Chris’ Travel Blog

Today we walked around central Bordeaux, went to different tourist offices, and got an idea of the city. In the afternoon we decided to take a wine tour. In general it is not possible to just arrive at a chateau and expect to be able to get a tour or do a wine tasting. Instead it is necessary to make a reservation in advance. Since our plan is to cycle around it is difficult to make sure that we arrive in a certain location at a certain time, when we are not familiar with the area. So it made the most sense to take a tour today and then we can cycle around and if we can`t get into the different chateau`s it will be fine. For 29 euros we got a tour of the Entre-Deux-Mers region. The 2 chateaus we visited are: Chateau Peneau and Chateau Courtade-Dubuc.

 A little background on the Bordeaux Region. There are 7 distinct regions: Bordeaux, Médoc, Haute-Gironde, Libournais, Bassin D`Achcachon,  Entre-Deux-Mers, and Sud-Gironde. All Bordeaux wines are blends, in general of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. However, the blend will depend on the region and its type of soil. In soil that is more gravel there will be a higher concentration of Cabernet Sauvignon, in soil that has more limestone there will be a higher concentration of Merlot.

Tomorrow the plan is to take the train from Bordeaux to Pauillac, and then rent a bike, and tour around the Medoc region.

Well two out of three ain`t bad. We took the greyhound bus from Ottawa to the Montreal airport. Then the plane from Montreal to Paris. Finally the train from Paris to Bordeaux. We arrived safe and sound and are now off to bed to get some proper sleep.

I’ll be heading to the Bordeaux region of France for two weeks to do some cycling and wine tasting with my dad.

We’ll flying with Zoom from Montreal to Paris, and immediately take the TGV to Bordeaux where we have a hotel booked for 3 days. After that there are no specific plans.