18th Sept (Sat) - Bordeaux, France

OMG! The French here were so nice and helpful that they easily overturned my preconceived notions of French being snobs. They really made my short stay in Bordeaux truly enjoyable. :) If there's a chance next time to visit the place again, I would definitely stay much longer to go to the various vineyards and try the wine from the different regions of Bordeaux. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a wine lover. In fact, I hardly drink it at all. But when you couple the surroundings (think chateau and vineyards) with good wine, good food and good company, it becomes such a relaxing and incredible experience!

Initially I'd wanted to sign up for a tour to Saint Emilion but it was fully booked. And it happened only once a week on Fridays only. So I decided to opt for another tour on Sat to a different vineyard where I actually got to harvest the grapes from the vineyard, followed by wine over lunch and then ended off with a cellar tour.







At the vineyard, 2 people were assigned to each row of vines and we had to harvest from end to end, squatting down to cut the grapes most of the time. The white vines were ready but the red vines still have 2 more weeks to go before they could be harvested.



When we first began, I was kinda grossed out 'cause there were quite a number of insects hidden between the vines and as we harvest the grapes, they go into the bucket as well. Apart from big spiders, there were some other insect that I couldn't make out as well. That kinda slowed my progress. But I was glad that my partner, a guy from Australia, 'saved' me numerous times when the sight of creepy crawlies got to me. He would kinda remove them from my bucket so that I could continue with the harvest.



Manual harvesting was fun and I kinda became more appreciative towards wine after having tried out the labour work myself. But then again, it's also an extremely tiring work. I've only tried out one side of a row, under the sun, and I got tired already only after an hour or so. For the workers, they have to do this for a full day for several weeks! Not to mention that that's just harvesting. A lot of work went into the initial growth and the preparation as well.

After harvesting, we paid a quick visit to the distillery and the wine cellar to better understand the process of wine making.



And then we moved back into the chateau where we were served with a 4-course meal - quite unexpected actually. The portions were really huge as well. I'd thought it would be just one simple main course. But I ended up feeling like I had had 3 main courses for lunch!



I had this terrified and worried expression on my face every time they serve the food that the Japanese guy beside me kept teasing me about it. And the food's really good. It was prepared by a lady who owned an eatery in the suburbs of Bordeaux. So it's quite authentic french cuisine. Yummy!!!! So there, good food and good wine.

As for good company, I was the youngest at our table. There were 2 elderly couples from Sweden and a Japanese couple as well. We had really nice conversations over lunch and the guys consumed 3 bottles of wine over our 2.5 hours lunch in the Chateau. Everything just seemed cozy, natural and at a leisurely pace that I really felt that I was savouring the moment and enjoying life :)

Although we parted after the tour and not very likely to meet again, it was nevertheless, a moment they we had all enjoyed and shared.

And here are some additional pix from my walk/ ride around the beautiful city:













I miss Bordeaux.