It's all about the wine! Or is it..?

4.5. Saturday

I would guess first thing that pops in most minds while thinking about France is Eiffel tower. Don't worry, we will get there too, but foremost to our trip was to visit Nina, Toni's niece.
She is working in Bordeaux region, in the same winery for a second time. She already asked us last year if we would come to visit but we just didn’t have time for that. Or more accurately, I wasn’t able to get the time off from work that is.
But now I did, and since I haven’t been in France before, I was more than eager to do some exploring.

Yesterday evening we arrived in Berson, France. We were greeted by our lovely hosts, Thomas and Claude in La Musardise Guest House. They are renting rooms at their house.
It was late when we arrived so we pretty much headed straight to the bed, but this morning, well rested, I was able fully to appreciate what a cozy room we have! Picture below so you can do the same.

Breakfast was freshly made bread, croissants and bowl of fruits. And huge cup of coffee! I didn't take any pictures of the breakfast but Thomas send me some so I could share them with you. We didn’t have a common language with him but via google translator he asked our plans for today and for the rest of our stay. He was sorry that it was raining but the atmosphere in his kitchen were so cozy that I hardly noticed the weather!

We didn’t let the weather bother us heading out either. Our first outing was to be in Blaye. Nina picked us up and took us to vegetable market where she wanted to buy some fruits before we would get our rental car. The weather didn’t improve during our stroll through the market and it was not likely to do so either. Me being me, few plans in my sleeve I aimed to get the best weather for each outing I had in mind. Since today was to be rain all over the region, we decided it best to head towards Lascaux Cave 180 km drive away.

These caves were found by accident a man who was walking in the forest with his dog. His dog fell through a hole in the ground and got stuck. Rescuing him he discovered that it wasn’t merely a rabbit whole his dog stumbled upon to. The Caves they tour people through today, are replica to protect the originals, but the tour was well made. During the tour, our guide asked if there were any finns in the group and made a point to tell us, that the weather during the time the cave paintings were made, was similar than present-day northern Finland. So, very familiar to us.

Those caves were not used for a living since in those times natural shelters were occupied by predators like lions and hyenas. The meaning of these paintings, is not known, but the coloring is most likely doe to available ingredients for the paints. Yellow, red and black were the used colors and for some reason, horse the most painted animal. In the whole cave, is just one picture of a human and, it too is not quite human, it has a beak. Besides that, there is a one picture named Unicorn, since no one can tell, what it is supposed to represent. My photo of the Uniorn came out blurry so sadly I won't be able to add photo of this mythical creature for you to see.

After the tour we tried to find a food in the village near-by but since it was 5PM we were forced to get something little from the grocery store and head back to home. Restaurants were open, but just for drinks. Closer to Berson we stopped to have dinner. During our whole visit we weren’t able to grasp the eating and opening hours of this country. Either the kitchen weren’t open, or they didn’t make what we wanted (we tried to get crepes and coffee at noon, the horror!!) or at Sundays the tobacco stores were closed (Toni’s bad habbit…). The joys of travelling, right?
It did rain the whole day too but as I said, we didn’t let it bother us. Nor the minor hiccups that occurred feeding me!

5.5. Sunday

As I mentioned Nina is working at the winery and she knew that in the village of Saint-Émilion wineries have open tastings during this weekend. My looking in weather forecast yesterday, told us that this day would be better (than yesterday) for that, if we wanted to stay dry. That turned out to be true! Mostly the day were cloudy but we were able to get even few rays of sunshine!

Breakfast was as great as yesterday and Thomas as welcoming. Google translator was in intense use this morning too!

We picked Nina from her place and headed towards Saint-Émilion, today it would be only 50 kilometers drive. First, we had tour booked in to the biggest monolith church in Europe, Monolith Church of Saint-Émilion. It, as the village, is named after monk Émilion. Back in the day he had his own cave and on top of that cave the first church was build. That church, were above the ground, the monolith church itself is situated underground and it took 40-50 years build it.

During French revolution the troops left the windows open which ruined all the paintings. These open windows made possible that saltpeter started to form on top of these paintings and saltpeter was ingredient in making gunpowder. You can guess what the army did..

At this point monk Émilion had died and made in to a Saint. In his time, he had made miracles which influenced his becoming a Saint. For once, he helped the poor. It was illegal to feed the poor, but he stole a bread from the kitchen to take to those who needed it. Before he could do that, soldiers stopped him and asked what he had inside of his cloak. He had no choice but to show them. When he revealed his load, it wasn’t bread but a fire wood! Soldiers let him go and the wood turned back to bread.

When in France you should try crepes, right? Aaand, nope. Or at least not at 12PM you don’t. We were forced to take fries instead because apparently noon is not the proper time for something sweet.

My hanger satisfied we headed to the wineries. On our agenda was 3 wineries. First of them was called Château Coutet. It was lovely place where wine had been made since 1643. We had to wait a little to get the tour in English but it was worth it.

Second place was as different as different get! The property was huge and when Château Coutet, had been charmingly rustic, Château Montlabert was very modern. From the outside the manor and the outbuildings had mostly stayed true to their origins from 1750 with some minor changes (like huge class windows) but the modern wine tanks inside didn’t have anything antique about them!

The wine itself was good, as much I can tell. I know what I like and don’t like but I would be very wrong person to tell you about different nuances and aromas. The tour was in French so we weren’t able to follow it properly.

Our tour guide was nice enough to translate some of it to us between his speeches but the feeling I was left with, was rushed and bored at the same time. He talked a lot in French (the boring part) and quickly translated some of it to us (the rushed part). He was very pleasant and didn’t say anything to imply it, but I got the feeling he was in a hurry. They had quite cool presentation that was projected to the walls in the cellars though.

Last place might be my favorite. I am torn between Château Coutet and this, Château Chauvin. This one, has changed owners quite few times, un-like the first two ones we visited. This winery had been modernized too but the tasting room had spectacular views to the fields and we were most likely the last group they made the tour to, so our guide had a time to sit down with us and have chat too. I almost bought bottle of their wine too but later you find out why I was happy I didn’t.

6.5. Monday

This morning, we picked Nina and her co-worker/roommate with us and steered our car towards Biarritz. The drive there was 230 km, but it was beautiful coastal city, where we had lovely day just strolling around looking the sights. The weather was a bit erratic, one minute it was sunny and in the other very cloudy. The cool wind was a blessing when the sun was out, but not so pleasant when the sun was hiding. We compensated the weather with good humor and lots of laughter.

Biarritz is said to be the surfing capital of Europe and, we did see surfers daring the waves. Walking down the beach promenade, you can visit charming little islet called Rocher du Basta. You reach it walking via stone bridge. We also saw Le Rocher de la Vierge, one of the well-known sights of this town.

This rock was carved to be anchorage point for breakwater protecting a harbor refuge. The original wooden bridge weren’t durable enough, so Eiffel build a steel footbridge via with pedestrians can visit the rock nowadays. Local fishermen installed a statue of Virgin Mary on top of the rock to show their gratitude. It is told that they (fishermen) were guided back home during a storm by what seemed to be divine light, hence its name, Rocher de la Vierge (or Rock of the Virgin in English) and the statue.

Before heading back home I also climbed to see the town from higher ground, specifically from top of the Biarritz Lighthouse. While sightseeing the wind had picked its speed and the waves were bigger than I have ever seen before. We had to stop to just observe them for a while. Magnificent!

7.5. Tuesday

This morning, we had the opportunity to get a tour at the winery Nina is working for! They would have open tours too, but not until we would already left for home, so Nina had been kind enough to arrange a tour for us. Their winery is called Château Puybarbe and their vineyards were planted during Roman times. Current owners are a from Finland so, it was cool to see where my fellow-countrymen have placed their roots in to.

The estate, were beautiful and I liked their wine. We were gifted two of their bottles (this is why I was happy I didn’t buy any from Château Chauvin) and I also ordered some when we got back home.
You might know how some of the wines are matured in tanks, and some in barrels? It was amazing to notice how much difference it has. But still I couldn’t find that small hint of coffee, which was said to be in one of their wines. That just one proof of my lack of knowhow when it comes to wines.

After the tour we once again hijacked Nina, and headed towards Arcachon, little less than 100 km away.
There we conquered highest sand dunes of Europe, Dune of Pilat. It is 106 meters high and 2,7 kilometers long. 106 meters doesn’t sound like much, but I was winded when, I reached top of that thing. There were stairs to climb up, but masochist that I am, I wouldn't take the easy way! I walked on the sand like it was suppose to be climbed! On a sunny day I am sure the views to Arachon Bay would have been amazing, turkoise waters and green foliage. It was great view today too, but the weather was as gray as it has been on our whole trip. You could see on the opposite shore though. After my escapades on the dunes, I did walk down on the sand too (!), I emptied half of the dunes from my shoes, but was very happy of my workout and rewarded myself with tapas and churros!

8.5. Wednesday

This morning, we drove to return our rental car in heavy fog. Returning it was very straightforward so it didn't take long and we got ourselfels in bus toward Bordeaux city center. Fortunately the fog passed as soon as we got in Bordeaux where our train to Paris was about to leave. It was to be sunny day. First one we had in our trip. Of course we had all our bags with us, so even us having couple of hours to kill before our departure, we weren’t up to heavy sightseeing. However, I did want to see the Miror d’eau, one landmark Bordeaux is famous for. It wasn’t far from our bus stop, but to my dismay there weren’t water in the pool at all!

As I said before, we didn’t feel like walking around hauling our bags so we headed to the train station and opted to get something to drink while waiting for the train.

The train ride itself was fast! 580 kilometers just little over 2 hours, 2 hours and 8 minutes to be exact. Train was comfortable too. Paris train station was another matter entirely, it was huge! It took us some navigating to find our way out of there, but we managed, and after dropping our bags to our new hotel, we headed to do some exploring.

Eiffel Tower, here we come!

Nevertheless, our hotel were several kilometer from the tower, we opted to walk. It was funny to notice that even after getting the first glimpses of it, we still had to walk quite long way to actually reach it. I never realised Paris being quite so big. Of course I knew it to be one of the biggest cities in Europe, but knowing something and seeing it, are two very different things. Eventually we reached our destination.

It is maybe the best known landmark of Paris, and maybe even whole country. It is named after Gustave Eiffel, whose company build it between 1887-1889. It was the centerpiece of World’s fair of 1889. We were never that interested to visit at top of it, so the masses of people queueing didn’t throw us in to a despair. We quit happily observed people milling around before heading to us some dinner.

9.5. Thursday

More sightseeing was in our plans for today. After breakfast (which were good, but didn’t impress us after Thomas’s superb breakfast!) we headed to see what we can find. I had a rough plan in mind what I wanted to see. One thing that I couldn’t get tickets to were Paris Catacombs. The tickets went superfast! I had started to checking the availability right after booking our flights and that was months ago!

So, that was out of the question. So our heading was to Shakespeare& Co bookstore and Notre Dame Cathedral. There too, it was several kilometers, but we opted walking. You could descry, when you started to get nearer, souvenir shops and more people being one of the more obvious changes to the surroundings. When Toni received a phone call from work, long phone call might I add, I was happy of the fact that there were more restaurants around, so I headed to sit on one of the terraces and got us the first beverage of the day. Happily, drink in hand, I wrote postcards while Toni sorted things out on the phone.

We weren’t far from our goal, so drinks finished we walked rest of the way just to notice the very long line to the Shakespeare & Co. I was 99% sure that I wouldn’t buy anything so, I wasn’t about to waste the time waiting on the line, just to do quick perusal inside, so across the street we went. Across the street, because on the other side were the famous Notre Dame Cathedral. Sadly, still under construction after the fire back in 2019. I was interested to see the gargoyles on the roof but since that wasn’t a possibility right now, we observed this scene from the outside. You wouldn’t believe how much people there were even when you couldn’t get inside-tour.

Next stop, the Louvre Pyramid and Arc de Triomphe. Needless to say that we continued on foot so this involved more walking, and more beverage pitch stops. The day was becoming very hot and when we reached the last of our two stops, Arc de Triomphe, we opted to get Über back to hotel and rest for a while before getting our last dinner in Paris before this holiday would come to an end.