireworks in Bordeaux.

Saturday, July 15

This morning we cruised from Cadillac to Pauillac in the heart of the Medoc region. While cruising we had the first of the on-board wine lectures and tastings, this one by Sam Pillsbury. We tasted and compared white wines from Sam and those from the region. As usual, Sam’s presentation was very entertaining.

In the afternoon we did an excursion through the Medoc. We drove by some of the famous and beautiful chateaus.

Chateau Margaux

We stopped at Chateau Margaux, one of the five top level chateaus, for a brief walk around the grounds. When Linda and I were in Bordeaux in 2010, we had rented a car and did the same stop and walked around at Margaux. We stopped at Chateau Gruaud Larose for a tour and tasting. They first took us to an observation tower for a view over the area. The tower is a new metal structure and when we reached to top it seemed to be closed in so we wondered about the view. Then our hostess flipped a switch and the metal panels opened giving great views all around.

After that we got a tour of the cellar and then tasted 4 of their wines.

As with many of these chateaus they only produce 2 wines, a top level and a second level. We tasted 2 of each from different vintages. For what it’s worth I preferred the 2003 Chateau Gruaud.

Pauillac is on the Gironde estuary, downstream from the confluence of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers. The amazing thing to see throughout the area is tidal changes.

There is a phenomenon known as the tidal bore or mascaret that results when the water flowing down the rivers and estuary meet the rising tide. Surfers have been known to ride the resulting wave for miles. We never saw one but our guides in Cadillac said that there was a small one that came ahead of arrival yesterday.

Sunset on another great day

Sunday, July 16

This morning we arrived in Blaye, a city famous for its citadel, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built by Vaubon who built many fortifications around France. The citadel and the views were quite impressive.

As luck would have it, and we are lucky travelers, there was an international horse jumping competition taking place in the moat surrounding the citadel. It was fun to watch several of the competitors.

It turns out that our cruise manager, Sebastien Leroy, was an accomplished jumper in his younger days. He was at one time ranked in the top 12 in France and the top 13 in Europe. This is our 5th cruise with Sebastien, all four of our wine cruises plus one on the Seine. Sebastien is simply the best!

In the afternoon, we cruised to Bourg and enjoyed the second of the wine talks and tastings, this time with Eric Glomsky. We compared Eric’s reds to Bordeaux reds. We always learn so much when Eric talks about wine.

In Bourg, we went on an excursion to the Pair-non-Pair Cave.

The cave was occupied by Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens for about 60,000 years. We were able to see petroglyphs that dated back 30,000 years. They depicted large animals such as mammoths, horses and bison. We could not take photos in the cave. Sorry. When we returned to Bourg, they had a “wine festival” for us complete with entertainment and wine tastings from 2 local producers.

Monday, July 17

This morning I went for a run in Bourg, the first in 10 days and it was pretty good. Later in the morning we sailed to Libourne for a visit to the right bank. On the way we had our 3rd and last on board talk and tasting with Sam and Eric. We also heard a talk by Eric’s brother Ian who has a distillery in Charlottesville, Virginia. Making alcohol is in their blood.

The main focus of the stop in Libourne is to visit St. Emilion and Pomeral, the areas with the most famous right back chateaus. We were taken by bus to the city of St. Emilion for a walking tour. It is an interesting and beautiful city.

At one time, when it was a center of wine commerce, 12,000 people lived in St. Emilion. Today, the number is about 300. The commerce and the people have moved to places like Libourne along the river. In St. Emilion we enjoyed a macaron, made in a style somewhat different from those made in Paris.

And, of course, after the city tour we went to a chateau to taste wine! This time it was Chateau de Ferrand. We happened to be there when they were in the process of bottling wine. Again we tasted 4 of their wines but found only one appealing.