Our journey beginsTake Off, AustraliaTransit in SingaporeThe place where the books are black.London on footOxford, United KingdomNever again, so long as I may live.Markets and musicals... cliche much?Last days in LondonIch bin ein Jam-DonutI like your Altstadt better than your NeustadtBrezl bigger than your head!Ze castle of ze crazy KingMalvenue à Paris!Tuesday? What Tuesday?!The Louvre in 30 secondsThat Spears bird has given Brittany a bad name...Let the wine flow freely!A very Gaudí dayMontserrat, SpainValencia, SpainMadrid, SpainThe moment of truth!Restaurant Gordon RamsayThere... and back again.
 | kitandbeau |  | Kit and Beau's European... |  | Let the wine flow freely! |
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Jul 7 2008, 09:14 AM
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Bordeaux, France
Day one in Bordeuax was all about the wine. We spent the morning at LÉcole de Vin learning all about the area around Bordeuax, the appellations, soils and terroir before getting to try some ourselves. Later we got to check Croque Monsieur off the "Things you have to eat in France" list at lunch, and then we were off on our vineyard tour. We braved the dreaded tourbus again for this one, as there was no other way we could physically get to the Chateaux ourselves, and thankfully this one was considerably less painful. Still, lots of driving for relatively little time at each vineyard, but at least the countryside was interesting, and the tour guide had to spend so much time talking about history, geology and viniculture 101 in both English and French, that there wasn't enought time for her to fall into the dodgy standup routine that marred the trip to Stonehenge. The time at each of the vineyards was very informative (and tasty!), but a word of warning- it appears to be written into the constitution of the Allied Union of Bordelais Wine Educators to mention the soil. EVERY single person who spoke (the tour guide, the vineyard owners, the presenter at the Ecole de Vin, some random on the street) went to great lengths to explain the soil compositions in different areas and how it affects the grapes. Still, it sunk in, so it must have worked- we can tell you all about the difference between gravel and clay soils, why Merlot grows better on the Right Bank, and what makes and AOC Bordeaux wine!
We tried (in vain) for about half an hour to find somewhere open on a Monday night serving escargot, so we could tick that box off too (Side note: we did find somewhere on Tuesday night, as you can see from the photos). In the end we went for a little bistro, and settled for some local red, oysters and foie gras, content and enjoying ourselves when we had one of those "uh-oh, what have i ordered?" moments, when I was presented with a plate of veal liver, instead of the plain old veal I was expecting. Thankfully, it was actually pretty good, even if the texture was a bit reminiscent of a seared meat-sponge. Kit would vehemently disagree, claiming it has wrenched porkbelly from its long held position of "most disgusting foodstuff". On the flipside, at least not knowing much French proved to be slightly helpful in this instance. Not knowing the French word for "rare", which is how I'd normally order meat, when we were asked how we'd like it cooked, the best we could think of was moyen (medium), which was probably a blessing- a bleeding piece of liver might have been a bit much, even for me.
We had grand romantic plans for the next day, involving travelling to Pessac (about 40 minutes on the tram, from the centre of Bordeaux) to an open air market, getting some bread, cheese, meat and wine, and traipsing into the hills for a seculded picnic. We got to Pessac without a hassle, but the market had already closed and the rest of the town had entered into its requisite French faux-siesta, where literally EVERYTHING shuts between 12 and 3pm. Who needs to worry about rostering coverage for lunch breaks when you can just shut the whole shop instead? No doubt at 1pm next Monday when I'm at work, I'll be bemoaning thhe lack of a "continental lunch break" in Australia, but when it comes to making grand picnic plans, it was a pain in the arse. So, with nothing else of interest in Pessac, we promptly returned to Bordeaux proper (Side note: ONE thing of interest about Pessac, is that its one of Bordeaux's 57 distinct appellations for gorwing wine, and is also the only one that we visited on our own. Without knowing we were travelling to Bordeaux, let alone Pessac, a friend of our bought us a bottle of AOC Pessac wine as an engagement present! Quite the coincidence...but i digress)
Back in Bordeaux we went about in our newly discovered snap-happy manner, wandering through the historical, the seedy, and the scenic parts of town, taking photos of anything vaguely interesting. With our exploring done, we put some of that new wine knowledge to good use choosing a case for ourselves. This proved to be the easy part, as navigating postage requirements, GST and the (now-)dreaded Wine Equalisation Tax made things more difficult than it needed to be. Still, it will be a nice surprise after we get home!
Thats pretty much it from Bordeaux, and from France actually. Next stop, Barcelona. ¡Ole!
K&B
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jellus
Written by ess-jay 61 months ago
YOU GUYS I AM SO JEALOUS *love*
love...
Written by cazzaline 61 months ago
...that photo of B walking on water.