Farming is to Summer as Wine is to Bordeaux

 How often do you have the opportunity to sail with the owner of a California winery and listen to his daily lectures about Bordeaux and California wines?

How often does a sommelier say, “Why don’t you go pick some grapes and taste them? This is how we decide when it’s time to make wine”?

How often do you stand by a French river and hear the story of the Nazis sinking their artillery because they didn’t want the American soldiers to get their tanks? And, the tanks are still at the bottom of the river!

How often do you have the chance to visit various Bordeaux wineries and have small-group tastings by the sommelier or assistant sommelier?

For me, the answer is rarely. That’s why I went to urgent care and asked, “Am I contagious or can I get on a plane for France today?” The advanced practice nurse took a chest xray and consulted with a specialist over the phone. I heard her say, “She’s supposed to be going to France for a wine river cruise. She can’t afford to miss the cruise and she’s meeting up with friends. Can she go?”

Then, she shot me up with Levaquin and gave me a breathing treatment and said "go"! Armed with my prescriptions for more Levaquin and an inhaler, I was off! I don’t remember the flight to Bordeaux. I know we landed in Dublin and had 30 minutes to run through the airport to get a flight to Bordeaux. It's not easy to run when you can't breathe. Of course, 30 minutes is not enough to get luggage onto another plane either, but I was too sick to care. 

Here, I should stop.

I always pack a change of clothes and bathing suit in my carry-on bag. I also pack medications in the carry-on. I pack my toiletries, jewelry, and make up in there too—not to mention my laptop, notebook, a pen, and a book to read. This time, I was so sick when I packed that the only thing I packed in the carry-on was the laptop. That’s it! 

I should also mention that I do speak a little French. My accent is Parisian. That's what they teach you in school. Once we landed in Bordeaux, I thought, “Darn! I forgot that the Bordeaux accent is different than Parisian.”

Journey back to the past:  it was 1969 and I was in the ninth grade. I was in my second year of French, and our teacher was Mme. Brust. She had graduated from the Sorbonne in Paris. (You've seen water trucks on TV news spraying down the college kids demonstrating? That video was shot near the Sorbonne.)  

That day in class, Mme. Brust was explaining to us (in French) that someday we might venture into a part of France other than Paris. When we did so, we would quickly hear that different regions have different dialects and accents—just like we do in the United States! She even imitated some of the regional accents. The only one I could recall was the sing-song accent of Provence, but we were in Bordeaux!

Meanwhile at the Bordeaux airport, one lady stood behind a counter in the baggage claim area, but she didn’t work for the airport. She didn’t understand a word I said. I didn’t understand her accent. 

The airport there is small. When we landed, we were the only flight. Then, another flight came in 30 minutes later and then nothing. When we left the baggage claim area, we saw a few shops, but no airport staff anywhere. 

Bill couldn't understand why I wasn't able to communicate with anyone. "You speak some French, right?" I tried to explain that sometimes he and I don't communicate because he's from Kentucky and I'm from Philly. When I don't listen very carefully, I miss several of his words. Different regions--different accents.

Time to find a shop. I bought a tee shirt (that turned out to be for the city’s soccer team to the delight of our ship's captain), toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant, and samples of shampoo and conditioner. We were good to go!

Now, we needed to get into town, but we also needed to get that luggage before boarding the ship the next day. Once we started the cruise, we would be wearing the same clothes for a week. Non, merci!

I decided to call Aer Lingus in Dublin. I spoke with a very nice man and suggested that the luggage was probably still in baggage claim since it didn’t make our flight. I told him I was really sick and my meds were packed away. Bill uses a CPAP; so I told the gentleman that my husband had a breathing device in his suitcase. Then, I sent him an email as a follow up. There was no more to be accomplished here.

Like lots of people I have an UBER app on my phone. That makes life easy! We connected with the driver who also didn’t speak any English, but our meeting spot at the Bordeaux airport was a BIG bottle of wine. Who can miss a statue of a gigantic bottle of wine?

We walked out the doors on the bottom level and walked toward the short-term parking lot which was out in the open. Voila! A big bottle of wine statue!

He drove us to our charming (that word really fit) bed and breakfast. The concierge spoke English. No one lived here, which is different from the B&Bs in which I've stayed in the U.S. Staff came in at predetermined times which they wrote on a card; so if you needed help, you also showed up at those times.

I don’t think we had a working AC in our room, but then again, I had a fever. What did I know?

Pre-cruise, while looking for a restaurant

We walked through town and found a restaurant where they knew some English. I couldn’t taste anything so they could have served me leather shoes, and I wouldn’t have known. 

The next day we had a very nice breakfast at the B&B. There is nothing like croissant with fruit and cheese and a good cup of coffee. We packed up after a shower and started heading on foot to the ship. (I don’t like wearing the same clothes two days in a row; so it was a good thing I was too sick to care.) 

The B&B was only a few blocks from the water, and it was a beautiful August morning—and we were in France!!!! I could never complain about any of this. I was as happy as could be, in fact.

As we approached the river, we noticed water sprays coming out of the concrete. Lots of people were walking through these, and I wanted to do that too! The little water fountains looked refreshing and fun. I wish I had taken a picture of this. It was fun.

You can't tell I'm really sick, can you?

We were looking forward to meeting up with friends Susan, Joe and Steve. We boarded the ship, and immediately, I felt like a queen. So, let me tell you about AMA Waterways. They have ships that hold about 170 passengers, and the ratio of passengers to crew is about 4:1. (I’m including crew you never see like the tailor and the people in the kitchen, except for the chefs whom you often see.)

This reminds me:  prepay your gratuities on a river cruise and bring some extra money for extra tipping. You will want to do this, if you’re on AMA Waterways, because the level of care they extend to you is touching.

AMA means “love” and this company heartily gives their love to their guests. We fell in love with our server. She quickly learned our names and learned what we like. Even when we weren't sitting in her station, she found us to greet us and ask if we needed anything. She always took great care of us. One night, I felt so bad that I left the table without saying anything. She asked Bill if I was alright, and he told her I’d been sick. When Bill was done eating and was leaving the dining room, she approached him with a plate of food all wrapped up, just for me. No one asked her to do this. She was worried about me, and thought I needed to eat something. What a wonderful woman! 

Bordeaux at night from our ship

AMA Waterways includes excursions in the price of the cruise. On most river cruises, they offer a group for "easy walkers" and then moderate and fast walkers. So, you don't have to worry about the group being too slow or too fast to keep up. On AMA Waterways, they also carry a good number of bicycles. Our friend Steve is a bicyclist, and he did all his excursions on the bike. Tres bon!

You're not supposed to do this, but I would approach the guide we liked and ask which group she was guiding on that day. Then, we'd grab tickets for her group.

I'm sure all the guides are good. We just found someone we particularly liked (extra tip here)! Marie was informative, eager to share what she knew about her region of France and interesting too. Not too much information so you thought you had to take a quiz at the end either!

During our city tour in Libourne.

One day, though, I just couldn’t leave the ship. I just felt too weak. So, I sat in the lounge to read and drink tea. Then, I noticed the entire crew wearing tee shirts and pants, lined up by the port door of the ship. The line extended out of the ship, and I assumed, up the ramp.

Food and supplies started coming down the line, and the last person would store the boxes and packages. I watched them work up a sweat, but they never stopped passing packages along the line, from one to another. They laughed and they worked tirelessly until the last carton was on the ship. 

I have never seen teamwork like this from a group of people who work together. No drama, no negativity, no slacking off--just genuine affection for each other and a capacity to find fun in any task they were doing together. Even the man who played the keyboard and sang to us during cocktail hour was there in his tee shirt helping to load supplies. We looked at each other, and his grin grew wider. Then, he waved, right before taking a box from the person ahead of him. This was the moment I fell in love with the entire crew.

Our Captain may have been in his late 30s-early 40s. He loved soccer. He had a big smile, and liked to joke with all of us. I remember thinking "I'd like to have a son just like him." I seem to think he grew up on these two rivers, and I do believe that he lived in the city of Bordeaux.

Next was our Cruise Director. He was British, and seemed to love being the brunt of jokes by the crew. He made sure our cruise was perfect. At one port, Bill and I lagged behind the group. I was not feeling so strong after walking from the ship, through the town and then to the special treat that AMA Waterways had set up for us. Our Cruise Director looked at me, and then said to both of us "Do you want a ride back? We've got a car here." 

In another town, an older gentleman on our ship had apparently tripped and fallen in town. I was sitting on my perch in the lounge and saw the Captain standing by this man who had dried blood on his face. The Captain was telling the man’s wife what at happened when they went to the hospital after the man fell. Later, I learned from the Cruise Director that he also was at the hospital to make sure this guest was going to be alright. Like two grandsons, taking care of family. 

AMA Waterways also includes a special dinner at their Chef's Table. You must make reservations to get the night you want; however, everyone who wants this event can get a reservation. 

Dinner at The Chef's Table was fantastic! 

Are you wondering about our luggage? The man with whom I spoke in Dublin found our luggage a few hours after we'd landed in Bordeaux, enjoying its own vacation now, riding on the conveyor. He pulled the luggage, made sure it got on the next day’s flight to Bordeaux, made sure someone at the airport would not only pick up the luggage, but also put it into a van to drive to our ship. 

I knew all this because the Irishman had called that first morning before our breakfast to assure me that everything would be fine. I was so happy I told him that I loved him, and I do believe I could hear him blushing right through my cell phone.

That first night on the ship, Bill happened to leave the dining room and walk upstairs to the lobby. The front desk manager asked if we had received our luggage yet, and Bill said no. (I guess I should say that Bill did have a spare shirt in his carry-on so he looked a lot better than I.) 

Anyway, just at that very moment, they both noticed a man exit a van up on the street above us. He seemed to be looking for something. Bill and the front desk manager looked at each other and realized “this is the man with the luggage, and he can’t see the ship.” 

The ship was right in front of him, but since we had low tide, we were not sitting at eye-level with the sidewalk. They could see him, but he couldn’t see the ship.The front desk manager sprang into action. He ran around the front desk and raced out the door, up the plank and onto the sidewalk. 

We had our luggage just in time as the ship was leaving Bordeaux that night. What a relief! This type of service is more than “going the extra mile”. It's going the extra marathon to give guests an incredible experience. 

Our first stop was the town of Libourne. We heard an explanation about the Grand Cru wine, which is a distinction that has to do with the Chateau rather than the area (e.g., California wine).

We visited Chateau de Ferrand for a St. Emilion Grand Cru Classe wine tasting given by the assistant sommelier. I couldn't taste a thing. Was it the antibiotics? He taught us to turn the glass of wine on its side above the white piece of paper and notice the color reflected on the paper. That's how you can tell whether the wine is young, middle aged or older. If the color on the paper is a rust red, you're holding a class of older wine. He talked about the farming conditions for the past few years and explained how this plays into the quality of the wine.

Someone asked if you should wait so many years before drinking a bottle of wine. Every sommelier we met that week repeated the same idea:  Drink the wine when you want to drink it, not because of the age. Wine is meant to be enjoyed. If you wait, the wine may be no good when you open it. So, drink and enjoy! To that I say, "pour me some more wine!"

This was the winery where we were invited to go into the fields, walk through the rows of grapes and pick a few that looked good to us. Tasting the grapes is how they know when the time has come to pick the grapes for wine. We had approximately 30 people in our group. The others on the ship went to different Chateaux. So, we really had the place to ourselves. Late August is an in-between time, before harvest, so we saw very few employees all week--and no other tourists in the Chateaux. I felt like each Chateau opened just for us, and we were experiencing something very special.

Walking tour of Libourne

Taken through the gates of Chateau Margaux

In town, we drank more wine and bought macaroons. I LOVE macaroons. I heard a lot of finger smacking from each of us once we left the macaroon shop. I'm not sure how long our purchases lasted either. 

The next day, we visited Chateau Leoville Poyferre. Before that, though, we stopped to peer through the gates of Chateau Margaux--very private! However, nothing can stop American tourists from taking pictures through a gate! 

It's hard to pass up a bottle of St. Julien--well, at least for Joe and I. We jumped off the motor coach right before we were to leave Chateau Leoville Poyferre and each bought a $250 bottle. His wife Susan and my Bill couldn't believe it! Here's a picture of my bottle. (We drank it a few weeks ago. It tasted like nothing I've ever tasted! YUMMY!

Onward to Blaye where we toured the Citadel. This fort was designed by the brilliant 17th century architect Sebastien Le Prestre, Marquis of Vauban. It was designed to protect the city from water invasions as Blaye sits on the Gironde River. There are various levels to the Citadel which enabled the people to defend and attack. 

After our tour of the Citadel, our guide told us about the various groups that had tried to infiltrate the town and Citadel. She then pointed toward the river and explained that at the very bottom sat Nazi artillery from WWII. They were retreating, and didn't want the Allies to get possession of their tanks and other artillery; so they sank it in the river. Due to the high cost of removing each piece, the French unhappily needed to leave it at the bottom.

Our ship, docked at Blaye.

From Blaye, we cruised to Bourg. Steve opted to ride there with the bicycle group. This is a challenging ride for part of the way, but Steve is in great shape; so he had no problem whatsoever. 

In Bourg, we walked from the ship through town. This was a peaceful and relaxing Sunday walk. We visited a museum filled with carriages. I think I was more interested in the outdoor wedding next door, though. 

AMA Waterways had a surprise waiting for us at the very end--an exclusive wine tasting featuring local owners (and their adorable kids). A duo sang and danced for us, and they were very good! Altogether, this was a wonderful Sunday! 

I missed the Medoc Grand Cru wine tasting in Pauillac. In fact, I missed Pauillac! This was the day I watched our crew load the ship with supplies. This was the evening the older gentleman fell in town. It rained a bit around 5 pm. Steve went into town to sightsee. Bill stayed with me as I wasn't feeling very good. Susan and Joe may have gone into town too? This was my turning day. I think the fever finally broke during the night and I was ready to vacation! We visited Cadillac, and had a Sauterne tasting, but first we visited Roquetaillade Castle! 

An older woman greeted us as we exited the motor coach. She walked us through the grounds and took us inside to see the restoration being done on the Castle. The whole experience was really great! There is a chapel in another building, and we were able to visit this, but not take any pictures. I wish I could put words to my feelings about this excursion, but I don't have the words. You just have to experience this yourself! Plus, you'll get a surprise at the end, and I don't want to ruin this for you!

And, the family still lives here!

Near the village of Bomme and not too far from Cadillac sits the Chateau de Reyne Vigneau, ranked as a Premier Cru Classe. Bill bought the most number of bottles here; so he really liked their wine! This is an incredibly beautiful area. We walked among the grapes, but not all of their 207 acres! Then we tasted several of their Sauternes, which is a sweet wine. These were really wonderful. 

Now, we were headed back to the city of Bordeaux. One more day and our vacation would be over. Sick or not, I really enjoyed this river cruise. The summer and farming take me back to my childhood. 

I grew up near a large farm and within walking distance was an award-winning orchid grower with his greenhouses and his field of narcissus, daffodils and herbs. We would ride our bikes along the farm road and sit on a big log, just watching the plants grow. Other times, we ran down the street from our house, into the field of flowers or further down through the field to the greenhouses wondering where the orchids were. Probably already sold. The father of a childhood friend was the head gardener so we bent the rules when we all ran in and out of his greenhouses. 

August in Bordeaux among the miles of grapes brought me back to this time--when life was all about drinking iced tea, eating BLTs, riding bikes in the morning, and reading under the shade of the apple tree as the afternoon heat tried to grab us. At night, we'd lay down on the grass with my father as he pointed out the different constellations in the sky.

I think this is what I love about a river cruise. We slowly cruised along the countryside of Bordeaux.  At night, we sat on the top deck star-gazing and watching France pass by. We ate great food at each meal. We danced to local entertainers and to our onboard musician too. We talked and laughed, and made a wonderful memory. We brought wine home to prove to ourselves that this wasn't a dream. 

And then, we went to Paris...
(Next issue of Anita's Travel Tales)