A Whole New World: Rainy Rennes and Beautiful Bordeaux

First off, there’s a strike tomorrow, so that means I get to walk to school! When public workers go on strike, often times the public transportation system is most affected. This is about the fourth strike this month. Quite typical of France. I’ve been hearing a lot of grumbling on the news about the retirement law change situation in France; so the discontent is what is fueling a lot of the strikes.

The last few weeks have been extremely busy – mostly due to travel. I am trying to visit a good representation of French cities (North, South, East, West) so I can get a complete picture of what France is all about. Last weekend I went to Brittany (Rennes), and it was super rainy. Luckily, I’m used to living in Normandy so I never go anywhere without my parapluie (umbrella). We stayed in Rennes and got to ride bikes around the town! In many cities in France they have “velo (bike) stations” near the bus stops where you can rent bikes.

You ride the bike somewhere and then drop it off at another velo station in some other part of the city. So when it cleared up for a brief period of time, we rode down the canal and enjoyed nature. The next day we went to a beautiful garden that had a random outdoor bird house chillin’ in the center of some grass.

Rainy Rennes

Market in Rennes

Greek restaurant in France

I lit a candle for my family :)

After Brittany came beautiful Bordeaux. Not only was the weather fantastic, but the city was quite aesthetically pleasing. The city of Bordeaux is extremely rich with history, and was once an important part of triangular trade with the West Indies and Africa. Although the main port has been moved out of the touristy section of the city, back in the day, you could walk across the river solely on the boats that were packed into the port. Bordeaux was once an important political center and Thomas Jefferson even made an appearance.

As most people are aware, Bordeaux is known for its wine. The city is constantly attempting to improve the quality of the wine they produce, so as not to be only known for the quantity of wine they produce, but also the quality.

Extensive Tram system in Bordeaux

In Bordeaux we (Andrea and I) took a tour of a wine vineyard, learned all about wine making, and toured a chateaux. It was cool because we chose the French version of the tour. (good preparation for my wine class that starts on Friday) On the tour I learned that each barrel that holds the wine as it’s maturing costs 600 euros, and the barrels can only be reused once. Pretty expensive business. Also, over time the wine absorbs the taste of the wood that the barrel is made out of, so you have to find the perfect blend in order to end up with the taste you want. Interestingly, when ageing wine, they use sulfur end egg whites. This helps get rid of sedimentation in the wine.

When we asked about the color of bottles, we were told that they are darkly colored to block light. This helps the wine mature. Thus, if a wine will sit for a long time, it is best preserved by a very dark bottle. For young wines, a dark bottle is not necessary.

Andrea and I

Our tour guide (Bruno) had many interesting things to say about Bordeaux and wine. For instance, according to him, the different regions of France produce wines having various tastes due to the differences in the soil. Also, in Bordeaux, extensive irrigation is not necessary since the soil can retain water so well.

Different grapes are made into a unique type of wine, and these grapes mature at different times. Being that some grapes were still in the fields maturing, we did a little taste test of our own…

On the bus ride back home, Bruno informed us that,

“Wine is not for drinking. It’s a cultural object.”

And my personal favorite…

“There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than in a book.”

During the tour, we had lunch at a restaurant in Bordeaux. I ate duck for the first time and despite my initial apprehension, it ended up being particularly tasty. After the meal, we were escorted downstairs in the…dun dun dun… CHEESE ROOM. That’s right folks, a room full of cheese. It was very smelly. Since there are over 3,000 types of cheese in France, this room provided a nice little sampling of the many kinds. I tried about 4 different morsels, although nothing too adventurous. (I just cannot fathom eating cheese with a blue or green hue.)

After the tour of the vineyard we went to an adorable little town called Saint Emilion. There we shopped a bit and climbed a tower. The town reminded me a little of some towns I’ve been to in Greece as it was quaint, peaceful, and relaxed.

St Emilion

The next day we toured a church and went up a bell tower (Hunchback of Notre Dame anyone?) that had 232 steps. It wouldn’t have been bad aside from the fact that the steps were all different heights. I came dangerously close to falling on several different occasions. At the top you could look out over the city of Bordeaux and it was amazing. The light wind was particularly refreshing and I felt so calm up there looking out.