Dates: April 15-18th, 2006
Our trip to Bordeaux was another one of those RTT funded long weekends that make you thankful for living and working in France. We took the TGV from Paris to Bordeaux and rented a car so that we could drive around the wine country and visit Arcachon.
We spent the first night in Bordeaux and ate dinner at a very interesting Fromage restaurant. All of their dishes were cheese based and their cellar had more varieties of cheese than I've ever seen before in my life. The second day, we headed out to visit the Bordeaux wine region. In a nutshell, we spent the day driving around the beautiful countryside, visiting Chateaus and trying world-famous wines.
We then drove out to Arcachon to see the dune de playa (the largest sand dune in Europe) and to spend the night in the quaint little seaside town. The Dune de Playa was actually much more interesting than one would think. First of all, it was packed but, most importantly, it provided fantastic views of the Atlantic ocean from its summit. In Arcachon, we had one of the best seafood dinners of our lives. We decided to splurge a little and have a huge seafood platter with crab, lobster, prawns, huitre, mussels, scallops and a number of other types of shellfish. Dinner was great, and we felt like a king and queen eating a feast that we didn't deserve. The rest of the evening, we drove around the town (I was missing the long evening drives that we used to take back in the day when we had a car) and then walked along the promenade.
The last day, we drove out to Saint Emillion, one of the most beautiful, quaint, hilltop, walled cities in the world - not to mention one of the best wine producing regions in the world. Saint Emillion was a joy to walk around (although a little steep at times). Its narrow cobblestone roads, great restaurants, and wineries make it one of the must-visit wine sights in the world. That night, we went back to Bordeaux and spent the night at a not-so-great hotel. On the other hand, we had a great steak dinner a L'Entrecote - a famous steak restaurant known for having no menu - you get the steak plate of the day, with fries, no ketchup - I asked.
Some of my thoughts from abroad. You can also have a look at my photos from abroad.
