Bordeaux

To get from Spain to the Loire Valley in France, we had quite a bit of driving, so we broke it up by spending a few days in the Bordeaux and Perigord regions. This turned out to be great planning. Our first stop was in the city of Bordeaux. We were happy to be in France again, so after a quick trip through the antiquities museum, which gave us a good overview of the history of the area, we wandered the quaint streets looking for crepes. We ended up at a little street cafe drinking smoothies and eating hot nutella crepes.

Our next stop of the day took us deep into wine country. We arrived in St. Emilion and knew that we had found a jewel. The old town is full of cobblestone passageways, old churches, macaroon shops and one wine tasting store after another. We picked up a map and hit the highlighted spots, which included view points, old churches and secret abbeys.

Our last stop was a cave under a wine shop where the vineyard had stored their wine forever. We descended under the wine testers and found a dark, damp cellar, full of barrels and bottles. We had fun searching all of the nooks and crannies for the cache of bottles from the years we were born.

After our time in St Emilion, we took a driving tour through the vineyards. Tucked here and there were the chateaus of the vineyard owners, from years past. We passed one tasting garden after another, full of happy connoisseurs. Based on my enthusiasm for the area even with just my very limited interest in good wine, I could only imagine the excitement that wine lovers would have here.

We continued on in our journey, passing one quaint town after another until we arrived in Monpazier. I had randomly booked a hotel for the night here and found that I could not have chosen anything better. When we pulled up to our hotel, we realized that it was a little chateau.

We climbed the stairs to the top floor, where three darling rooms awaited us. Annie and Sophia were thrilled!