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|  || Saturday, September 23, 2006 || Day 18 - BordeauxThe thing I love about France is its vastness. France is huge. So many places to visit and each with its own distinctive character. Having done La Rochelle and the sea, next up was Bordeaux and its vineyards. Of course, there are many other wine-producing regions in France like Nantes, for instance, but it had to be Bordeaux cause it sounds so appealingly touristy. So that is why we chose Bordeaux. I rather enjoyed Bordeaux. Didn't love it like I loved La Rochelle, but a place which combines sea and good food is really quite hard to beat. I just have this thing for the sea. I can spend ages and ages just looking at the sea. In my last life I must have been a fish. Back to Bordeaux. Bordeaux is a beautiful town. Not pretty like La Rochelle but beautiful. Bordeaux has a formal beauty about it. It's good to look at but not at all lovable, at least not to me. Bordeaux owns too proud a beauty; it boasts, it is insolent, it is haughty. Humble soul that I am, Bordeaux does not endear itself to me. Some pictures of Bordeaux:  [From left to right - Row 1: Place de la Bourse, Église Notre-Dame, A Bordeaux-nian street; Row 2: Another Bordeaux-nian street, Me and the Monument aux Girondins, Trees at the Esplanade des Quinconces; Row 3: Notre Dame again, Me at the Esplanade des Quinconces, One more street]Still, everyone has a redeeming point. Bordeaux's is its vineyards!! *glug glug* We visited Château Saint-Ahon.  [From left to right - Row 1: Sign to the Château, the Château itself, Me among the grape trees; Row 2: Our guide, Me among the grape trees again, Shumin and I among the wine barrels; Row 3: Grapes on their vines, a Family of wine bottles, Me pretending to pluck grapes]Oh I do love the wide open and row after row of green! The warm sun on your head and the cool breeze on your skin. And purple fruit on emerald leaves! Oh why see the town when there are vineyards! Anyway, my favourite part, let me share the food of the day.  [From left to right - Row 1: The Palmier, Boudin et 2 pommes (Blood sausage and 2 apples), Oeuf à la coquette (egg in container, not quite sure about the name); Row 2: Fruit fondue and Apple crumble, Paul's paper bag, Beef-vegetable stew and potatoes; Row 3: 4 main course cassolets, Gratin aux courgettes (cucumber gratin), Canele]From Paul's, an excellent baking chain, I had a palmier, a delighful buttery croissant-like biscuit - heaven in a biscuit - and a canele, a honey-kueh kind of thing, often written about on food blogs. Didn't get the fuss!! But then I'm not that fond of honey. For lunch-dinner, which we ate late at the Cassolet Café (recommended by the Lonely Planet guidebook which serves only cassolets, that is food cooked in a shallow plate like container), I chose the taster menu, which allowed me to choose 5 mini-cassolets. I had - as starter : Oeuf à la coquette (egg in a coquette, a cup container, with a tomato paste beneath the egg, don't quote me on the name). This was decent. - as main courses : Boudin et 2 pommes (Blood sausage with 2 apples: pomme [normal apple] and pomme de terre [potatoes! Named apple of the earth in French]). Not my cup of tea. Apple was too sweet and sausage tasted... different; Beef-and-vegetable stew with potatoes (can't remember the French name). Delicious!; Gratin aux courgettes (cucumber gratin i.e. cucumbers covered by cream and cheese and baked). Excellent! Must get gratins more often. - as dessert : Apple crumble (shared with Shumin who decided to get Fruit Fondue since she didn't want to order two of the same thing) All in all a decent meal. Not André's but decent. And so, in a lot of food, was ended the day at Bordeaux. I was happy. |