BORDEAUX, FRANCE (May 26, 2012)

Today we sailed 60 miles up the Garonne River toward Bordeaux.  We sailed past what are apparently some of the worlds finest vineyards and most celebrated chateaux.  We then docked in the French city of Bordeaux where we stay for two days.  On day one we took off on our own and headed into the city by foot.  Found it to be very lovely and quite unlike any we had seen before.  Despite the cobblestone streets and old buildings it was certainly a mecca for designer shops and shopping.  We strolled the streets and took in a few of the historic monuments, took a seat on a nearby park bench and tried to people-watch the locals but it was hard to tell who were the locals and who were passengers from our ship (again we are the only ship in port).

On day 2 we took an excursion to the wine country and spent the day in St. Emillion.  This is probably highlight number 2 of the trip thus far.  The only place I can think of that is at all similar would be Old Quebec.  Our motor coach took us past “the hill with a thousand chateaux”   The town is enclosed within 13th century walls and a moat carved out of solid rock.  We went into an underground church built between the 9th and 12th centuries.  As interesting and amazing as it was, it creeped me out.  It was very, very dark and there were bodies buried down there.  Just amazing though that it was scraped out of the rock with a hand tool.  It took 300 years to build this underground church.

Every street in this lovely little village is  extremely narrow and so hilly that many have stairs to help you up and down (no funiculars).  The small streets were lined with wine shops and wine tasting rooms.  I have to say it was exquisite and quite what I envisioned Old France to be all about.

We ended our visit with a cafe au lait at a sidewalk cafe.  You just can’t skip that while in France.  While we were on this tour, our ship relocated to the port of Le Verdon so our trip back was a 2 1/2 hour ride through the french wine country.  It allowed us a great opportunity to see the surrounding countryside so we didn’t mind the drive at all.  The vineyards are lovely but I can honestly say, they do not top our own Napa Valley which is very rolling as opposed to the flatness of this french wine country.  All-in-all a great two days.

I have to mention an entirely different ambience on this second part of our voyage.  In Dover we unloaded a “senior population” and picked up a mainly Asian “younger population”.  This ship has become more crowded (totally full) and I’m not loving the noise level.  We can’t hear each other at our dining table and so have a tendency to slip off to the specialty restaurants and to deck for a quieter atmosphere.  Must be a sign that we are “aging”.