Claret Country

A very pleasant 6 days in Cadillac so far. It's a bit like enjoying a band or a group for years and listening to CDs and then seeing them live coming here. Having enjoyed so many delicious wines from the Bordeaux region it's really exciting to actually see the grapes growing in the fields and see the chateaux, which look just as they do on the wine labels.
Cadillac itself is right on the banks of the Garonne and surrounded by vineyards. The local appellation is a delicious dessert wine, similar but at the same time different to Sauternes and Barsac, which are just the other side of the river. We took at walk along the Garonne on our first morning which was sunny and warm and looked at all the little fishing huts with platforms over the river. We walked to Loupiac, which is also famous for dessert wine. Such a pretty village but absolutely no life at all apart from barking dogs which felt strange and no shop or bar. It felt odd walking round the deserted, picture book place.
We took a drive over to St Emilion, which is a beautiful medieval village set on a hilltop. You could see the vines growing from the chalky soil which I can taste in the wine even now! It was pretty busy with tourists but we managed to find a lovely little restaurant for lunch and a flight of local wines. There was also a fabulous looking 4 star hotel at the top of the hill overlooking the village with prices to match which I wouldn’t mind coming back and trying one day!
Yesterday we went up to the Medoc, the other side of Bordeaux, which also felt like a pilgrimage. John has had a case of Chateau Haut Batailly aging in his mother’s shed for some years and we just started drinking it before we went to Abu Dhabi. I was very sorry to leave it behind, though of course it isn’t going off. Anyway it was great to see the vineyards and the others of this very famous area. We had lunch in Pauillac itself, a pretty port, despite Lonely Planet being rude about it and calling it muddy! St Estephe was particularly pretty, out near the mouth of the estuary. It seems to a very quiet time for the wine producers though with many of them looking very shut up. Presumably they take a break before the grape harvest starts and the work begins again for another year.
The weather has been extremely mixed – sometimes sunny and sometimes cloudy with occasional rain. We still find such things a novelty after the heat of Abu Dhabi but it must be very frustrating if you’d come for the sun.
One of the rainy days we went into Bordeaux, which is a very grand city indeed and previously I’d only seen it as one of the finishing stages for the Tour De France. Quite an edgy place as well with beggars and rough areas as well as designer shopping and great restaurants. I took the chance to stock up at Galleries Lafayette on some make up and John bought me two cool running watches – digital with funky rubber bracelets (2 for 10 Euros as a summer bargain!)
Overall this is such a pretty place with medieval hill villages and vineyards everywhere and calm about it. We keep noticing the ‘A Vendre’ notices and wondering – but no plans to purchase a pied a terre just yet!