The Paris Traveler

Since there isn’t a France Traveler and I am already in Paris, I am going to take it upon myself to nudge us outside city limits and discover other parts of this country.  It isn’t ALL about Paris!   Yes, it is crummy work, but someone has to do it.   Oh, alright, I guess I can.  

 You’ll need to pack a small bag as this is going to be a week-end trip.  We are catching the TGV out of Gare Montparnasse and in about three and a half hours on the high speed train (you are going to love the ride!) we will find ourselves in Bordeaux.  Yes, the world class wine region.  We’ll drop our bags off at the hotel and get ourselves to Le Week-end des Grands Amateurs, a week-end wine tasting event (May 17-18) for the non-professional–well non-professional in the purchasing sense as opposed to the drinking sense!  It is a chance for us to meet the men and women from the great châteaux of Bordeaux and taste their wonderful creations.  It will be a treat for the senses as any wine tasting should be.  

 Here is the itinerary:  Saturday there is a wine tasting from 10:30-5:30.  That is a long time to be tasting wine, even for me.  100 châteaux will be presenting two vintages–which  I do believe adds up to 200 possibilities, though math genius I am not.   My head is swimming and my heart is beating faster.  I am up for the challenge.  However, in order to last the day, spitting is going to have to be involved which seems like such a waste of a good pour but I am a team player and want to keep up!  Saturday evening, the owners of several Grand Crus have invited us to a dinner in their châteaux in several of the many regions of Bordeaux.  We get to select which we would like to attend, so you might want to study up a bit if you aren’t familiar with the incredibly confusing lay out of wine regions.   It is one complicated map, but we really can’t go wrong as far as our wine selection goes.  They’ll all be tasty.  Sunday (if indeed we are awake early enough) there are personalized tours of certain châteaux and brunch available at others.  Here’s something that really threw me for a loop:  there is a shot-gun start golf tournament with some of the châteaux owners if that interests you.  This sort of seems out of character for a French event but conceivably, my husband and I could attend this weekend event and both of us could walk away happy:  he can play golf and I will drink a lot of wine.  It’s too perfect. 

 As always, I am going to send you where you need to go in order to make this all happen.  Air France or Kayak will get you to France.  The TGV will get you to Bordeaux,  Bordeaux-Tourisme is a great resource for hotels, restaurants, opera, ballet, everything you would want to do there besides drink great wine, and Le Week-end des Grands Amateurs will provide you with the form to sign up for this very fun event.  In addition, as my own personal appeal to go on this fabulous trip, I am including the Golf du Pian Médoc Hotel, Spa and Golf Course site where the tournament is being played.  I have spent many years perfecting the art of subtle persuasion to make certain things happen in my world.  I gladly pass along any help I can provide in convincing those less interested that they need to go and here’s why!

Photos:  Patrick Cronenberger 

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