Bordeaux
May 2011
We spent 3 days in the Bordeaux area during our honeymoon. We chose a hotel that was east of the city centre, across the scenic Pont-de-Pierre bridge. I thought it was a fabulous location as the area was quiet, we were right next to a supermarket, and it was a only 20 min stroll or 5 min bike ride to central Bordeaux.
We used bikes to get around quite a bit in Bordeaux. The VCUB bike rental service is pretty awesome. There are tons of bike stations around town and you can pick a bike up at one station, ride to where you need to go, and chances are there is a bike station close to your destination for drop off. All you have to do is purchase a membership and get a PIN (rates depend on the length of the subscription but are super cheap). When you go to use a bike, any rentals under 30 min are free, or a mere 1 € for 24 hr. I highly recommend bike rentals whenever possible as it's an incredibly fast and efficient way to discover the city.
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| Andrew with our rental bikes in front of Place de la Bourse |
L'Entrecote: We went to this steak restaurant based on the high ratings we saw from Google Places and guidebooks. They only serve one meal option here: a steak dinner that includes a walnut and green salad, and fries (16.50 €). While the salad and unlimited fries were acceptable, the steak was not. It was tasty, but drenched in a greasy sauce and was full of gristle. When I asked for medium steak, it arrived more rare to medium rare. It was hard to believe that patrons could be filling 4 floors of this restaurant. With all the other delicious options in Bordeaux, this is not a place I will return to.
One of my favorite things we did in Bordeaux was our wine tour. We didn't book anything before going on our trip as I found that in my searching, there were many pricey and multi-day options. Instead, we booked at the tourist information office, which gave us more choices within our budget. If there's a specific region you want to visit on a specific day, it might be better to book further in advance. Otherwise, if you're open to checking out any Bordeaux vineyard and are not too restricted by time, booking at the at the tourism office may be the better choice.
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| View of the vineyard from a window in the chateau |
We toured two Grand Cru vineyards in the Graves region just south of Bordeaux. The majority of the wines produced in Bordeaux are reds, but Graves is also amenable to white wines. We learned that all of the Bordeaux wines are blended, so the red wines can be a mixture of any of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec, and cabernet franc. White wines are typically a mixture of sauvignon blanc and semillon.
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| The wine cellar of Chateau Carbonnieux |
At the first vineyard, Chateau Haut-Bailly, we tasted two reds. They make 3 grades of wine here and we tasted the premier and secondary grades. Honestly, I didn't really like either of the wines and if I had to choose, I would have gone with the secondary grade. It was full of tannins, but we were told that the wine needed another year or so of aging before reaching its optimal taste. The other vineyard we visited was Chateau Carbonnieux, where we tasted a red and a white. I liked both and would have bought some if we didn't still have to travel by air to Madrid and Brussels. However, I was able to find 3 stores that carry this wine in Alberta.
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| Our hostess preparing our samples of wine |
I think Bordeaux rises above Paris as my new favorite city in Europe. It has a much more relaxed pace, is less touristy, and still has magnificent architecture with lots to see and do. It's a short drive away from the beach and even Europe's largest sand dune, which I will write about in a future post!
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| Jardin Public |
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