We said a sad farewell to Spain and boarded a train in San Sebastian. This farewell was doubly sad as we had lost a dear companion at the train station.We crossed the border into France, and immediately our pathetic, halting Spanish seemed like a comfortable old friend as neither one of us has any French (and I thought trying to figure out Basque was a challenge!
). But we got to the station, found a taxi, and with the help of some written directions – in French, that Jenn was clever enough to print out – made our way to the 19th century Chateau where we were staying.The Chateau was about 10 miles out of the city along the banks of the Garonne, and was once a large wine-producing estate. But, French inheritance laws being what they are, most of the parcels were sold off one-by-one, until our hosts and the present owners bought the house and about 12 acres and run it as the base for their wine country tours. These people are really proud of their wines and their history and heritage. I’ll let Jennifer fill you in a little on the history angle as she was reading up on it, but wine has been produced in this region for a thousand years, so they feel that they’ve pretty much “gotten it right”.
We had a private driver who took us to six different wineries in two days. His name was Marc, he is a business student, and a more charming young man there never was. And apparently we were lucky to have him (or anyone at all) as there was a general transportation strike beginning Wednesday afternoon (we arrived Wed. a.m.) and ending Friday afternoon (we left Sat. a.m.). We also dodged a bullet on the Air France strike. To be honest, we were very lucky in many of our adventures this trip. Don’t get me wrong, Ms Jennifer is the most accomplished travel agent a girl could ever want, but sometimes the universe just steps in, and that can go either way. Luckily for us, it went the best way.
So I’ll let Jenn give you the low-down on making wine in the Medoc and St. Emillion regions. Let me just say that our trip to Europe was not only fun (and fattening), but very informative. We learned how sherry is made, saw olive oil being pressed, visited some of the most prestigious wineries in the world and, best of all, got to get outside of our comfort zone and mingle with different people, cultures and histories. Except for one day of rain, the weather was perfect (well, it was bitter cold the one night we were in Paris, but who cares?! We were in Paris!) and except for one snotty French chef (could there be a bigger cliché?), the people were all marvelous. All in all, I’d have to say that this was Jenn and Nora’s Most Excellent Adventure!