pinkbirdflies

The Intrepid travellers went on a bus tour from the city of Bordeaux to the sauterne wine growing area visiting the family owned and operated sauterne Chateau Gravas. It was sweet and superb and the grapes are all handpicked to ensure the correct stage of Noble Rot or Botrytis is present. The countryside was beautiful and full of vines and chateau and villages. The second winery was owned and operated by a school of engineers and was absolutely state of the art wine production for red and white wine. We spent the evening with more mojitos including a “pink” one and a truly delicious steak in a happening place in the city.

Had a lovely day in Sarlat. Fresh food market, “laundry party”, cocktails at the local bar followed by dinner at a very atmospheric restaurant with a cave to explore. Tried Escargot in a ‘cassoulet’ rather than in the shell and it was actually delicious.

Caught a train from Tours for an hour and a half and changed trains journeying through the french countryside for 3 hours to Aurrilac. We disembarked and, to quote our leader Jaime, “make a picnic “at the entrance to the station with goodies we bought together at a supermarket…baguettes, ham, pate, salad, cheese, fruit. Then we caught another train to a little village and had to wait for a bus to bring us to the gorgeous Sarlat. We opened a bottle of red wine on the platform…a unique experience! Sarlat is really lovely and very old…very french and a gourmets delight as it specialises in regional produce of Duck and Foie Gras. We wandered through the old quarter full of traditional buildings, stone streets and lovely shops full of Foie Gras, truffle oils, red wine and duck. We dined at a very nice French restaurant on Foie gras, duck breast with truffle perfume, goats cheese, Dordogne valley red wine and the local dessert speciality all for $30…

This was the day I wasn’t really excited about…but I managed to cycle 40km return trip through the Loire valley, following the river at times, from Tours to Chateau Villandry. It was magnificent..and so was the Chateau. Through rain, wind, sunshine then hail my little legs worked hard and although it was challenging I’m really glad I did it and made it!! The group is going well although Louise opted for a bus tour instead of the cycle. We lunched together at Villandry and tonight we have a bottle of French red wine to share before Jaime takes us to a good local restaurant for dinner.