Travelling to Bordeaux "alone" is a real reminder how much I rely on Louise to sort my life out!!! (In fact, I'm in Bordeaux with a bunch of mates, but absolutely no quarter or assistance would be given by them!) Packing, passports, and passenger locator forms all normally simply happen for me. Not today!
Early (4am) start, with breakfast at Gatwick, all made worthwhile by a first long lunch in Bordeaux.
Razor clams, salt cod croquettes at Cafe Auguste Bordeaux France ....
Old boys, beer, Bordeaux, and banter! Our hotel was the less than romantically named Quality Hotel,! But it was excellent, clean, friendly and central. Quality!
At 4pm, I sent Louise a WhatsApp "pleased to say, I'm a functional human capable of responsible tasks!" So pleased with my own independent skills.
That was moments before I noticed my wallet missing! At 30*c it's hard not to perspire, this however, required a shirt change! No credit cards or driving licence , money or hotel room key .....
I am delighted to report that the good people of Bordeaux are kind and honest! Within a sweaty hour of frantic card cancelling, my wallet was returned to reception at my hotel by an anonymous saint! No harm done. Faith in humanity restored. Francophile for life!
Every street corner, square, and alley of Bordeaux seems alive with buzzing bars and cracking café's! It's vibrant.
Later, taking our lead from Trip Advisor we had dinner at the Michelin approved Arcada . Excellent staff, great wine list, the St Emilion Grande Cru was the best wine I had ever tasted, (until the next day! ) The duck was sensational too.
I wouldn't know whether to recommend this place, although it was very good, I expect anywhere in Bordeaux would get my vote! As ever, TripAdvisor ensured it was a heavily tourist clientelle. Maybe look for a restaurant the French go to?
Next day we went to the ultra modern Citi du Vin museum, now this I do highly recommend! For me the best exhibit was a series of perfume jars with puffers that blow the common wine scents up your nose! The red fruit, strawberry and cherry of a Pinot noir, the vanilla, blackberry, leather and old book smells of Bordeaux.
And later we headed out of Bordeaux to the chocolate box village of Saint-Emilion. Home of some of the best known and most prized wines in the world. Naturally we found an Italian restaurant for lunch (!) but both the tuna tartar and buffalo mozzarella salad were incredible. Washed down with Chateau Bernatau 2016.
Another glass Mick??!!!
And for our obligatory Vinyard visit we headed for Chateau Gaudet . We were shown around by Guy-Petrus Lignac (himself). Sadly, he found himself dreadfully funny. His family heritage reputedly include direct links to The Petrus estate in Pomerol. Good Christ what a boring man!
I was however persuaded to buy two of their best vintages, only later to remember I was travelling hand luggage only! No possible way of getting them home. School boy error. The English describe alcohol running down the inside of the glass as "legs". In France this is described as "tears", which aptly describes my reaction when I realised £160 of wine was going to have to be drunk out of our hotel paper cups! No real harm done. Great picnic!
Back to town for dinner in Place Saint Pierre. Again the throng of revellers merrily gathered in every available street cafe and square will be my abiding memory of Bordeaux.
Saturday and we'd come for Le Rugby.
First, a picnic to drink up my foolish wine purchase. It turns out the boring old fool Guy-Petrus makes a glorious bottle of claret. Of the two wines 2015 and 2016 from Chateau Gaudet I personally preferred the less tannin heavy 2016. The wine kicks off with juicy, fresh, sweet, ripe, berries. Medium to full bodied, the Merlot predominance gives more red than black fruit and a spicy finish, this wine comes with length and vibrancy. (Who moi?) I loved it. Even out of a toothpaste mug! We washed down camembert, artisan bread, salami and hams, and were smiling even when we discovered we were at the wrong stadium for the match!
Luckily Bordeaux isn't huge and we got to the match (Bordeaux v Lyon) just 9 minutes late, missing only a penalty or two. Phew! 34*c is thirsty rugby weather! The second half was fabulous rugby with our host city steam rollering Lyon by 42:10.
We then watched another great second half of rugby (on line) as our home team the Mighty Quins put Gloucester to the sword! Everyone was happy! The heat was thankfully accompanied by free flowing lager!
Loved the atmosphere at UBB
As ever with lads on tour we found ourselves having to plough on through to Saturday Night! And Bordeaux, as we have discovered, being the centre of the culinary world, the dinner choices were extensive. L'entrecot was a great choice for us. A formula restaurant specialising in steak. There is always a queue, tonight fortuitously they rapidly had space for a good looking group of 6! We were seated within seconds.
Medium cooked : in France it's probably always worth dialling back one notch from where you would pitch a uk order for steak. We were very happy with this extremely tender (rare) steak, with frites, preceded by a simple lettuce salad perfectly dressed with walnuts. There was plenty for us and we were hungry ! The wine was superb, the price extremely good value, and the complete lack of any menu or offer of choice suited us perfectly after our day out. A few more drinks and by midnight my wine goggles had slipped to double vision mode. Home beckoned!
Finally, my favorite memory of Bordeaux will be an elderly lady vacating her seat to allow one of our party to sit down on the tram (Pattinson you know it's true!)
Overall we would all highly recommend Bordeaux. Great place for a weekend trip from UK. Thanks lads.
Got to love a boys trip. Should have messaged your old mate PrIcey who could have sent a DHL label and docs to get your expensive picnic plonk collected from the hotel and home home before you for about £22. Oh well, it‘s added to the story.