June 2 - CANOEING!
YES!!!!!!!!!! Cloudy with some sun - not too hot - perfect canoeing weather - or anyway, our last possible day we could have done it before we left the Dordogne and drove hundreds of km to St. Emilion, near Bordeaux. We had found this brochure for a canoeing company called Roque Geoffre (there are a lot of canoeing companies there) - www.canoe-roquegeoffre.com. We spent the morning doing admin stuff and then drove down to Roque Geoffre for about 2 pm. The best thing about travelling in May/early June is that there really are hardly any tourists - I think we were the only customers at Roque Geoffre that day, although we did encounter some other canoeists on the river. The owner was really nice, we decided to do the 14 km run (supposedly 3 hrs) and he drove us in his rickety old truck from the landing point to the starting point. The special thing about the canoe trip is that there were public beaches to stop off at along the way for as long as you want, you go at your own pace, and you get terrific views of all the riverside bastides along the way. After a week of touring castles and mansions, this was a refreshingly new way to see them.
For you doubters - proof of me canoeing - me and Min with Chateau de Castelnaud in the background:
Sights we saw, in order of appearance -
La Roque Gageac
Chateau de Marqueyssac (or Lacoste, not sure)
Chateau de Castelnaud - loyal to England
Chateau de Beynac - archrival of Castelnaud, loyal to France
Chateau des Milandes (I think)
As you can see, even the weather cooperated - partly cloudy, partly sunny, not too hot. We beached once (on purpose!) at a small island to walk around and picnic, after that it was all (downstream) rowing. My shoulders were sore for 2 days afterwards but we made it, all 14 kms worth! I totally recommend this excursion to anyone staying in the Dordogne region.
We finally docked at around 5 or 5:30 and quickly got back in the car to make our way to St. Emilion, a medieval village in the wine country around Bordeaux. Both Minora and I agreed we didn't want to stay in "big city" Bordeaux, especially with our car, which turned out to be an absolutely brilliant decision on our part. Min also wanted to try a chambre d'hote, the equivalent of our bed & breakfasts here. Except in France, you can stay in "chateau" as a chambre d'hote. We booked a wine chateau to stay for 2 nights, thinking we might get a tour of their vineyards as well. (Pretty much everyone who lives in that region grows wine.) Of course, the "chateau" we were staying in was just a nice little house, nothing like the chateau we visited in the Loire.
Unfortunately we got in around 8 pm, too late that night to do much besides lug our bags upstairs, then drive into St. Emilion proper (the chambre d'hote was a little bit outside the village) to try and find food. I think this night was actually the most amazing food night we had. We ate at L'Envers du Decor, an cute but trendy little bistro style restaurant with a 50-50 mix of American-speaking tourists (yuck! first time we'd heard American in a long time) and French. The food was awesome - Min tried langue du boeuf (cow tongue) for the first time and I had - I can't remember!! Oh, roast lamb I think. We both enjoyed our meals but I think I might have had a teensy bit more enjoyment than Min. We also tried St. Emilion wine, different from the Bordeaux appellation wine but St. Emilion appellation is extremely distinguished as well. I had the best red wine I've ever tasted - I hate the dryness and bitterness of reds generally but this was mellow and smooth, apparently a characteristic of St. Emilion wines (as opposed to the Medoc region wines which I'll talk about in my next blog.) I had the Chateau Lavoze St. Emilion Grand Cru Classe, 1997, and Min had....something I can't read, but it wasn't a Grand Cru. There are many, many different classes of wine which I'll go into later, but Grand Gru Classe is basically the top level. And I really could taste the difference! I want to find that wine here...
After a beautifully satisfying meal (and a beautiful view while walking through the medieval town at night), we retired relatively early since we had a ridiculously early start the next morning to make it to Mouton-Rothschild and the other illustrious wine chateaux of the Medoc region - 7:30 am! (Thanks again to Min for getting up with me and driving for 2 hours through rush hour traffic! We hate big cities!!!)
For you doubters - proof of me canoeing - me and Min with Chateau de Castelnaud in the background:
Sights we saw, in order of appearance -
La Roque Gageac
Chateau de Marqueyssac (or Lacoste, not sure)
Chateau de Castelnaud - loyal to England
Chateau de Beynac - archrival of Castelnaud, loyal to France
Chateau des Milandes (I think)
As you can see, even the weather cooperated - partly cloudy, partly sunny, not too hot. We beached once (on purpose!) at a small island to walk around and picnic, after that it was all (downstream) rowing. My shoulders were sore for 2 days afterwards but we made it, all 14 kms worth! I totally recommend this excursion to anyone staying in the Dordogne region.
We finally docked at around 5 or 5:30 and quickly got back in the car to make our way to St. Emilion, a medieval village in the wine country around Bordeaux. Both Minora and I agreed we didn't want to stay in "big city" Bordeaux, especially with our car, which turned out to be an absolutely brilliant decision on our part. Min also wanted to try a chambre d'hote, the equivalent of our bed & breakfasts here. Except in France, you can stay in "chateau" as a chambre d'hote. We booked a wine chateau to stay for 2 nights, thinking we might get a tour of their vineyards as well. (Pretty much everyone who lives in that region grows wine.) Of course, the "chateau" we were staying in was just a nice little house, nothing like the chateau we visited in the Loire.
Unfortunately we got in around 8 pm, too late that night to do much besides lug our bags upstairs, then drive into St. Emilion proper (the chambre d'hote was a little bit outside the village) to try and find food. I think this night was actually the most amazing food night we had. We ate at L'Envers du Decor, an cute but trendy little bistro style restaurant with a 50-50 mix of American-speaking tourists (yuck! first time we'd heard American in a long time) and French. The food was awesome - Min tried langue du boeuf (cow tongue) for the first time and I had - I can't remember!! Oh, roast lamb I think. We both enjoyed our meals but I think I might have had a teensy bit more enjoyment than Min. We also tried St. Emilion wine, different from the Bordeaux appellation wine but St. Emilion appellation is extremely distinguished as well. I had the best red wine I've ever tasted - I hate the dryness and bitterness of reds generally but this was mellow and smooth, apparently a characteristic of St. Emilion wines (as opposed to the Medoc region wines which I'll talk about in my next blog.) I had the Chateau Lavoze St. Emilion Grand Cru Classe, 1997, and Min had....something I can't read, but it wasn't a Grand Cru. There are many, many different classes of wine which I'll go into later, but Grand Gru Classe is basically the top level. And I really could taste the difference! I want to find that wine here...
After a beautifully satisfying meal (and a beautiful view while walking through the medieval town at night), we retired relatively early since we had a ridiculously early start the next morning to make it to Mouton-Rothschild and the other illustrious wine chateaux of the Medoc region - 7:30 am! (Thanks again to Min for getting up with me and driving for 2 hours through rush hour traffic! We hate big cities!!!)
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