A Charming City and the Real Wine Country

Bordeaux, France, May 13 & 14, 2014

Silver Whisper’s visit to Bilbao was somewhat shortened because our next port, Bordeaux, France, was fifty miles up the Garonne River and our arrival had to be timed to the tides.  The ship entered the river sometime after midnight.  By the time we awoke shortly after 6 am, the Whisper was backing into a berth right in the center of the city.  Our floating luxury hotel was in a prime spot for exploring the streets of Bordeaux.

View from our Suite on Silver Whisper

Michael and I spent the first day exploring Bordeaux.  We made two separate forays into the city during which we rode the light rail through the city west to the suburb of Merignac Centre, in the Medoc Region, Southwest to Pessac Centre and north to the new development of Berges du Lac. We spent the rest of our time walking in the old center of Bordeaux and managed to see most of the sights highlighted on our tourist maps.

Cathedral St-Andre with The Hotel de Ville (city hall) in the Distance

  

Actual French Balconies

Michael giving his Impression of French Hauteur, The Statue has it Mastered 

The Place de la Comede, The Grand Theatre is on the Right

Monument to the Girondins, Example of Third Republic Excess

Detail: Freedom overcoming Oppression

Bordeaux is the largest city in southwest France and is synonymous with the wine trade.  Most of the tours offered by SilverSea involved wine tastings in the countryside at various chateaux.  On the second day of our visit, Michael and I went on a tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Site and famous wine country of St. Emelion, about fifteen miles from Bordeaux across both the Garonne and the Dordogne Rivers.  This was a walking tour; we did our wine tasting in the city at a wine museum several blocks from where Silver Whisper was moored.

Jardin Public

Bordeaux is a beautiful city, very French in a relaxed way.  Many of its eighteenth century buildings are well preserved.  Its monuments are, well, monumental and the back streets are quirky and fascinating.  The sky dripped rain on and off both days but it was easy to duck into a shop, a church or museum or even catch a tram to get out of the wet.  We walked through the Jardin Public (Public Garden) during a sunny interval and enjoyed the flowering plants and the many birds living there.  The Cathedral is undergoing restoration and I found the contrast between the cleaned stone exterior and the sooty black untouched part striking. 

We discovered a department store with free wi-fi.  Michael checked his e-mail and made a few Skype calls back to the U.S. while I looked over the up-scale merchandise in several of the stores. I even bought a Bordeaux dish towel.

The village of St Emelion is almost a Disneyland.  Its way too cute cobbled streets and pretty vistas are something right out of a tourist brochure.  There are numerous wine stores on every block.  There are ruins on almost every street and one can see vineyards in every direction.  Nonetheless, I really enjoyed poking around and taking loads of pictures.

View From The King's Tower, Upper St Emilion

Upper & Lower St Emilion,  King's Tower in Center

Street of Wine Shops

Ruin of a Church Now Housing a Restaurant

Vineyards Grow Right at Town's Edge

Nearby Wine Chateaux

The tour guide offered background information on the bus ride through the wine country but gave all of us the option to explore St Emelion on our own or go with her on a tour of a monks’ chapel built into the rock cliff.  Michael and I chose to pick up a detailed tourist map at the tourist center and wander about on our own.  St Emelion was relatively empty that day; there were only four other tour buses of people walking the streets in addition to our relatively small group of about twenty-five tourists. 

Just before it was time to return to our bus, the sky opened up and we had a serious rain shower.  Michael and I ducked into a macaroon shop and bought samples of the other edible for which St Emelion is famous.  We joined the other Silver Whisper tourists at the spot where the bus was supposed to appear.  The bus was late, we all got wet and the neighboring restaurant owner chased us all out of her establishment and collapsed the outside awning because we were not customers. Very mean.  Very French.  We did have a good time, though.

Leaving Bordeaux

The tides dictated that Silver Whisper leave Bordeaux promptly at six p.m.  We watched a glorious sunset as we made our way to the ocean.  The following day Silver Whisper sailed  from Southwest France, through the English Channel around Brittany toward Normandy and our final French port at Cherbourg.