Monday, April 27, 2009

Weekend in Bordeaux

I am going to go ahead and apologize because this is going to be a long post! Matthew and I just spent an amazing weekend in Bordeaux and I have lots to share!

Since I was in the US on April 5, Matthew spent his birthday this year alone in France. To make up for this, I told him I would plan a weekend in Bordeaux. Friday, after we both got off work, Matthew and I headed to Bordeaux. We were staying at a bed and breakfast that Bruno (you will meet him later in the post) had suggested. The B&B, Beau Sejour, is located in this tiny little village called Naujan et Postiac in the Entre-Deux-Mers area of Bordeaux. The area gets its name from the two rivers surrounding it. We arrived at Beau Sejour around 8:45pm. The B&B is run by an English couple, Maureen and Jon, that bought the 17th century house and completely renovated it about 6 years ago. The house is unbelievable! I had been impressed by the pictures online, but my jaw dropped when Matthew and I stepped into our room. I had planned for us to eat dinner at the B&B that night, so after freshening up, Matthew and I headed down to the salon. We were introduced to some friends of Maureen and Jon's that were visiting from England. The six of us sat down to an amazing meal prepared by Maureen. We had a great time comparing stories of life in France, and the ever present language challenge (although Matthew and Maureen both speak French beautifully!). Before I knew it, it was midnight! So Matthew and I headed up to bed, because I had a big surprise planned for him on Saturday!...


(the first 4 pictures are from their website)

Saturday
I planned a horseback riding tour through the vineyards for Saturday. I found a guy online that offered several different tours, and after emailing back and forth many times, Bruno Delmas (of BD Tours) created a tour for us (as well as suggesting Beau Sejour and setting up a wine tasting/vineyard tour for us...but more about that later). We woke up Saturday morning to the sound of rain. The forecast predicted rain for the rest of the weekend! We decided to tough it out and headed out to find the riding center. As we mounted our horses the rain started coming down harder. Between my helmet and rain jacket, the top half of my body was fairly dry, but after just a few minutes my jeans had soaked through. Luckily after the first few minutes, the rain slowed to a very light drizzle. Despite the rain, we couldn't help but fall completely in love with our surroundings. It is still early spring, so the vines are just beginning to sprout leaves, but even so, the countryside is absolutely stunning. We rode for about 2 1/2 hours through vineyards, around chateaux, past a church (that dates back to the 11th century!), and through villages (with Bruno narrarating and educating us on everything that has to do with grapes). We had several opportunities to trot, and even got to gallop a few times...although Matthew had a hard time convincing his very lazy horse that trotting was something fun to do. Because of the rain (and as Bruno warned, I might fall off the horse!), I did not take my camera on the ride, although there were so many things I wanted to take pictures of! Here are some pictures in the barn before the ride. I didn't want to scare the horses with my flash, so some of the pictures are pretty dark.


Saint-Emilion
For lunch, we headed to the village of Saint-Emilion, which is now classified by UNESCO as part of the world's heritage. After a superb lunch, we headed toward the center of the village along tiny, steep, cobblestone streets. Everywhere we looked there were ancient churches, buildings, and towers. The atmosphere of the village is hard to describe, but I highly recommend it to anyone heading to the Bordeaux region.

Chateau Minvielle
At 5:00, Bruno met us at Beau Sejour, and we went about 1/2 mile down the road to Chateau Minvielle. We were greeted by Pierre and Fannie. The vineyard has been in Pierre's family for more than 200 years. They gave us a tour of the vineyards, showed us the machinery that picks the grapes, gave us a tour of the building were the grapes are pressed, showed us the wine tanks, and explained the special process of mixing the different wines- which is what makes Bordeaux wines unique. We then had a wine tasting. Our favorites were the 2006 Bordeaux Blanc and the 2003 Bordeaux Superior Rouge. We bought so much that Pierre gave us an extra bottle for free!



Le Baron Gourmand
For dinner, we headed to Le Baron Gourmand, a restaurant Maureen and Jon had recommended. The restaurant was on this little one-land road in the middle of nowhere! It was in this really neat, old building. It had a very eclectic feeling because of all of the art work displayed on the walls. The meal was delicious. Matthew started with cuisses de grenouilles (froglegs) and I had cassolette gambas et St jaques, fondue de poireau (shrimp and scallops in a delicious broth with sauteed onions and leeks). We both ordered the entrecote a la gourmande (steaks) that were grilled in a chimney in the middle of the restaurant. YUM-O!!! We also had a wonderful Bordeaux Superior wine from a vineyard just down the road (Chateau Haut-Luchey).

Bordeaux
Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast at Beau Sejour. Breakfast was included in our room price, and each morning we woke up to a full spread. Ham, cheeses, fresh bread (bought at the bakery that morning), freshly made scones, fruit, homemade jams, and tea or coffee. Saturday night a French couple had also stayed at Beau Sejour, so we ate breakfast with them on Sunday morning. The conversation was all in French, and surprisingly, I was able to follow most of the conversation. After breakfast we packed up, hugged our wonderful hosts good-bye, and headed to the city of Bordeaux. The French couple had told us at breakfast about the wonderful tram system Bordeaux has, so armed with a map and excellent directions from Maureen, we easily found the tram parking lot. It was only 3 euros to park (and that included 2 tram tickets that were good all day!). It was a quick tram ride across the river, and then we started walking, trying to decide what to see first. We found a huge flea market type thing set up in one of the squares. After wandering up and down a few aisles we headed to the river, where the Sunday food market was. We stopped at several of the booths and bought our lunch. From one booth we bought skewers of meat. I got a seafood one that had salmon, calamari, and shrimp. Matthew got a skewer with chicken, sausage, and steak. Then we stopped at a tiny little booth with a couple making sauteed shrimp. There was quite a lot of people in line for their shrimp, but it was well worth the wait. We also gave into temptation and stopped to get a tarte aux framboise (rasberry tart) for Matthew, and a little layer cake that closely resembled strawberry shortcake for me. With our stomachs full, we walked back along the river to our tram stop and then drove the 3 1/2 hours home. It was a very busy weekend, but it was hands down the best weekend we have had in France. We will definitely be visiting Bordeaux again!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Spring is in the Air

It is definitely spring in Clermont. Everywhere you look tulips are blooming and green leaves are filling out the trees. Long gone are the days of gray dreariness that consumed the area all winter. This morning Matthew and I headed to the open air market that comes to Chamalieres every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Here are some pictures of the market and a park that is close by that houses the Hotel de Ville (city hall).

Friday, April 17, 2009

Trip to the US

I am back! After 3 wonderful weeks in the US, I am now back in France. I wanted to catch everyone up on my trip. So prepare yourself, this will be a long post!

The first weekend and week were spent visiting with Matthew's family in Georgia. We also got to spend an afternoon on Lake Burton with David and Betsy. Then off to Columbia to visit Amy and Trey.

The main reason for the trip was to go to MaryAnn and Marcus' wedding. We were so excited that Matthew was able to go back for the wedding as well (although he only got to stay for 1 week, while I stayed on for 2 more!). The wedding was beautiful and we had a blast at the reception. It was so great to see so many friends all in one place! I also got to see a lot of teachers from Palmetto, as well as my old principal (old as in "former", not age...Love ya Mr. H!). Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here ya go! Congrats MaryAnn and Marcus. We love you guys!!!!
(PS-If you want to see the pro's pics, some will be posted on Olivia's blog: http://oliviagriffin.blogspot.com/)



The day after the wedding, Matthew had to fly back to France. I spent most of the next week visiting with more family and friends. The weekend after the wedding I headed to Charleston with my sister, Amy, and her boyfriend, Trey. The Cooper River Bridge Run was that weekend and Trey's sister, Benee, always has a big "Bridge Run Bash". Benee had about 11 people staying at her house (in fact, Amy, Trey, and I slept in a pop-out camper in the driveway because the house was full!). Saturday morning (after several more people showed up at Benee's house), we headed out. Benee, Karen, Allison, Wendy, and I made up the "pick-up/drop-off" crew. After dropping off all of the runners at 6:30am, we sped across the Cooper River Bridge before it was closed at 7:00am. Then we drove downtown Charleston and had breakfast while we waited for the race to start at 8:00am. About 8:25 the first runners (aka the Kenyaans) started crossing the finish line. About 20 minutes later, bigger groups of runners started crossing the line. With almost 40,000 runners, it was very hard to pick out runners from our group. Luckily, I was able to grab shots of Trey and Amy as they passed. The joke of the day was the fact that Trey stopped to go to the bathroom after the race started, caught up with Amy, and still finished about 2 minutes ahead of her! :) After all of the runners had a chance to shower back at Benee's, we headed back downtown for lunch at Juanita Greenberg's. One word...YUM-O! :) Saturday night, even more people descended upon Benee's for the 13th annual Bridge Run Bash. We had a great time, and were lucky enough to have several very musically talented people at the party to sing and play the guitar for us! Here are some pictures. Thanks Benee and Bobby for your hospitality all weekend. Hope to see you again soon!!!



The following week was again filled with lots of visiting with friends and family. My grandparents even drove up from Atlanta to visit. And Mom and I drove down to Commerce for a Mother/Daughter double-date with Sandra and Lauren. The timing of the trip was perfect. I was there to celebrate my dad's fiance, Katy's, birthday. I got to go prom dress shopping with my godsisters, Nikki and Ali. I even got to go to a Clemson baseball game with some close family friends that I haven't seen in years because they had been stationed with the Navy in Japan for the last 2 1/2 years!.

Since I was in France during my birthday, my family celebrated while I was home. My dad gave me a new camera for my birthday, so we took the dogs to a field at SWU to play with my new Nikon. Here are some pictures of Lulah (my black poodle) and Scarlett (my dad's white poodle).



It was a great trip, but after 3 weeks, I was ready to come "home". Yes, I said it. I called France home. It truly is starting to feel like home. (The fact that Matthew was here, and I hadn't seen him in 2 weeks also helped with me wanting to come back!)