A little belated but here it is:

Four days. The business game is over and we have four days to get ourselves into trouble. The majority of us are new to Bordeaux (let alone France) and we only know a few people. The school hosted a party on Wednesday. Thursday we recovered. Friday we ran important errands – picking up bank cards, selecting internet providers, etc. But what were we going to do with our remaining two days. It was supposed to rain so the beach is out. Bordeaux isn’t that big and there are only so many tourist sites within the city limits. So the American, the German and the French girl piled into a car and drove to St. Emilion for a day of exploring and wine tasting. At least that was the plan…

In preparation for the adventure we visited the Bordeaux tourism office on Friday and picked up a information book about St. Emilion. We asked about visiting the Chateau and tastings. We were told that it shouldn’t be an issue and that we could easily visit several different locations on Saturday afternoon.

In actuality, tasting rooms aren’t quite the same in France. It’s not like the lovely, welcoming tasting rooms of California. A lot of the Chateau require reservations. And just as many, if not more, aren’t even open on the weekends. So after our arrival in the city and a lovely lunch at the town square, we tried to visit a couple of different tasting rooms. And only had a little luck. It was partially my fault – when looking at the map I failed to realize that most of the tasting rooms were within walking – let alone 2 minutes driving – distance. But we did manage to find our way into a lovely cave and then to an even lovelier chateau.

We also walked around the very quaint medieval village. Complete with steep cobblestone streets, forts and stunning churches. To kill a little time before our second appointment we went exploring and found a lovely grove of trees, a quaint stone bridge and some lovely grape vines. (No grapes were harmed in the making of this post.)

All in all it was a lovely day and a great adventure. Visit the St. Emilion Photos page to see the proof.