Elizabeth's Stately Retreat

NOTE: two posts again today 'cause we had to catch up!

This morning we packed up and said, "Au Revoir" to Paris.  We caught a morning train to Libourne, a small town just outside of Bordeaux.  It was clear immediately that we had arrived in small town France.  To get a taxi we had to call individual taxi drivers.  Byron had to face the ultimate test, talking on the phone in a foreign language.  He did very well!  However, none of the drivers were available.  The address we had for our B&B was close to the train station so we decided to walk.  Once there we realized that we had the address for the office.  The owner of the Chateau offered to come pick us up, what a sweetheart!

The Chateau is perfect, beautiful and charming.  Our room is quite spacious and lovely.  Catherine, the owner, showed us a little path through the vineyards that we could take to town.  The walk was about 25 minutes, weaving between vineyards, stone walls, and numerous chateaus.  What we found was a village frozen in time since the monk named Emilion founded it in the 8th century.  Stone walls, and cobblestone roads, houses packed tightly together and shops dating back hundreds of years.  St. Emilion is beautiful, and the people here are welcoming and proud of their heritage.  Unlike Paris, we have only encountered two people here that speak any English.  Catherine had told us about a macaroon shop where they have used the same recipe for 400 years.  We experienced for ourselves why they haven't changed the recipe.  Yum!

Our room!

From a different angle

The view from our room

Weird room key.  Which way does the magnetic strip go?

St. Emilion

We headed back to the chateau for our wine tasting and tour that Catherine had offered us earlier.  We got to the see the vineyards, the tank room, the barrels full of wine and a museum with wine artifacts including a 200 year old wine bottle.  Some fun facts we learned:

• One grapevine yields about one bottle
• The oak barrels are burned on the inside after built and can significantly affect the wine taste
• The oak barrels are used for 4 years before they are discarded.  When asked what they do with them, Catherine said she wasn't sure.  Byron suggested that they are sent to California wineries, which she seemed to really enjoy (the French are a "little" proud of their wine)  :)
• The color of the wine deepens over time and can indicate if a wine is ready to drink, best viewed when shining light through the glass onto a piece of white paper.  
• St. Emilion wines are not fully ready to drink until aged for 5 years.  So, if you see someone drinking a 2010 at a restaurant tomorrow, feel free to turn your nose up at them.
• The vines at this vineyard are about 50 years old!

We sampled two bottles of wine, a 2008 from a neighboring vineyard and a 2003 from this one (Franc-Pourret).  The latter had a smokey flavor, and smelled incredible! 

Fun view, but the oak and wine scents in this room were amazing.

Nice jugs (Beth is rolling her eyes)

Wine tasting room/museum

After the tasting we went to a little restaurant that Catherine had suggested.  We ordered a scallop and white asparagus appetizer, along with a monk fish and prawn main course.  However, the first thing that showed up was a microscopic bowl of foamy asparagus soup, which any "Friends" fan will know as an "amuse bouche."  It was amusing.  We capped off our meal with a cheese plate and chocolate cake dessert.  BTW, one of the cheeses was called "comte" (we think) that we recommend it for anyone that likes Manchego.  Then we retired to our room where we had another glass of wine and promptly fell asleep.  What a day!  Je m'amuse!