Hello, Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Unscramble this sentence - to We're Bordeaux! off

Doing what we do and being part of an operation that makes Bordeaux style wines in New Zealand, Bordeaux was always going to be an important part of our journey.

At lunchtime on Saturday, we were off. This time just us - just Jason, Chris, Jamie and Ben. Awesome - 5 nights and 6 days on our own. Not that we aren't really enjoying being 7, but a bit of "nuclear family time" is fantastic.

The grand plan is one night in Talence (a small city just outside Bordeaux city - about 10 mins by tram) then 4 nights in a little gite in Castillion de Castets - a tiny village in the middle of Sauterne country. We approached the gite with much trepidation based on the last outcome when we booked accommodation via the internet. As it turns out, once again we did not get what we expected - but I'll get to that story a bit later.

The reason we spent a night in Talence was because Christine's step brother is currently living there with his wife Monique and his 9 year old boy Dylan. Andrew is currently on sabbatical from his job as a Professor at San Francisco University. Spending time with Monique and Dylan was wonderful. She cooked us a fabulous 5 course "French style" menu. We went to bed that night in her lovely apartment replete and dreaming of the day to follow.

We spent the next day in Bordeaux city with Monique and Dylan, unfortunately Andrew was away. Being a Sunday, everything and I mean everything in France is closed. This, however, did not dampen our spirits. We had a lovely day in this wonderful city. We finished our day with a picnic of the obligatory baguettes, cheese, cured meats and tomato sitting under the trees in this spectacular park. We left Bordeaux and headed off towards our gite convinced we would be back for more.

We kinda got lost, but it was nice to see a little more of the region than we expected :)

We arrived in the pouring rain to see a note pegged to a fence saying " Bonjour Jason & Christine. It is raining so please toot the horn and we will come out" We tooted. Out comes Laure - an English lady that has lived in this tiny, tiny village for 30 years. Instantly we warmed to each other. It was like she was a relative - so warm and friendly. We hugged and kissed French style - thats not a French kiss, its a peck on both cheeks. A French kiss would have been completely inappropriate.

Laure showed us our gite which was small but wonderful. The price was amazing - NZ$70.00 a night with a meal and bouteille du vin on arrival included in the price. She then suggested we settle in and invited us down to the main house (read converted farmhouse built in the 1500's) for aperitifs before thay deliver our meal!

What a hoot. We met her husband Jean-Paul ( a winemaker like his father before him who spoke no English and kept running away from us) and the twins Percy (snigger) and Lilly - both bi lingual. We sat around until 9pm drinking pastis all revelling in each others company. What an experience for the Schwarzies! When we finally decided to leave, Laure said she would bring up our meal shortly.

OH MY GOD! Accompanied by another bottle of wine (the comlimentary one was a sauterne and already in the fridge) came a huge platter to start - pate de maison, foie gras, beautiful home grown tomatoes and lettuce, jambon de pays - raw ham etc etc. Amazing. To follow was a kind of shepards pie except the contents were duck confit, ceppes and parsley topped with mash and parmesan. Utterly delicious. To finish, a fig and custard tart. The figs were from one of the 3 massive trees in the garden heaving with fruit. I am not sure if because they know that we are in the food and wine business and therefore wanted to impress, but if this was standard then they are wonderful, generous hosts. We were blown away. We cant wait to spend more time with them. Percy (snigger, snigger) and Lilly are going to give the kids French lessons and on Tuesday, Jean-Paul is giving us a intimate tour of his winery - Chateau La Grave. Wow.

The next day (today)we went into Bordeaux city again and shopped and ate. I brought the jacket I found in San Sebastian but it wasn't available in my size. The meal was at a restaurant called L' Entrecote - entrecote is a beef steak. The restaurant opened in 1959 and was totally full over 4 levels. They served only steak with their famous sauce and as many frites as you can eat. One of our top 5 meals ever. I could talk all day about this but wont bore the uninterested. If you are interested, remember to ask us about this one. Unbelievable.

Now we are back in our little gite relaxing.

Good times, oh yeah, good times.