Dinner

I had dinner at a little restaurant in Nimes after returning from the Pont du Gard. After looking at the menu, I had no idea what 90% of the things on it were. I even had a little Lonely Planet phrase book with me, which had a menu translating section, but that didn't help me at all. I just ordered a few things and it turned out to be good. As an aperitif I had Pastis which is a regional specialty. It tasted like licorice.

Cool Tree

I thought this was a cool tree adjacent to the Pont du Gard.

Aqueduct Ruins

I hiked up to the aqueduct level and followed the path of the aqueduct for a little ways. There are many smaller bridges and channels which are now just ruins.

The channel through which water flowed in the aqueduct across the Gard.

Marble

The ground near the Pont Du Gard was marble which I thought was interesting. Generally marble is considered to be an extravagant building material, but here it is just what is locally available. I guess this explains why the Romans built everything out of marble. On the trails around the Pont du Gard the marble had been worn smooth by people walking on it and it was incredibly slippery. It didn't help that I was wearing Birkenstocks either.

I ended up taking lots of pictures of the Pont du Gard. You can read more about it here.

Pont du Gard

On Saturday I caught a bus to the Pont du Gard which is an aqueduct near Nîmes and Avignon that was built by the Romans two thousand years ago. It is an amazing structure today and to think that it was built so long ago and is relatively intact is amazing. It was a beautiful day. It is really nice to have good weather after all of the greyness I had in the British Isles.

They had these ducks (I think they were ducks?) wandering around the hostel compound as well. Kind of cool looking.

The one thing that really concerned me about the hostel in Nîmes was that you had to be on the lookout for ninjas at night :-)

Aubergue de Jeunesse - Nîmes

I stayed at the Hostelling International Hostel (Aubergue de Jeunesse) in Nîmes. It was radically different than any hostel I had stayed at previously on my trip and I really liked it. Rather than being in the city center, it was a little ways out of town perched on a hill overlooking Nîmes. The hostel was combined with a campground and was set up as a little botanical garden with lots of greenery and interesting plants. There was a really nice patio with a fountain where people hung out in the evenings. The other hostels I had stayed at in cities thus far acted more like bases from which to sightsee, than destinations in themselves. This hostel was better suited as a place to just come and relax. It was still only a 30 minute walk into the city (or a shorter walk with a bus ride). The hostel buildings were pretty new with modern bathrooms and clean dorm rooms. It was also super cheap at 10€ a night. It is hard to top that.

Bordeaux-Nîmes

After two days in Bordeaux, I set out for Nîmes in the South of France. I took the train which took about 5 hours and went through Toulouse, then followed the Mediterranean through Languedoc. It was a very scenic train ride. There are huge amounts of vineyards in Languedoc which is known for mass production of wines (like the central valley in California). I got to see the Mediterranean sea for the first time and it looked very nice. I almost hopped off the train in Sête to go swimming, but I figured it would be a hassle with all of my stuff. I arrived in Nîmes in the early afternoon and headed to the hostel.

I thought this tractor for driving in the vines at Chateau Lascombes was cool.

Chateau Lascombes

The other winery stop of the day was at Chateau Lascombes. This winery was a 2nd Grand Cru Classé winery. If you just took the tour of Lascombes and Pedesclaux without tasting wine, you would have to assume that Lascombes makes a better wine because they obviously put a lot more effort into the wine making process. It was very interesting to hear the extra steps that Lascombes takes in the process to make a better wine. At Pedesclaux it was more like "We pick the grapes, we crush them, we put them in the vats to ferment, we put them in the barrels and then we bottle the wine." At Lascombes there were about 10 extra steps and you could see that it made a big difference. The wine was very good but at 40€ ($50) a bottle it seemed kind of expensive. It is actually cheaper to buy it here in the U.S. rather than at the winery in France. Not too logical. Overall the tour was good. I would have liked to drink more wine, but I think with a place like Bordeaux, which is all about reputation, it was probably more important to just see the famous Chateaux. We probably couldn't have gotten in to the big ones anyway.

Chateau Latour

We drove by all of the famous wineries mentioned in the previous post except Chateau Haut-Brion, but we didn't stop at any.

Bordeaux Vines

me in front of the vines at Chateau Pedesclaux. These vines were right next to Chateau Mouton Rothschild's vines (I know it was one of the 5 famous ones). I think it was literally less than a few hundred meters. I guess the quality doesn't rub off though. So much for terroir. Bordeaux Reds from Médoc are always a blend of several different grapes. Usually it is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc in that order. Sometimes there are other grapes too. The French have strict laws which govern this sort of thing. The laws cover the ways the vines are planted (heights of vines, yield per acres and stuff like that). The grapes or blend ratios are never printed on the label either, you just have to know. It only Says Médoc Grand Cru Classé. They don't have to disclose what level it is although the Premier Classé wines do advertise that fact.

Chateau Pedesclaux

The first stop of the day was Chateau Pedesclaux. We took a tour of their winery and learned about the process of making wine. It was very informative. The girl who worked at the winery spoke better English than our tour guide (I forgot to mention that the entire tour was bi-lingual. I felt sorry for the tour guide because on the bus rides the entire day she was constantly speaking in French and then translating to English. She never had a chance to rest and there was too much to say to put it all in both languages. It was helpful for me hearing spoken French and then the English translation.)
Chateau Pedesclaux makes Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux wines which sounds very impressive right? Actually the Grand Cru Classé is broken into 5 categories (1st-5th). The Premier (First) Grand Cru Classé wines from the Médoc are the famous ones like Chateau Latour, Chateau Haut-Brion, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and Chateau Margaux. These bottles all sell for hundred to thousands of dollars depending on the vintage. Chateau Pedesclaux was a 5th Grand Cru Classé winery (the tour guide didn't readily volunteer that information either) That by itself doesn't mean much as the classifications were made in 1855 and were pretty arbitrary back then. However this particular winery sucked. We only tasted one wine which was their 1994 vintage. They were obviously trying to get rid of it. It was terrible. They had a binder full of tasting notes and reviews from magazines in the tasting room and it had stuff in both French and English. Whoever complied it couldn't read English because the reviews from wine spectator and other magazines in English were not good at all. One said the wine had a foul odor, another said it tasted like the grapes had been left on the vines too long and allowed to turn into raisins. It was pretty funny.

Médoc

The main reason I came to Bordeaux was to visit wine country. The only way I could really do this was to sign up for a bus tour offered by the Tourist Office in town. We packed onto a bus and headed out into the Médoc region to see the vineyards and sample some wines. The tour was very informative, but we didn't get to drink a whole lot of wine. I know a lot more about Bordeaux now though.

Dinner

I was in Bordeaux for one reason, actually two, but kind of one: food and wine. I found a restaurant that looked like a good place to have dinner. I couldn't read everything on the menu, but I didn't care. I had a prix fixe menu with foie gras, a salmon and duck for 25€. And what better to wash it down with than a bottle of Bordeaux (I can't remember which one, but it was very good). It was one of the better meals I have had on my trip. I was one of the last people in the restaurant that night and I got to practice my French with the waiters as they were cleaning up. It really is getting a lot better. I can understand most things that are said to me. My conversation skills could still use some work though.

Some church lit up at night. Having a tripod enables some really cool low light photography even with a cheap point and shoot camera.

Bordeaux Opera House

Day

Night

The view from my hotel window. Most of the buildings in Bordeaux look like this. A bit similar to parts of Paris in architectural style.

Hotel Clemenceau

The only hotel I stayed at on my entire trip was in Bordeaux because there were no hostels there. The building looked nice from the outside (photo). It was cheap too, something like $35 a night. It was nice to have a locked room where I could safely leave my stuff during the day as well as clean real towels to use. The air conditioner didn't work though and it was pretty hot while I was there.

Bordeaux

I just wandered around Bordeaux the afternoon that I got there. Nothing really that exciting to see in the town. This is the main shopping street in town which was really busy on a Wednesday afternoon for some reason.

Garonne

The Garonne river which flows past Bordeaux. At this point it is more just a bay of the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the reason that Bordeaux wine is so famous is not just because of its quality, but because the good port in Bordeaux made it easy to ship wine to England and America. The other French wine regions are well inland, or are on the Mediterranean.

Orléans-Bordeaux

After five nights in St. Jean de Braye, it was time to move on. I took the train from Orléans to Bordeaux in the middle of the day on Wednesday. There were several people on the train (4 hour train ride) who had their dogs with them. I was a little surprised to see that. What do they do if the dog has to use the bathroom?

Eating

One of the best parts of my stay in the Loire Valley was eating with Claude and Nadine at home. The meals they prepared for lunch and dinner were very simple, but very good. It was nice to sit down everyday and have a long meal with lots of little courses. The best part was the two dessert courses we always had. First was a plate full of cheeses, many of them local cheeses which were spectacular. I have really come to live French goat cheeses. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find my favorite one (Truffe de Périgord) in California. The second dessert course was fresh fruit. Again very simple, but very good.

Aubigny

This is a Scottish Castle in Aubigny (yes, in France, not Scotland). The reason it is here is because of the Auld Alliance between France and Scotland against the English. This was apparently the first alliance between France and another country. Kind of a weird thing to find in the heart of France.

Terroir

French wine production is structured very differently than American wine production (or wine from outside of Europe in general). If you go to the store and want to buy a wine, you would choose maybe a Chardonnay from California, a Pinot Noir from Oregon or a Shiraz from Australia. If you bought a French wine, you would buy a Bordeaux, Champagne or a Sancerre which all refer to the growing region. The grape is not listed on the labels at all. French wine is ordered according to the concept of terroir, whereby the land that the wine is grown on is more important than the varietal or mix of varietals. In the new world, often one vineyard will grow several varietals in the same vineyard (you might be able to get a Pinot Noir, a Merlot, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Syrah from one Napa vineyard for example). In France this is rarely the case. In fact, entire regions generally only produce one type of wine (sometimes a white and a red). The terroir is what distinguishes the wines of the same regions from each other. The grape is the same, so the soil, the slope of the land, the direction the land faces, the weather of the vintage year and other factors all make a big difference in the quality of the wine. Claude tried to explain this concept to me before we went to Sancerre and I wasn't convinced, but after tasting wine in Sancerre I am a believer.

In Sancerre the white varietal is Sauvignon Blanc. This means that any white Sancerre you buy at the store is 100% Sauvignon Blanc. This is just something you have to know about French wines before you go to the store. Nothing on the bottle will help you learn this. We stopped at the winery Henri Bourgeois for tasting. I think we tasted eight different sauvignon blanc's that they produce. There were three from Sancerre which had different terroirs and vintages, three from across the Loire in Pouilly Fumé and sauvignon blanc's from New Zealand and South Africa. The differences were amazing and very noticeable. In one case we tasted two Sancerre wines that shared a vintage, but differed in terroir, (one planted in flint and the other planted in chalky clay if I remember correctly) and they were quite different. It was very interesting tasting so many wines from the same grape at once. This is the way wine tasting should be everywhere. We tasted 13 wines in all (Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir only). I really enjoyed my wine tasting experience in Sancerre. Once again, it was greatly enhanced by having a local along. Claude conversed extensively with one of the workers in the tasting room and I discovered that I am surprising good at following a conversation about wine in French.

Sancerre Views

Sancerre is perched on the highest hill around. From up high you can see for very long distances out into the French countryside. From this spot you can see Pouilly Fumé and Burgundy, two other well known wine producing regions. The serene view of the Sancerre vineyards in this photo is marred by the cooling towers of the nuclear power plant in the distance.

Sancerre

The last daytrip during my stay in the Loire valley was to Sancerre which is a small town perched on a hill surrounded by vineyards. We wandered around the town a bit before heading to a winery for some wine tasting.

Volpie

Claude and Nadine's dog Volpie likes to sit on chairs like people do. It is pretty funny. I have never seen a dog do that before.

The Loire at Dusk

Bourges

The main attraction of the day was the town of Bourges which is home to a very large gothic cathedral. The thing is ginormous! I had trouble finding a vantage point where I could fit the entire thing into a single picture. It puts other cathedrals I have been to, like Notre Dame in Paris and Chartres, to shame. I thought it was a pretty jaw dropping sight. Coming towards Bourges the cathedral looks huge before you even get close to the town. I can't even imagine how it would have been viewed when it was completed in the 13th century. It is hard to believe that this is not even the largest gothic church in France (it is the widest, but not the tallest). That honor falls to the cathedral at Amiens. The town of Bourges is a nice old medievel town with narrow cobbled streets. If you are in this area, Bourges is worth a visit. The scale of the cathedral is just ridiculous.

Sologne

Monday we drove South from St. Jean de Braye through the Sologne towards Bourges. The Sologne is a forested area which is/was known for being excellent hunting grounds. It used to be a swamp, but you would never guess it from driving through. It was dewatered and planted with trees several centuries ago and is now a mature forest. You see this sort of thing all over Europe where land that is seemingly natural has in reality been drastically altered by man so long ago that it looks natural today. It was very interesting driving through the little towns in the Sologne. Over the span of a few kilometers the architecture and building style of the towns changes a lot. Near the loire the buildings are made from stone quarried from cliffs that flank the river. In the Sologne the building style changes to brick as stone was not readily available. It was very interesting to see how quickly the styles changed. Every region has its own distinct architectural character.

The Loire and Me

The Loire

The Loire river is the longest river in France. It flows from the the Massif Central in central France first to the North and then West to the Atlantic Ocean. Claude and Nadine live about as close to the Loire as you can get. This photo was taken maybe 50m from their house. There is an old canal which is no longer used that runs alongside the river. It is a very peaceful place.

Inventions

The park next to the Clos Lucé is filled with reproductions of Da Vinci's inventions and other work. There were reproductions of bridges, canal lock systems, flying machines and lots of others. It was a pretty cool place. I could have wandered around there for hours.

Clos Lucé

Leonardo Da Vinci lived in another Château in the town of Amboise called the Clos Lucé. Today the Château and the grounds have been turned into a museum of Da Vinci's life and work.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci was another famous resident of Amboise. His tomb is on the grounds of the Château in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert.

Gargoyles

Cool Gargoyles hanging off the side of the Château.

Château of Amboise

The Château d'Amboise towers over the town. It was the seat of the French monarchy for many years.