St. Emilion

The very strange collegium church (main religious sites are

catacombs, which we skipped)

Its cloisters; note limestone columns

wearing away...

Interior of the church...three domes, then

ribbed vaulting (fashions change), few

windows, a good bit of original 12th

century painting

Some of the painting...in the second medallion from the left,

the devil is whispering sweet-nothings into someone's ear

Some "abstract" painting over where some of

the plaster has chipped away

Part of the city wall

View from near the clock tower

Clock tower

Clock tower from the catacombs area

City portal

Wine shop where I bought a grand cru; owner plied me with

several tastings...

Macaroons were invented here by the Sisters, so we sampled

them (the macaroons), as well as some other local pastries,
from this shop

But, mostly, St. Emilion, an old and beautiful town, is about

very fine old wine

St. Emilion Region

Bordeaux has more wine regions than we could reasonably

visit, so, in addition to my tour of the Medoc, we drove out

Sunday to St. Emilion, my favorite among Bordeaux wines,

and also said to be the most scenic of the wine areas; here's

one near St. Emilion itself

The grape-picking machines they now use just pick from the

sides, leaving zillions of grapes to rot on the middle part of

the vine; you keep demand (prices) high by keeping supplies

low...

So we helped ourselves; yum, very sweet

and fruity, but not sans seeds; maybe I'll plant a

few

Another chateau; this one turned out to be a hotel/restaurant

At every intersection there are six more chateaux, in each

direction

After visiting St. Emilion the town, we also

managed to find the largest menhir in SW

France, La Menhir de Pierrefitte, about 5

meters tall

On Foot in Bordeaux, Part II

The tower next to the Cathedral of St. Pierre

St. Pierre Cathedral; sort of weird...the two enormous towers

are on the north transept; it is a humongous building, one of

the largest I have seen; but, as they were conducting some

sort of service (the nerve! did they clear this with the Office

de Tourisme?!), I was not able to explore; or take pix

Closer up of the two towers

The cathedral's weird west facade, with an even weirder

flying buttress at the SW corner

Hotel de Ville

Courtyard of the Hotel de Ville

Part of the Musee de Beaux Artes; or, possibly GatorLand

 

I am not sure what this was...possibly Bordeaux's answer

to the Pompidiou

One of the old district's remaining 15th

century portals

Back in the Esplanade, a giant statue of my
favorite French philosopher, Montaigne

Our campsite for two nights; I was quite taken with
Bordeaux

On Foot in Bordeaux

Sunday morning, while Vicki rested her sore

knee, I undertook a brief walking tour of old

Bordeaux, the St. Pierre district; above, the

huge Monument to the Girondins in the

Esplanade

Part of the fountains

Part of the antiques market in the Esplanade; it really is a big

park

The Maison du Vin

The Grand Theater, with the 12 muses across the front (12?

I thought there were only 7; maybe that's why my aesthetics

are not so so well rounded)

Another huge and beautiful square I could only get a piece of

in the lens; the Place des Douanes, with the national customs

(as in duties, taxes, etc.) museum

Looking back northeast along boulevard of quays

Esplanade de Quinconces By Night

The Esplanade's twin towers, "commerce"

and "navigation," which pretty well sum

up Bordeaux's history

The arc of the Garonne (later, the Gironde estuary), with

Bordeaux on both sides, for miles

Looking back from the Footpath, to the two

towers and the Monument to the Girondins

in the distance

Navigation, pointing the way

Our stroll took us back to the Esplanade and down to the river Garonne and views from designer Tadashi Kawamata's "Footpath" bridge out over the river.

Christmas Market in Bordeaux

It was dark when I got back from the wine tour, but Vicki
wanted to stroll about the old town, especially the marche de
noel

There were shops of every description, every nationality

The customary French double-decker, very popular

I told her he was roasting snails, and she bought it!

Shopping district, all Christmas bedecked

What the Mouse has to do with Xmas I do not know (maybe

the rampant commercialism?); but, hey, these people think

Jerry Lewis was brilliant...

Chateau Kirwan, Margaux

Typical Medoc vineyard; the soil is extremely rocky and chalky

...almost looks like snow in places; "to make great wine, the vine

must suffer"

St. Julien country

Chateau Bycheville, "the Versailles of the Medoc"; actually,

the guide said most of the great chateaux now are owned

by banks and insurance companies, uninhabited and unvisited;

I was disappointed with the Medoc, scenically, no comparison

with Burgundy; except for the boarded-up chateaux, it was

mostly pastoral squalor; maybe it's just the season....

Chateau Kirwan

The Schiffer family still live there, the guide said, although

they did not personally welcome us, as the Reverdis did

Kirwan cellar; actually, there are few actual cellars in the

region...high water table

Sitting area outside the cellar; nice place to sit and watch

over your investments

Margaux chateaux; Kirwan is on the left, second or third down

Actually, I was surprised at how generous the servings were;

she gave me three; maybe it was my excellent "Merci! Sil

vous plait! Bonjour"; Kirwan is a far older grand cru; I forgot

what we tasted, a 2004 maybe, but I do remember the price,

49 euros; lots of tannin; I preferred the mellower Reverdi