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Showing posts with label St.Emilion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St.Emilion. Show all posts

Saturday, September 1, 2018

Touring Arcachon Bay and St. Emilion: Vacationing in the Bordeaux (France) Region with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

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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