Week 4 (pt 1): Taking It Facilement

10 July

Alice, Mona and Fañch left early this morning to visit Alice’s mother and extended family in Bretagne, before going home to Réunion (“I will miss Wilson!” said Fañch) and our family was split between an easygoing workday around the gîte (for Heather, of course, after Wilson’s chicken feeding work) and exploring a new castle: Chateau Duras. [Switch to reading in your best Stefan from SNL voice.] This castle’s got it all: being huge (do you see tiny Wilson in the photo?), tiny actual passageways, secret passages, a ghost room, and a falconry show!


After work but before dinner – and far too late for the children already – Jean-Claude insisted on another one of his famous driving tours of la region – who has the heart to say no? We mostly had a cheerful drive and got to watch the sunset over the vineyards of lovely Fronsac, another world-renowned AOC, this time just to the west of Libourne (Pomerol and St Emillion are to the east/southeast of Libourne), before returning home to our impromptu dinner of American Nachos à la Brannaise – that’s when your local grocery store only has so many options, so you wind up with different-tasting corn chips, cheddar (a dirty-look-inducing cheese around these parts), kidney beans – since pinto, black, and most certainly refried are not a thing, and red peppers, tomatoes, onions all from the region with some guac made of Spanish avocados and French olive oil. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 2: La pièce de théâtre

Day Douze Oh my. There are not the words in either French or English for the event that was this evening! When Jean-Claude picked us up at the airport, he was sporting a peculiar mustache that made him almost unrecognizable to us. We soon learned that the mustache was part of a costume for a play. Now, we were aware of our host’s connection with the arts (he was a longtime talent scout and cultural ambassador/educator for the French government), but we were not aware when we arrived that he was currently in a play, which had a “repetition publique” tonight. Brian and Alice stayed with the kids while Heather rode with Mathieu to pick up a longtime friend in a neighboring village before heading to a suburb just outside Bordeaux (the city). Mathieu parked the car outside a fence in a fine-but-wouldn’t-want-to-be-there-alone-at-night neighborhood between the tram tracks and the SNCF train tracks. Heather blindly followed. The gate opened, and a petite, kindly-seeming older gentleman i...
Read more

Week 2: Allons Explorer!

Image
Day Dix Our intent had been to celebrate our wedding anniversary (one absolutely must distinguish between an anniversaire – the word for birthday – and anniversaire de marriage – wedding anniversary, otherwise comical conversations can result) with a trip to Dune de Pyla and dinner out, but oversleeping and confusion with our host’s plans demanded a recalculation – and turns out we’re pretty good at coming up with a Plan B! As Heather worked, the rest of the family set out to explore the local castle. Not 6 kilometers away is the Chateau de Rauzan, one of the many fortresses in the area established by the English in the Middle Ages when the entire region (along with several neighboring regions) were in constant dispute between the English and the French. Perhaps your grade-school history class mentioned “The Hundred Years’ War”? This is where that happened! This one was built some time in the 12 th century, and was granted in 1225 to Rudel the Elder (a Rauzan) by King Henry III. ...
Read more