Aug 12, 2010
Another great night in our chateau and down to the restaurant for cafe au lait and to watch the Euro tourists. I wish I could have taken a picture of the French lady who came down in her MC Hammer pants each morning and her bright t-shirts and polyester pants. She made senoir Floridians look good.
The giggling woke us up more than the cafe, so red-faced and giddy we said farewell to our castle and drove off towards Castillon. Once there we set out to find Chateau L'Estang, one of David and Philippe's venders. We zigged and zagged and zagged and zigged and couldn't find the damn place! I was about to give up when mom suggested we try this driveway to the top of a hill. Sure enough, once I turned in, there was a 1st century era sign marked L'Estang in crumbling stone.
At the top of the hill was a beautiful castle surrounded by some of the best views around. A gentleman greated us and we quickly established that he spoke as much (probably more but he's very modest) English as we did French. Not detered he showed us all over the winery and answered our laymans questions with the patience of a master teacher. It was only long after we returned to La Coume and were surfing the net did I find out that he's is a world renouned master craftsman and oenologist who consults with other vineyards in the area and around the world about making their wines. He really loves what he does. I love his stories about blending the wines. He sounds a bit like a mad scientist, adding a milligram if of new oak wine and a milligram of old oak wine but Jean-Michel Ferrandez' product speaks for itself.
So keep any eye out folks for Chateau L'Estang. Up to 2005 is drinkable now, though the '05 is best if decanted a few hours. I had some '01 tonight that was opened yesterday and it was fabulous!
The search for food-Restaurant des Arches
Aug 12, 2010
On our way back from wine country and we would be a tad bit late for dinner. We decided to stop in Masseube but the restaurant wasn't open for another 45 minutes. So we drove on. Nothing in Panasac or Arrouede either so we decided to wait til Boulogne-sur-Gesse which we knew would have something as it was big enough to have a post office, two supermarkets and a gas station. When we arrived at about 7:30 (early by French dinner standards) the town had rolled up the sidewalks. Nothing was open. We looked for the tell tale umbrellas and not a one to be seen. We programed the gps to take us to the nearest restaurant (at a campground)...closed. Then another a little out if town, at a hotel...closed. What the f...the man at the hotel gave us directions to another that he assured us would be open. He told us to go "up zed rud, tourrn lift...go onne...cross over zee ewe kno...cross over by zee piscine aynd zee lak ewe vill find zee restaurant."
Uh...yeah...there's a lake in this town?
Would you believe we found it?
THAT was an adventure. But we ended up having an amazing dinner by a pretty little lake in the French version of vacation village.
And came back to blog about it.
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A thought by Andi
Now that our Big Birthday Trip is nearing the end, I wanted to tell everyone how much I appreciate my daughter's efforts to make my first trip to Europe "excellent." She's the experienced European traveler, and she made this an exceptional experience for me.
Mel did almost all the planning for this trip, from the planes (3 different airlines and cities-New York, Paris, and Toulouse) to the hotels (2 different hotels in Paris, one in St. Emelion) to the rental car in Toulouse. She did all the driving, and we even managed to get through the toll booths with only one driver honking at us 'cause we took too long to figure out the cost and the money!
This mother daughter trip has been absolutely the best...better than I ever would have thought possible. I think we really saw parts of France that many American tourists miss. Most of the other tourists that we saw were French people and other Europeans on their own holiday. We saw wineries that are not open to the public, thanks to our cousin and part time host, David, who is a wine importer. He and his partner, Phillipe, set us up with some very special tastings and tours of vineyards in the Bordeaux region. We saw the tallest waterfall in Europe, we saw the midieval city of Carcissonne, the unique Market at Samatan. We went to a remote restaurant on a lake in Boulogne sur gasse. We stayed with our cousin in Montgaillard sur Save, which is a "town" of 61 people. We bought raw milk from the farmer 2 kilometers away and I was about a foot away from one of the cow's heads!!!
Melanie drove all over back country roads of southern France. Roads are wide enough for 1 car and there is a big ditch on each side...As Phillipe told us "tres dangerous". Mel maneuvered like a pro. We put over 1300 kilometers on the car. Even though she said she only spoke French "un petit peu" (very little), she was able to communicate with almost everyone, asking them to speak to us like we were "les enfants" (babies). When they simplified the words and used their hands to draw pictures, she was able to understand them, and they us!! They all tried to help us improve!!
Melanie took me on a great adventure, and I'd travel with her anytime! Even when she was completely frustrated by the French roads and signs, and our GPS, which we fondly named Jeeves...who speaks with an English accent and who's French pronounciation usually sounds more like a Texas accent...Jeeves would have us making 3 or 4 U turns in the space of 3 minutes...she totally kept her cool!!
What a special time this has been, and we still have a few more days and adventures left before we go our separate ways, Mel back to Colorado and me back to California. We have 36 hours in Paris and about the same in NY...plenty of time to create more memories!!
A bientot..
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Aug 13, 2010
Our last day at La Coume, the name of cousin David's house, was spent lounging around the house, figuring out how to safely pack wine in our suitcases (think diapers and garbage bags) and a last ditch effort search for cheese. Specifically Vieux comte. That was the cheese that mom said was better than chocolate. We couldn't find the really good one as it is sold by a traveling family that go from market to market. Maybe David will mail us some! We did find a cool little market in St. Gaudens that had a comte that was almost as good and another aged hard orange cheese that we both love. So we'll be bringing that back with us. According to the US customs website, bringing back hard cheese is ok. Just no meat, which means no pate or fois gras...:(
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