Apparently, Bordeaux is filled with wine and laughter

This past weekend rounded out the last of the holiday weekends this summer, so we hit the road with our friends, Skee and Michelle, to the Bordeaux wine area in southwestern France.  It was a fabulous weekend filled with laughter to the point of tears, beautiful villages, great friends, and, bien sur, lots of wine.

Since it's a solid 6-7 hour drive from Paris to this area, we decided to leave after work on Wednesday to get most of the driving out of the way that night. Our plan was to stay in a cheap F1 hotel just off the interstate. Usually these are unmanned 30-40E a night rooms, but when we arrived they were all booked. A bit of a scramble later, booking.com saved the day with an equally cheap room not too far away. Now the third time this has happened. Lesson learned: driving without a reservation is not nearly as easy as it is the US.

Thursday morning we continued driving, with the plan to head to the Dune du Pilat/Pyla {it has two names, don't ask me why}, but as we approached Bordeaux city it began raining very hard, and we almost decided to stop off for a few hours to let the weather clear. Looking back, it was so great that we didn't because by the time we arrived, the sun was out, no rain, and we beat most of the crowds to the dune.

Recreating our Sahara Desert pictures

The dune was thoroughly impressive, and more difficult than I imagined to walk up. We all were a little skeptical that perhaps the dune wouldn't live up to expectation, especially having been to the Sahara just a few months before, but it certainly did. One of the coolest parts was how the dune ran right into the forest at such a sharp angle. In fact, it's gradually overtaking the forest year by year.

In perfect timing, it began raining just as we reached the car again. After a delicious lunch, including yummy mussels for Michelle and I, we drove a bit farther south down the beach to where Ben and Katie were spending the week. We spent some time chatting on the beach before heading back up to Bordeaux, where we spent the night.

Hotwire was the winner of the night, with an awesome room for 65E, in the center of Bordeaux, complete with free welcome drinks, thanks to Skee's loyalty card. We hadn't really planned ahead for dinner this night, so we began the wandering of the streets. Normally, this is never a good idea, and indeed, it did almost end in eating at a random bistro on a corner, but somehow we found this little, amazing restaurant, Elvis, just by chance. The name is a little off-putting, but the food was incredible. And our favorite part? To pick your wine, you go up to the bar, where they let you taste any wines you wanted before picking out your glass or bottle. Brilliant!

Michelle and I planned some winery visits Friday morning in the Medoc region of Bordeaux, which meant we were up and at them, drinking wine by 9:30am. When lunch came after two tasting visits, we were more than ready for some food, having not had time for breakfast. {We learned we all become a little hangry or hupressed if we don't have enough food on this trip.} The visits were very informative, and we got to see the cellars, production area, and vineyards in both. My favorite was Chateau Lascombes, primarily for the beautiful chateau {that no one lives in because it's the winery is owned by an insurance company}, but of course their wine was a bit pricey for our tastes.

Siran Chateau

Chateau Lascombes

We drove through some more of the area, wasting some time before our 4pm appointment at a blind tasting, where they would give us our wine profile. However, upon arrival and being told it would be 30 minutes late, after much debate, we realized our money might be better spent buying several bottles of wine from the huge store to drink at our bed and breakfast that evening. Especially after we realized the "profile" we would receive was more of an astrological sign than actually anything useful for picking out wine in the future, we were very happy with our decision.

Driving to our bed and breakfast, out of Medoc and into the St. Emilion region, we immediately fell in love with the scenery. It was a stark contrast to the Medoc area, which was very flat and not very inspiring. The rolling hills and beautiful medieval castles really took a part of our hearts right away.

The owners of our bed and breakfast treated us to tea time and wine on the patio, before our home cooked French meal for the evening inside. Perfect end to a perfect day.

Saturday was spent in St. Emilion, wandering the city and visiting some more wineries. The city itself is beautiful, and I think all four of us agreed that this is probably our favorite small city we've been to in all of France. Even though it was pretty full of people, it still had a quaint, lovely feel to it.

Picnic with local macarons. Watch out for the paparazzi!

Our winery visits today included some pretty impressive caves, tours, and of course, more tastings. Our hostess from our bed and breakfast had booked these, so again the price per bottle was a bit on the high side for us, so we mostly just enjoyed sipping on expensive wine during the tasting.

Chateau Guadet

Chateau Beau-Sejour Becot

Afterward, we did some more tastings in some shops in St. Emilion, where we purchased our share of wine. Skee was very excited by the fact that he had several boxes to carry back to the car.

We had made dinner reservations that night at L'Atelier de Candale, on the recommendations of friends here in Paris. Despite our hostess's negative reaction when we told her where we were eating, it was delicious and the setting was incredible. Nestled right in the middle of the vineyards with gorgeous views.

We rounded out the night with an intense game of Crazy Eight Countdown, which involved lots of laughing and wine, and just a little competitiveness. We did our best to keep our voices down, but we're sure there must have been some people who weren't our biggest fans the next day.

Trying to recreate our many episodes of laughter from the weekend

On our way back to Paris, we stopped in Libourne for their weekly market to stock up on some lunch supplies and take in the beautiful setting.

Such a fantastic weekend away with fantastic people. I know I've said this before, but I am so, so thankful for the friendship of these two. From "apparently!!!" {inside joke, sorry} and laughing to the point of tears {even if it's warranted by seeing a mom undress her 8 year old and hold her sideways to try and get her to poop in a grocery store parking lot--only in France!}, to being the typical 'loud North Americans' in restaurants where everyone stares at us, I wouldn't trade it for anything! We had lots of discussions about the future this weekend, but I know that wherever we all end up, these will be lifelong friends. And a reunion return trip to the area is in the works.

More pics from the weekend here

**Tips:  The city of Bordeaux gets a pretty bad rap, but we actually quite enjoyed it. I wouldn't spend lots of time there, but it's worth a short visit. However, St. Emilion is a must, as well as the Dune du Pilat. None of us were huge Medoc fans, so personally, I would focus your time more in the areas around St. Emilion.**

Recommendations:
Elvis, Bordeaux, French food, 20E fixed price menu, and taste-to-choose wine
L'atelier de Candale, 5 minutes outside of St. Emilion, French/asian fusion, 16E plats, no fixed menu at dinner, set in goregous vineyards
Beau Sejour, 15 minutes outside of St. Emilion, beautiful location, wonderfully accommodating hosts

And, just for fun.....I apparently, don't know how to swirl wine. I had lots of tutorials this weekend, but none of them ended very successfully, instead mostly in laughter!