Wine Country: May 2016
My brother, Hayden & I spent about a week exploring Bordeaux and the surrounding french countryside in May 2016.
Bordeaux
I found Bordeaux to be completely enchanting. Bordeaux will also always have a strong connection with me because it was the last place I saw my mum & brother before I embarked on my London adventure with no idea when I would see them again!
We hired a cute apartment on Airbnb right in the centre of the old town. I could not get enough of the Place de la Bourse, the cute boutique shops, french architecture and the wine of course! This is a student town as well so there are a lot of young people hanging out. The weather was stunning when we were there and hundreds of people were enjoying drinking and picnicking on the grass on the banks of the river as day turned into night. Enjoying sunset here with cheap rose, listening to the buskers, watching the Place de la Bourse change colours and soaking up the atmosphere was probably my highlight in Bordeaux. We hired a bike one day (slightly scary for me!) which was a really great way to explore the river front. Climbing up the Pey-Berland Tower was also a really good way to get a beautiful view of the entire city- I’m pretty sure I got up for half price because I was under 25 too!
Saint Emilion
Now for the vineyards! We hired a car to drive around various vineyards in Saint Emilion to do some wine tastings and learn all about how they do it in France. At first hiring the car was a bit daunting being a manual on the wrong side of the road with Hayden who is has a USELESS sense of direction and me who has no idea which way left or right is! But we survived unscathed (just).
For the wine tastings we just had to ring a bunch of the vineyards and book in private tastings which were really cheap maybe like 10 euros and someone from each vineyard gave us around 3-5 wines to taste and took us to their cellars and explained the whole process to us. It was really interesting and so different to how wine is made in New Zealand! Also the locations of the vineyards is stunning, set in Chateaus and gorgeous french houses with beautiful gardens. The Saint Emilion village itself was also really beautiful, a bit touristy and pricey but for good reason!
The French Countryside
After Saint Emilion we drove a few hours east into the countryside. Top tip: to save money and see all the cute villages set your google maps to avoid toll roads- it’ll take you through all the small villages off the main road which are extremely cute and you’ll save a load on the toll roads, which are really expensive! It takes longer but who’s rushing.
We stayed for a few nights at another Airbnb which was literally on a farm in the middle of nowhere, it was so random but awesome and a great base for the places we wanted to visit nearby in Dordogne. While we were here we visited the Lascaux caves, which is a series of caves with ancient paintings discovered by teenage boys in the 1940s. The paintings are thought to be around 17,000 years old.
We also visited the weekend markets at Montignac, the Padirac Cave and Rocamadour which was definitely the most impressive site. It is a small clifftop village, nestled in a mountainous valley. It has epic walls and cathedrals built right on the cliff face. It was quite busy and touristy but definitely worth a visit.
After our time in the country was done we headed back to Bordeaux to drop off our car (in one piece thank god!) and to part ways. I jumped on a train to Marseilles, all alone for the first time ever and so began the next chapter in my adventure.
