The French Dispatches - Part Neuf

Part 8 of the France blogs saw us stopping at the first of two Bordeaux chateaux, La Tour Carnet, where we toured the historic grounds and tasted delicious wine.

Lunching al fresco in Saint Emilion

After finishing up at La Tour Carnet, our tour guide and wine expert for the day, Val, drove us 45 minutes across both the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers to the medieval town of Saint Emilion, where we'd have a chance to wander for a bit and grab lunch.  Saint Emilion is consistently mentioned as a great day trip destination in blogs about Bordeaux, and we could clearly see why - it's absolutely adorable!  There are some really cool things to see there, including the world's largest monolithic church (as in, carved from just one gigantic block of stone); due to our time restrictions, we didn't see very much, but hopefully, we'll have a chance to come back one day.

On our way to find lunch, we did grab some shots of the city, including the old cloister, now a champagne bar:

Tons of cute little cobblestone streets

This one's a panoramic, so click it to make it bigger

A few shots of the cloisters...

Since it was a Monday in February (low season), most of our previously scouted lunch options weren't open (including the option to picnic in the cloisters).  We made due with a seat in the courtyard at Le Bouchon - while the food was just okay, the wine and location were stellar!

The first round of wine with historic buildings and shops in the background

Saint Emilion buildings are mainly made of limestone, which is super prevalent in this area.

The city sits upon a hill, and a vast array of tunnels runs under it,

created when the limestone for the buildings was quarried.

Legend has it the tunnels were used to hide resistance forces during World War II.

A second glass of wine?  Why, oui, I think that sounds lovely!

This is the background of the shot above,

the entrance to the monolithic church.

Apparently, it's very hard to gain access - you have to schedule a time,

go the mayor's office, get a key (nope, not kidding),

but it looks like it's worth it.

We were close to our time to meet Val, but we still squeezed in one more stop in Saint Emilion, at a local sweet shop, Moulierac.  Chris found another canale, but I went with a Saint Emilion macaroon - the story goes that they were created here - whether that's true or not, it was delicious!

A neat poster in a shop window

Noms!  Look at the angle on that street!

Said street - it's a good thing they had handrails

Now fully stuffed, we found Val, hopped back in the van, and took just a short drive to our second (and final) stop of the day, Chateau Fombrauge.  Fombrauge is located in the Sain Emilion appellation, as you can see in the map below:

Handy wine map for the win, once again!

Since we'd already spent our morning learning about fermentation and aging, at Fombrauge, Val focused on the vines themselves.  At this time of the year, Bordeaux vineyards were working on their pruning (to prepare for the growing season), and the rows we wandered had recently been cut back.  

Happy vines!

We're glad Val saved the vineyard part of the session for the afternoon -

it was really cold and breezy, even though the sun was out!

Once we were done with the vines, we headed inside, through the barrel aging room, ending up in the tasting area (the adult version of how every ride at Disney World ends in the gift shop...).

The Radoux name at the top of the barrel is the barrel maker - the cooperage

We asked Val why the barrels here and at Pape Clement had the red band in the middle,

while La Tour Carnet's did not.  Apparently, the red band is just for aesthetic purposes,

so you can't see stains caused when the wine spills during tasting.

The red color is actually created by painting the barrels with wine!

Our tasting options at Fombrauge

Like at Pape Clement and La Tour Carnet, we really enjoyed the wine options, and we couldn't help but be struck by how different the experience was here in Bordeaux from tasting wine in the USA.  For example, each of the wineries we visited (granted, three is a small sample size, and they're all owned by the same person) only had a few wines available to taste, since that's all they made at that site.  They were all blends - single varietal wines were almost unheard of, even though several vineyards grew cabernet sauvignon, one of the most popular wine grapes in the world.  There was also literally no expectation whatsoever that we would buy anything at all - maybe it was because we were there out of season - but the focus was truly on the tasting of the wine without regard to anything else.  Certain wineries in the USA are pushier about this than others, but you never visit any winery without seeing a price list, a card to subscribe to their club, blah, blah, blah, and that was completely nonexistent here.  We were also pleasantly surprised that the idea of wine snobbery wasn't a thing; if you didn't like a wine, that was fine - it wasn't that you weren't cultured or that the wine wasn't good, it just wasn't to your taste, and that was totally okay.

With our visit concluded, Val went to grab the van, and we took some shots in the courtyard:

There goes Val!

Amongst the plants in the garden, we found these two amazingly old olive trees - they're named after Marcus Aurelius and Charles Martel, because the trees were planted around the same time as those gentlemen walked the earth!

And they're still doing well today

(well, the trees - can't say the same for Charles and Marcus)!

Val drove us the 45 minutes back to Pape Clement, still answering all sorts of questions from us about wine, Bordeaux, and life in general.  Upon depositing us back home, he bid us adieu - what a great day!

Since we'd be leaving the next day (Tuesday) to head back to Paris, we spent part of the afternoon packing.  However, we still found time to wander around the grounds for some last minute pictures and stroll to Pessac for a few errands - the city had a "leave something, take something" donation box, and of course, I had a few articles of clothing that wouldn't be making the trip home with me to give away.  I hope someone made use of them!  Also, our bus stop was right outside this shop, which I had to visit before we left the area:

A French running store!  We now have tech shirts from Pessac!

The statue outside the barrel room at Pape Clement

Some of the art and antiques around the chateau

We'll miss you, Pape Clement!

Dinner tonight was onsite, downstairs in our fancy dining room.  As it turned out, we were the only diners, and the kitchen and staff took amazing care of us.  Everything was incredibly delicious, including the wine selections, which of course were made just steps outside our door.  We even indulged in some after-dinner drinks, including a calvados and armagnac.  We certainly went out with a bang our last night in Bordeaux!

Tomorrow, it's back to the City of Light!

Au revoir!

Amy

PS - Not too many steps today, since we spent most of it in a van - we still logged 8,038, good for about 4 miles.

PPS - Zoe's on the move:

Zoom!