A Visit to Médoc

Hi all!

Sorry for the late post (again.) But, last weekend I took an exciting trip outside Paris to the region of Médoc, just outside of Bordeaux. Why? As stated by the director of the trip, there were two reasons for choosing Médoc, "le vin et la mer."

So, early last Friday morning we took the TGV from Paris to Bordeaux, a nice comfortable 3.5 hour journey (hopefully the high speed rail from SF to LA can be just like it.) The following picture is of the Bordeaux train station, in which one can see the TGV train off to the left.After arriving, all of us got into a bus for the ride north to the Château that we stayed at. (In France, Château (castle) in this case refers to a vineyard, and the one we stayed at can be seen below.) The place we stayed was right on the waterway to Bordeaux, and had very good ripe grapes, which apparently we weren't supposed to eat (however, they didn't tell us until 10 minutes before we left. Not my fault!)

One really great part of the trip was the French food (what else would one expect.) Despite some dishes that were a bit weirder than I was used to (like squid) most of the food was absolutely delicious, eaten in long 2 hour French-style meals. The appetizer then the entree then the salad then the cheese. And then ... the dessert. Fortunately, by the time one reaches the dessert, the appetizer has already been completely digested (almost) giving one the opportunity to actually eat more food. My favourite dish on the trip was probably the salmon and halibut dish that we had Saturday night. Just amazing.

The big event Saturday was the wine tasting. Although we received lots of lectures and guidance in French (which I didn't understand much of) I do now understand the difference between a Merlot and a Cabernet (hopefully.)

On Sunday, we first left to see a lighthouse at the very tip of the Médoc peninsula. Again, we were greeted by tour guides who explained the history of the lighthouse and it's importance to the area. We eventually were able to walk to the top of the lighthouse, where the following picture was taken.

And, the last part of our trip, as promised, was a nice trip to the beach, where it was nicely 22 (72) degrees for us. So, we got a nice game of beach football (soccer) going, but we had to move about every 10 minutes as the tide started coming in taking over the sandy spit we were on.

As a last comment about Médoc, for me it was very interesting to finally visit a rural area of France. I have been used to visiting rural areas of Poland/India, but had gone a full 2 weeks without any ruralness in France. Also, as much as Paris might be the centre of France in so many different ways, the great majority of the French population lives outside Paris, and so I was glad to see some of the non International City part of France.

Well, I realize I haven't said anything about Paris or my classes (as I promised last time), however, that will have to wait for my next entry. But, here is a picture of me in the Parc de St. Cloud just outside of Paris.

Also, the weather had been very nice when I first arrived, but now it has been raining quite a bit each day. There definitely is not a drought here (as with India/SF.)

Until next time (with information actually about Paris),
-Andrew