Bordeaux is probably the world’s capital of wine. Every year the Festival of Wine takes place around the end of June. We choose to visit right be before the festival, when the city is just getting ready. Bordeaux and the region of Aquitaine has much more to offer than good wine.
We started our tour in the marche des capucins in the city of Bordeaux near the Garonne river. Here a lot of locals seem to buy their supply of vegetables, fruits, fish, cheese, meat and flowers. After doing groceries you can sit down and have a bite. This is our idea of snack:
It is an assortment of crabs, water snails, prawns and oysters which are served with butter and bread and is best accompanied by a local white wine.
After this amazing start in the holiday wet made our way to our hotel Chateau Courtebotte in Saint Jean de Blaignac: a real diamond in the quite area overlooking the Dordogne River and is only 10-15 Minutes away from the medieval town of St.-Emilion, one of UNESCOs World heritage sites.
The Chateau Courtebotte is run by Isabelle. She is a real organisational talent and makes your stay as serene as possible. For breakfast she served us self made yoghurt and self made french pastry as well as fruits, coffee, tea, jam, bread and croissants. The rooms are very clean, spacious and make you feel like living the life of a royal in the Chateau. We really enjoyed our stay here.
By car we made our way to some wineries in the region of St. Emilion. One of them was Chateau Beau-Sejour Becot. Tours have to be organised in advance and you ll get a tour of the castle, the wine cellar and vineyards.
Our second stop was at Chateau la Dominique: a winery with an amazing restaurant (La terrace rouge) and a nice tour of the wine making process. CHeatu la Dominique is not your typical Castle. It has a very modern structure that blends in perfectly in the surrounding.
The city of St. Emilion
Our last night we spend at Auberge Saint Jean: a restaurant overlooking the Dordogne, which recently got a star in the Michelin Guide in 2014. Spend an evening here and you will know why. The menu is always changing and is cooked and served with perfection. You can tell there is a mastermind behind this.
Check out the Vine loop in Arcachon:
travelgemsoftheworld 