My random musings on photography, beautiful things and the joys of living in Pittsburgh.
Day Six – Cruising the Rivers
Much of today was going to be spent cruising the rivers to our next destination. But the morning was an opportunity to explore more of the city of Bordeaux. We had a guided tour through the old section of town, and the main town square. The highlight was the Quinconces Fountain. The monument and park were erected to memorialize the Girondists who played an important role in the beginnings of the French Revolution. No history lesson forthcoming, other than to say somehow they ended up on the wrong side of the political wave at the time and were wiped out to start the Reign of Terror portion of the Revolution.
Our little band strolled through the city, the city square and down Catherine Street which is the longest pedestrian-only sh
opping street in Europe. I’d love to say it was a long stretch of charming shops, and there were a few cute ones along the way (mostly pastry and bread shops), but it is more like and open-air, modern day shopping mall replete with the requisite chain stores.
We looped down a small side street to the old city gate, then past the Bourse and water mirror. I had been down here on our first day to get those wonderful night shots of the fountain and Bourse. Today, there was all sorts of activity in the fountain! Children, parents, teens, dogs were all splashing through the water cooling off on a hot summer day!
Then back to the boat for lunch and settling in for a relaxing afternoon of cruising up the Garrone River to the Giron estuary, then down the Giron to our next port of call, Libourne. Most of my time was spent sitting in the lounge (editing photos and reading!). I have to say, sitting in a comfortable chair with a lovely glass of wine, reading a good book while staring out a window with the world passing by slowly has it's attractions! Others sat on the top sun deck, played cards, or just napped (getting over jet lag still). Generally, a nice quiet afternoon on board ship
There were some on-board activities if someone wanted to participate. Our executive chef, Daniel and pastry chef Michael gave us a demonstration on how to back French macarons. Those are small, round morsels of pastry heaven – light airy cakes about the size of a silver dollar, sandwiched around a sweet, creamy filling. Now, I watched this demonstration, have the recipe, but I can’t see me successfully executing this recipe if my life depended on it! Fortunately my friend Connie is a great cook and she’s going to give it a whirl when we get home.
Dinner that night was a special event – our friend Ted’s birthday replete with a tour of the kitchen by Daniel, and a surprise birthday cake accompanied by a simply awful rendition of a French birthday song by the wait staff! As dinner was ending, we pulled into port in Lilbourne just as the sun was setting. Perfect ending to another delightful day!
All the photos from our trip through day six are under "Our Travels-Bordeaux" on my web site.
Day Five: Foray Into the WineCountry
After consuming a great deal of the area’s bounty at dinner last night, we were scheduled for a field trip today to the town of C adillac and a visit to one of the chateaux that produces the region’s famous Sauterne wines. But first we had to go through the required safety drill, with everyone evacuating to the top deck with our life jackets on. Because we all look so fabulous in orange!
Cadillac still has several vestiges of it’s Medieval roots, including two city gates, several sections of the city wall, and an entire street of houses from that era. The stroll took about an hour, then back on the bus to the vineyard: Chateau Rayne Vigneau. We passed mile after mile of rolling hills highlighted by the neat and tidy rows of grape vines, punctuated occasionally with chateaux and small villages.
We toured through the vineyard itself, learned about how the vines are grown and maintained, and how
the different soil in the region will produce different types of grapes, even within the same area. I did not know that older vines produce better grapes for wine making than do the younger ones – some of the vines are 40 or 50 years old and are still hearty producers! To make the “sweeter” Sauterne wines, the grapes are not harvested until they are almost raison like in appearance and texture; the purpose is to allow the sugars in the fruit to concentrate in the grapes. But, this results in less juice in the fruit, therefore it takes a lot more grapes to produce a Sauterne than other types of wine – about twice as many! That’s one of the reasons Sauterne can be more expensive than other wines – the yield per acre is much smaller.
The barrel room was interesting – above and beyond the row upon row of French oak barrels with the aging wine. The owner of the chateau was fascinated with the birds of North America, and purchased several stuffed specimens during a visit to the US. They are perched on top of the barrels all through the barrel room!
We had three wines starting with a very light vintage that wasn’t sweet at all, progressing to the sweetest of them – a rich golden colored 1st Grand Class Cru. It was almost syrupy in texture and flavor. It also runs 90 euro (or more depending on year) a bottle!
After the tasting, back on the bus change for dinner, and another evening with our old and new friends on board the Foresti!
All the photos from our trip so far are under "Our Travels-Bordeaux"
Day Four - Paris to Bordeaux and Viking River Cruises!
Saturday morning, bright and early, we were up, packed and saying au revoir to our beloved Paris. We had an early train from Paris to Bordeaux to meet our cruise ship for the remaining portion of our trip.
Train travel in Europe is amazingly easy, efficient and comfortable. We were taking the new high speed line to Bordeaux, traveling the distance in just under 2 hours. These high speed trains are going between 200-300 km/hour and you hardly feel the movement at all.
Arriving in Bordeaux we found the taxi stand (after rolling, or rather JOLTING our luggage over the cobblestones) and hailed the first available to take us to our ship. A smaller city without tremendous traffic problems, we arrived on the dock in only 10-15 minutes.
Let me tell you about Viking River Tours. You'll see a lot of accolades for them in commercials and on line. Every . single . word . is . true. From the moment we stepped out of the cab we have felt like royalty. Every staff member, including the ship director, captain, right through to the housekeeping and boat crew, exist to make everything about the experience top notch.
We have a stateroom (left) with a small balcony, and the room is much more comfortable and spacious than I thought - lots of room for storage and what not.
Below was the view of Bordeaux Quai from our stateroom.
We got settled in than walked around the ship to familiarize ourselves with the layout and amenities. Our friends were here, but were napping to get over their jet lag. Dale and I joined a short, half-hour orientation walk into the town of Bordeaux and upon our return, retired to the upper deck with a lovely glass of wine before the evening's orientation lecture and dinner
Top Sun Deck:
The evening started off with a welcome from the Ship Director, Bea, and introductions to the team that would be coordinating our various on and off-board activities for the week. The Program Director, Dan, gave an overview of the history of Bordeaux, and the evolution of the wine making trade in the area. He's adorable - very French and very funny! Each night in the lounge, Dan gives an overview of the next day's program and plans. They also provide a handout that outlines the day so everyone knows what's going on at what time. For someone like myself that is completely compulsive about timing and schedules, this is the next best thing to vacation heaven.
The Executive Chef is Daniel (with a last name that is Greek and impossibly to spell correctly from memory) and every night he will provide a preview of the dinner menu. They have a very nice selection of options, and each evening, the "chef's recommendation" which will be a 3-course meal of regional specialities. If Daniel wasn't a chef, he would be a stand up comic. Absolutely marvelous sense of timing and a dry-British sense of humor!
This evening, the entire group that traveled from Pittsburgh was able to share a table, and our waiter enthusiastically took our photo for us.
First night, dinner on board. Notice the multiple bottles of wine at the end of the table. I'm going to be hungover for a week!!
There was a formal, guided tour of Bordeaux by Night offered, but I only wanted to do one thing - which involved night photography again! I wanted to get a shot of the Bourse and Water Mirror - a very famous landmark here in Bordeaux (Dale was tired and decided to pack it in for the night so I was going solo on this). I asked the Program Manager how to get to the Bourse, and he offered to actually take me down there! We took the tram and walked down to the Bourse area.
This is a popular spot for obvious reasons, and the place was very crowded. I did get a great spot, set up my tripod and began shooting away! I managed to get what I came for as well (see below). After finishing up, I walked back to the boat, keeping my fingers crossed that I'd find the right one (easier than I thought). Yes, it is perfectly safe for a woman to walk alone, at night, in Bordeaux. There were people of all ages out along the riverside. Besides, I was carrying my tripod like a walking stick. Never mess with an old broad carrying a tripod!! :-)
Hopefully will update again tomorrow!
Day Three - Paris
Our last day in Paris, but we decided to take a side trip to Giverny, home to Monet and the place that inspired the water lilies series. We've seen so many of these paintings over the years and in different museums around the world, we were very excited about wandering through the setting that was the basis for those glorious works.
The tour itself was ok, but the headset used by our guide for the "silent vox" portion was lousy and we didn't get a lot out of her narrative. Basically we were on our own and just took full advantage of that - wandering around the lily ponds and sumptuous garden outside the manor house. The amount of work, and love of gardening that goes into maintaining the grounds must be staggering!
We wrapped up the day with a visit to Sacre Cour on Montmartre. This spectacular cathedral has a commanding view of Paris and is a popular spot with tourists as you can imagine. Steps and lawn areas leading up to the top of the hill were full of people - tourists and vendors alike. It was a bit annoying actually. The number of "vendors" selling water and beer (yes, beer) from the cases they obviously bought at the store was astonishing. Dale stated that it couldn't possibly be legal! LOL!
At the end of the day, we were beat, and knew we had an early call to get to the train station the next morning for our journey down to Bordeaux. We grabbed some sandwiches and snacks, headed back to the room and bunked in for the evening.
Next up: Bordeaux!!
Again, all of the photos from our time in Paris can be found on my web site "Our Travels - Paris"
Finally - Decent Internet; Day Two
Well, actually this on day 6 but I finally have a decent enough internet connection to upload and add photos!
Started our day blissfully sleeping in and getting over our jet lag, then headed out to the Picasso Museum - one of the hundreds of smaller museums we never quite got to visit while we lived in Belgium.
The museum is housed in a building that was once a hotel (left)
After another lovely lunch at a little out of the way sidewalk cafe, we walked, essentially from the Louvre, through the Marais district, and up to the Opera. Most of the way was quiet and relatively unpopulated, and away from the heavy tourist areas. Delightful to say the least.
August is vacation month in France, and many shops and restaurants close for weeks, or even the entire month as their proprietors take holiday. I can't imagine anything like that happening back home!
The highlight of today though was our dinner cruise on the Seine. Having a lovely dinner while watching Paris slowly roll by is a delight. Our cruise departed at 9 pm so we were able to enjoy sunset and twilight over the river on our walk to the boat, and, of course, see the Eiffel Tower at night:
Above, the Seine looking towards Notre Dame. The Orsay is on the right (actually the left bank), and the Louvre is partially visible on the left.
Below, well, you can probably figure that out yourself. And yes, that is a downsized version of the Statue of Liberty! Sort of a lousy photo actually - taken through the window of the boat.
One of the things I wanted to do this trip was apply some of my "lessons learned" from a night photography class I took last year. I bought a wonderful, lightweight tripod for traveling and, of course, had it with me this evening. My original goal was to get a killer shot of the Champs Elysee, but I was very disappointed with that final result (too tired at that point to really work at it), however, I was able to capture this marvelous shot of the Louvre.
One more day in Paris to go!