Water Lilies

Yesterday morning, I went to The Musée de l'Orangerie, which is home to some of Monet's famous Water lilies.

It is hidden in a corner of the The Tuileries Garden right along the bank of the Seine. It was a very interesting musuem, somewhat spaceship-like.

It was a wonderful place, however, they were out of english maps and english audio guides so I didn't know where I was or what I was looking at.

After I managed to find my way out of the museum, I wandered up the Champs-Elysses (but not too far up) then back down along the river, stopping to watch painters creating scenes of the Seine.

St. Emilion

During my stay in Bordeaux, we took a trip to St. Emillion, on the right bank of Bordeaux. The ride from Bordeaux to St. Emillion is beautiful, on each side of the winding roads is a sea of wine vineyards stretching as far as the eye can see.

Bordeaux is a realitivley flat area, but St. Emillion is pearched on a hill high above the vineyards.

It is a small town consiting of 300 inhabitants and too many tourists. Our trip to St. Emillion included a trip to the catacombs underneath the city center, and an underground church carved out of one giant limestone rock.

After a morning wine tasting, we headed to a wine lunch which included a lot of free wine and a lot of authentic delicious southern french dishes.

After the wine lunch we headed to another vineyard, for another tour and tasting.

After that I'm not quite sure what we did, I think it involved sleeping. I've found that visiting Bordeaaux is best done with 30 twenty year olds, a bus to chauferre you around and someone else planning it.

Pit Stop in Sauternes

Before hitting the main area of Bordeaux on my weekend wine adventure, we took a stop in Sauternes, a wine region in South Bordeaux known for its sweet wine that is made by waiting for the grapes to be attacked by Bostrytis, a type of mold (Known to the Frenchies as "Nobel Rot"). It is a white wine that is usually made from two common grapes to that area, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillion. The grapes are attacked by the Nobel Rot in this area because of the climate, which is foggy and damp in the morning then turns very warm.

I was excited to visit this area because my GM made a big to do about this wine when we added it to the wine list at the restaurant and I quite enjoyed it when we had a tasting at pre-meal one day. And its sweet and very expensive so it's right up my alley.

We took a tour of the sprawling Chateau Guiraud, a beautiful vineyard in the heart of the Sauternes region.

After the tour of the bottling room,

and the barrel room

and vineyards,

we finished by sampling two different Sauternes wine, which were both delicious.

(Best Giftshop Ever)

More Adventures in Wine Country coming soon

The Weekly Market

Every Saturday morning, vendors from all over Montpellier set up shop under the town's ancient aqueducts for town market. The market is home to the run of the mill market goods such as fruits, veggies and cheeses,

but also whole chickens roasts over open fires, cooking potato halves in its dripping juices, giant pans of fresh paella, and cans of foie gras.

While the market closes at 2, one can easily spend days going from vendor to vendor, eating samples of fresh cheese,

smelling huge assortments of spices,

and drinking freshly made green tea from a strange little man with a mandolin.

The market is crowded with locals, getting their fix of everything they need for the week ahead.

While I was there, I bought a delicious still warm baguette, goat cheese topped with rosemary and bursting with flavor, sweet and salty green olive tapenade and an ear of corn. It was delicious.

I would have gotten more things, but my arms can only carry so much and saying "Je vodrais..." and then mimicking the way you eat food you'd like doesn't get you very far. Being in France, I have also realized how much Spanish I actually know. And also that French is not Spanish. But sometimes it doesn't matter if you can tell a "droit" from a "droites," meandered on home, my fresh baguette sticking out of the top of my bag I felt very French anyway.