Friday May 30, 2014 - La Winery and Bordeaux - Day 30

Up at 8 this morning – breakfast with the French couple and 3 Swedish couples at 9 who are biking around Bordeaux.  Another good breakfast

First stop was La Winery for an ornithological analysis of our wine preferences.  It took the form of a class with wine tasting and we answered several questions about our preferences with foods and wine habits.  Tim had an “Adventuresome – Adventuresome” wine profile while I had a “Gourmand – Eternal” wine profile.  It was fun and interesting.  While there I found a bottle of Clos du Jacobins from St Emilion – of my early favorite St Emilion wines and I bought a 2006 to take home and save for a while for a special occasion.

La Winery - a modern facility with lots of choices of wine, and good prices

We drove to Bordeaux City and found a park in Place des Quinconces.  We walked all around and revisited some of the places we had seen in 2012.  We ate lunch at Place du Parlement and enjoyed it with a bottle of wine.  A little more walking until about 4 pm and then we got in the car and headed back.  We drove by the Hotel Zoooko which is supposed to look like an ice berg with the outside all made of white Corian.  Interesting but we didn’t care for it.

Panorama of Place de Bourges

Large statue in the Place des Quinconces

Bronze statues in the same fountain - unfortunately, the fountain was off today

Beautiful buildings everywhere you look in Bordeaux City

The Place de la Republique in Bordeaux

Arch at the Place de la Republique

The beautiful Cathedral   with the golden statue on top recently refurbished

Inside the cathedral - dramatic

Outside the cathedral

Magnificent organ inside the cathedral

We decided to try to find Chez MeMe (Mommie) on the way back.  The restaurant is in St Julien-Beychevelle.  Well, we got to Beychevelle and Tim was looking and looking and looking and I told him that we were in the wrong town. Beychevelle is a “community” of St Julien-Beychevelle.  This argument wasn’t over the GPS – where is that lawyer when I need him.  I finally convinced him to drive a short ways further to St Julien-Beychevelle and voila – there was Chez MeMe.  I won!!!!

We went back to Chateau Real and had a bottle of wine on the terrace.  The Swedes were in the swimming pool.  I told Patrick – “I didn’t know the pool was heated” to which he responded “It’s not”, to which I responded “Then they are crazy”.  I was chilly on the patio even with the sun.  Those Swedes must have thick skin and Viking blood in their veins.

We left for dinner about 7:30 and went by Chateau Pichon-Longueville on the way and also Chateau LaTour.  Dinner at Chez MeMe was great – a bottle of Chateau LaFon-Rochet wine (Les Peletiers) 2006 and an entrecote limousine (the best steak) for 2.  Tim had tiramisu for dessert and I skipped if you can believe that.

The Chateau Pichon-Longueville outside Paulliac

Another chateau across the street - they are everywhere!  Beautiful.

We drove back to the B&B after dinner – still light out and after 10 pm.  The sky doesn’t really get dark until after 11 now.  Almost the summer solstice.  Off to bed to prepare for another adventure tomorrow.