Touring Arcachon Bay and St.
Emilion: Vacationing in the Bordeaux (France) Region with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
Hobnobbing
with Bordeaux winery owners and their families on vacation encouraged my
husband Laurent and me to go on vacation in Arcachon Bay and St. Emilion outside
Bordeaux one year when we lived in Paris (France) for seven years.
We
reserved a hotel with a kitchen. When we
arrived, we spent an afternoon stocking up on items to eat like prosciutto and
lamb shanks.
We
got around to tourism the next day after I prepared the lamb shanks. We visited downtown Bordeaux where I had my
photo taken with the rearing horse statues by the Girondin Fountain in the
Quiconces Park.
The
Girondins were the losing faction from Bordeaux, who mostly lost their heads
during the Terror that took place after the French Revolution. The Girondins were more moderate than the
Montagnards, who sat above them at the Convention before the Terror.
The
name Girondin comes from the name of the large estuary of ocean that extends
into the land at Bordeaux like a Norwegian fjord.
The
Quiconces Park with the fountain was also hosting an antiques fair that
day. We spent a good three hours walking
among the beautiful wood furniture.
The
next day, we visited the adorable town of St. Emilion known around the world
for its wine. St. Emilion had steep
streets everywhere and the yellow stone homes all had red geraniums draping
down in front of their windows.
Every
vantage point in St. Emilion was a postcard photo. We walked up and down almost every street and
visited the surrounding villages in the car.
We
even drove through one of the town’s caves going up and down roads.
We
bought bottles of St. Emilion in nice, wooden boxes at the Maison du Vin.
Discussing
the weather was an acceptable topic in Bordeaux I discovered as I eavesdropped
on discussions about the various microclimates in Bordeaux. “Rain in the Médoc, but not in the Sauternes.”
Our
vacation came to an end too quickly. We
had a great time in Arcachon and St. Emilion (France).
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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