from Bordeaux to Albi. We made the first leg, but were delayed in
Toulouse as we missed our connecting train due to delays on our train
from Bordeaux.
Anyway, our time in Bordeaux was fairly short - about a day and a
half. We arrived on Friday afternoon in the fairly consistent rain
from St. Jean-de-Luz (French Basque area). We wandered around
Bordeaux for that night and then day tripped the next day to a little
town inland called St. Emilion. St. Emilion is a tiny little town in
the middle of serious wine country (hello - Bordeaux, France).
We did a little tasting and some wandering and some chilling out at a
cafe for a while. It was really nice to go out there. We actually
had a sunny day, although it was (and still is) freezing everywhere we
go. Wandering outside in the low 50s/upper 40s is not so fun if
you're only moderately prepared for the weather.
They seem to have the same early spring weather as most people in the
states do. Some days of nice, warm-ish weather paired with days of
what is left of winter. When we planned the trip, the forcast was
different - appreciably warmer. Oh well. C'est la vie, n'est pas?
Anyway, back to St. Emilion - the countryside was beautiful. Their
vineyards look different than what we know from Napa/Sonoma. The are
much lower to the ground. According to one the of the wine shops we
did tasting at, the lower vines produce higher quality grapes - which
means that they produce higher quality grapes compared to Napa/Sonoma
accordingly.
We have no idea if that is true or not. Nonetheless, it was fun, but
cold. It was nice to be under open skies for the day. We finally
headed back to Bordeaux for our second and final night there. We ate
at fabulous little Italian restaurant (recommended by an English
local) - called Le Bistro. I had one of the best Arrabiata pasta's
I've ever had and Andy had an excellent (which is high praise from
him) Calzone. If you are ever in Bordeaux - go there for dinner.
We left Bordeaux this morning, got delayed briefly in Toulouse (as
mentioned earlier) and finally headed to Albi. Just to give you an
idea of how cold it really is here - it snowed very lightly, but
definitely was snowing, three different times on us today. Once at a
train stop and twice here in Albi. We finally arrived here and
eventually settled into our hotel and headed out to the main site
here- the St. Cecile Catherdral - one of the most beautiful
Cathedrals I've ever seen. Everything was painted in it. In COLOR! A
bishop hired 7 Florentine painters to come and paint the ceilings, the
walls, the pillars - almost everything. It's just stunning. It was
also really cool to be there as it's Easter and all that.
We leave for Carcassone early tomorrow morning and are spending the
night there. It's supposedly quite the medieval town and full of
history. Andy will love it being the history guy he is. I'm hoping
for not raining and a little warmer than freezing point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcasonne
http://www.cntraveller.com/Guides/France/Bordeaux/Default.aspx
More soon. Picture uploading is slowed down, as the Net connections
have been spotty.
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