Bordeaux City (and Retail Therapy)

As promised, we’ll take a brief look at the excellent wine we acquired whilst we were visiting this beautiful part of south west France, and post a few photographs of the town itself. 

We didn’t realise that the city itself would be such a draw card – the surrounding areas are as picturesque as ever we’ve seen - but the town has a very relaxed and pristine look which is complimented by a friendly and outgoing population.


As we might have mentioned earlier, the cuisine in and around the vineyards was superlative, however we also had great meals in the town itself.  There is also a retail corridor where you may find all the leading chains plus a few boutique stores, meaning that shopping is another decent past time and can be a lot cheaper than in Paris.

The Grand Opera house occupies a large section of the “inner city” opposite the Regent hotel, and is only about a ten or fifteen minute walk from the major churches and grand plazas. 

The tram network unlocks the town since it is not preferable to drive (unless you have to). 

The good thing is there is no shortage of potential tours departing from the town itself, so you don’t especially need a car unless you are planning your own tours to specific vineyards (in which case you would have to ring ahead to get permission to visit).

Now, to our own “retail therapy” – In Bordeaux we bought a nice array of fine Medoc and Sauternes wine including:

• 2004 Chateau Palmer (Margaux), 3er,
• 2004 Chateau Margaux (Margaux), 1er [Half Bottle],
• 2005 Chateau Pontet-Canet (Pauillac), 3er, [Half Bottle],
• 2006 Chateau Doisy Daene (Barsac) - Sauternes, [Half Bottle]

In Paris we bought one additional bottle of wine:

• 2006 Chateau Lafite Rothschild (Pauillac), 1er

We bought an unusual number of half bottles although this was mostly to accommodate our baggage restrictions (and import restrictions).  All of the bottles are now resting out at our wine cellar in Brisbane city where they will stay a while until ready for drinking!

Stay tuned for more – we haven’t even begun to discuss the wine tasting notes for the five Chateaux which we visited – we’re just scratching the surface :)