Zumstegs on the Go

To wrap up our first ramble, we went to the town of Cahors. There’s nothing particularly enticing about Cahors, but it is a good place to see some local sights. Yet, Cahors itself has some charms, among them, wine made from the malbec grape and renowned for its darkness. That’s true; the wine we had was almost black, and while not up to Bordeaux or Burgundy standards, darn good. There’s a surprise: good wine in France…

Anyway, here are some sights from Cahors. I’ll post about a couple of day-trips we made from here over the next couple days.

Now, here’s a bridge! Pont Valentré, built between 1308 and 1379 and has survived, largely intact, to today.

Looking from the east end of Pont Valentré.

Another view looking westward across Pont Valentré, from about a third of the way across.

These steps, on Pont Valentré, have seen some feet. I guess in 800 years some wear can be expected.

A slightly more modern bridge. I am realizing that I really like bridges: they can be beautiful and they’re all marvels of engineering.

Cahors is essentially a peninsula, wrapped on three sides by the Tarn River. Walking along the river is lovely.

The old part of Cahors is known for its narrow streets. These are not much changed over the last six or seven centuries.

Gotta love it: want to have a reception for your business? Set up some tables in the street and have at it.

Cahors is also known for its “hidden gardens” which didn’t seem very hidden to us. They’re all over, a pleasant interlude in the city.

That’s Cahors. Not a place high on our list for another visit, but we enjoyed our stay here very much. Next up: two day trips, one to the beautiful cloister in Moissac and another an amble along the Tarn River to the west of Cahors.

Eight years ago we came to Monpazier and have wanted to return ever since. We were able to arrange it this year and we are so glad we did. This is an amazing town, with quite a history, situated in the beautiful Lot River valley.

First, a bit of history. For centuries, England controlled quite a lot of what is now France, a result of Eleanor of Acquitaine marrying the future king of England and bringing the lands she inherited from her father. This was kind of okay until 1337 when Edward III of England got ticked off at Philip IV of France and re-asserted his claim to the French throne. The war was fought off and on until 1453 (so it really should be the One Hundred and Sixteen Year War) when France kicked England out of the country for good. (This is way simplified; French/English history buffs are invited to expand and correct in the comments section. Please keep such expansions/corrections to 20,000 words or less.)

What’s all this got to do with Monpazier? During the war, both sides built bastide towns – England more than France. These towns were built along whatever the border was at the time, and were designed and built to make them easy to defend. So at a time when most villages and towns were a hodge-podge of crooked, narrow streets, the bastide towns were rectangular, with straight, wide streets that made it easy to move troops from one side to another as a battle progressed. There are a number of these bastide towns remaining, and Monpazier is the best preserved by far.

Here’s a look down a main street of Monpazier:

Wide and straight. Take away the cars and you’ve got a bastide town of 700 years ago.

Monpazier also has about my favorite main square in the world. Here’s a panoramic  view of it, showing about 2-1/2 sides of the square.

And some pictures of the different sides.

The bastide towns almost always have arcaded buildings on the square.

And many of the bastide towns have their original market hall; here’s Monpazier’s.

The population of Monpazier is about 500 people, though the area around it has probably another 500. An oddity is that many of the houses in town are owned by Brits, who love the whole Dordogne and Lot River valley areas. Most of the tourists here were Brits. We found that during the day Monpazier was populated by tourists – this surprised us, as memories of that first visit do not include many tourists, British or otherwise. But we found that in the evening the tourists left (there are only about 30 hotel rooms in the town and half a dozen chambre-d’hote rooms), and Monpazier returned to looking a lot as it did 500 years ago.

Some other pictures of Monpazier:

We like Monpazier, not least because the hotel we stay in here is beautiful, with a way-above-average restaurant. Here’s Laurie looking out the “tower room” of our room.

I have little doubt that we will come back here. One reason is Monpazier, another is that the Lot River valley is beautiful, but that’s the subject of the next post.

From Bordeaux, we drove to Fronsac. Now, Fronsac is not exactly a world-famous destination; with a population of about 300, it hasn’t exactly made a name for itself.

Fronsac’s main street. Not exactly a lot happening.

A back street of Fronsac; still not much happening.

But Fronsac has something that makes it worthwhile for any visitor to this area: Le Clos d’Iris – a simply wonderful bed and breakfast. Coming from me – a long-time B&B curmudgeon – that is high praise. We loved staying here! What other bed and breakfast has owners who invite you to share wine and aperitifs with them in their beautiful garden? What other bed and breakfast has owners who, when they meet guests in a nearby restaurant, share their wedding anniversary bottle of wine with the guests and talk with them about life, the universe and everything in Fronsac. Well, that’s Joëlle and Regis, hosts of Le Clos d’Iris.

The garden, where we shared aperitifs with our hosts.

Now this is what I call a breakfast. Many homemade items, everything delicious, beautifully presented.

Now, I know that not many of you are planning on heading off to Fronsac in the near future, but if you want to visit the area around St. Emilion and try its wines, or if you know anyone else who is heading in that direction, Clos d’Iris is a great place to make the center of your explorations. Check it out at www.leclosdiris.com.

Wine Buying

Our hosts sent us to a winery for a bit of tasting. At the winery, they were bottling one of their wines.

Bottling wine. Yes, done by a portable bottling facility on a truck. The equipment to bottle wine is not cheap, and few wineries have the need to buy it. Most wineries, including high-end ones, bottle their wines using a truck like this.

Finished bottles, in a tightly-controlled environment, ready for shipping.

The wines were great, and not very expensive, especially compared to a similar-quality Napa wine. We bought a little:

Gilles is going to install extra-heavy-duty shock absorbers for our next trip, which will be to Vertus in the Champagne region.

We’ve been on a ramble for the last week, and I’ve been remiss in posting about it. The first week has been in the Bordeaux region: two days in the Pauillac area, two days in Bordeaux itself, and two days in Fronsac, near the famous wine town of St. Emilion. We’ve had great weather and excellent adventures.

Pauillac.

I won’t write a lot about Pauillac, as we were there a short time in a less-than-memorable B & B. Actually, I should say it was quite memorable, but not in a positive way. Best thing was that the woman running it (born in Aberdeen, WA – 90 minutes from Seattle) knew the wine-makers in the area and set us up with appointments at a couple. We did enjoy the wine-tasting – no surprise there. Pauillac wines are made with what’s thought of as the “traditional” Bordeaux blend: mostly cabernet sauvignon with a fair amount of merlot and small amounts of petit meunier and cabernet franc. Nice wines… We had some at a large chateau (the wine makers here are called “chateau” even though they are unlikely to have a physical chateau building anywhere) and a very small place. Prices were large and small, respectively, but all the wines we tasted were excellent, matching their prices to their quality.

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is an ancient city, existing long before Rome conquered it in 60 BC. Its golden age was in the 18th century and during that time many beautiful buildings were constructed of a golden limestone. For whatever reason, the years since did not result in those buildings being destroyed as in so many cities. The got tired and dirty, but they remained. Over the last couple decades, Bordeaux has cleaned and restored many of these buildings, pedestrianized many downtown streets, and built an excellent tram system that makes getting into and around the city quick, easy and cheap. To say we liked Bordeaux understates how we feel: we are looking forward to returning already.

Both readers of this blog know we like beautiful buildings. You can imagine, then, how we felt when we first stepped into this street:

Most of Bordeaux’s central core has streets like this! Walking around the city is a treat for us building aficionados. Some more:

It’s not perfect, though. You may recall that in my Le Corbusier post I mentioned that there’s a lot of UGLY modern architecture; Exhibit 1:

This is essentially a Court House. It is slammed against a beautiful tower left from the city’s protective wall; no one can explain what those cone things are or the wavy roof. One explanation said that its openness is to symbolize the “transparency of justice.” Right. This is one ugly building, surrounded by beautiful buildings 250 years older. The one bright spot, as Mary pointed out, is that it will be gone long before that wall tower disappears. The tower has been there centuries; I can only hope the building doesn’t last that long.

La Cité du Vin

Are you surprised that Bordeaux – one center of France’s wonderful wines – would have a wine museum? In fact, it has at least two; one of which is brand new and shows what modern architecture can be. This is a spectacular building (in my always humble opinion).

The exhibits of the museum use technology to explain the history of wine, how it’s made and how to appreciate it. When we bought our tickets (not cheap: $22 each) we were told to plan for two hours to see it; after two hours we had not seen everything but we were, indeed, finished. So we went to the observation room at the top where we were able to try a glass of wine (part of the admission fee) and look over the city. From there it’s possible to see the rebuilding of this previously derelict area of Bordeaux; the museum has generated a renaissance here, and in a few years it will be surrounded with new buildings and apartments.

That’s Bordeaux. We are already planning to return. We loved the city.

Today we drove with Mary and Gilles to Sancerre, about an hour and a half south of Bois-le-Roi. The motivation for making this trip was simple: buy some Sancerre wine from a small winery that we know and appreciate. So off we went.

The Town of Sancerre

Sancerre is a small and pretty hilltop town.

Looking at the hills of grapes from Sancerre.

It is also a dying hilltop town. If it weren’t for the area’s famous white wines, I suspect Sancerre would have been a ghost town long ago. Now, it’s set up to handle tourists who come to try-and-buy the wines, and I suspect July and August see Sancerre crowded. But a rainy June weekday, not so much.

Beautiful street, but empty of people.

The weather has, so far this trip, been, oh, “crappy” might describe it. Today was more of the same, though we did have some sun breaks…

Oh-oh, that sky looks awfully dark…

Get out the umbrellas!

Now Sancerre is deserted and wet.

Oh, well, time to go get some wine, after a stop for lunch and to buy some cheese.

This is a brag photo: there are twenty-two types of cheese in this display case. Laurie and I have had nineteen of them, and will have the twentieth tomorrow night. Not bad for furriners.

Then it was on to our favorite little winery down here. This picture shows why we call it the anti-Napa winery:

Note: no hats or shirts for sale, no fancy tasting room (this is the same room where they bottle the wine), no tasting fee (in fact, we bought enough that the proprietaire gave us each a bottle free). Just excellent wine. Excellent wine!

The view from the tasting counter. Equipment for bottling and corking, and in the back, many bottles from vintages not yet labeled or ready to sell. Not exactly like the tasting rooms of Napa Valley.

The happy tasters.

How much did we buy?

Lots.

When we were here in 2013, we wanted to go try some Sancerre, because in several Chief Inspector Maigret books the Chief Inspector drinks Sancerre. We were on a trip to the neighboring city of Bourges so we came to Sancerre region and tried some. I have to tell you, it was an epiphany for us previously-not-white-wine-drinkers. We love this wine, and it opened up the world of white wines to us. We have tried many since and though Chablis has gained on it, Sancerre remains our favorite white wine and one of our favorite wines, period. A lovely, crisp Sauvignon Blanc wine.

Gien

On the way home we stopped at Gien, famous for its faience – glazed ceramic ware. We stopped at a place that sells “Deuxieme Choix” (seconds), and discontinued lines. Even at that, this stuff is seriously expensive. I liked best an espresso cup/saucer combination, at about $50. Didn’t spring for it. Given those prices, you can guess what this table setting cost:

My SWAG: somewhere in the $5,000 – $7,000 range. Didn’t spring for that, either.

A nice day. Returned with lots of wine and more good memories. What could be better?