And, boy, do they know how to live. We have spent the week learning how well the French, or at least the wealthy French, have lived throughout the centuries. This is Carcassonne, a medieval walled city in the southwest of France. The turrets, the castle, draw bridges and moats made us feel like we should be wearing armor and those weird cone hats, with the veils trailing off of them.
On to Bordeaux, and the celebrated Haut-Medoc wine region. Set amidst acres upon acres of perfectly rowed up vineyards are massive
elegant chateaus. We went to the largest beach I’ve ever seen. We were here at low tide. The beach was two hundred yards wide, and, we were told, 30 miles long. From on top of the dunes, you could look in either direction and see nothing but beautiful beach. You can get a feel for just how enormous the beach is if you can pick out Ethan and Siena at the edge of the sand. The 15-meter tide completely covers the beach. We did our share of tasting the wonderful, deep red wines of the region. In fact, the tourist office had a tasting with 13 local vintners, each with 2-4 wines. We were not able to try all of the wines, but we put in a decent effort—and were unable to eat dinner that night. Of course, with all of this wine, there is still no Beattie Beer Index for France.
We found our own chateau to stay at in the Loire River valley. As it is the off season, we have the entire place to ourselves. This is where the royalty, before the revolution, built their summer palaces. We tour Chenonceau, which the King took over by levying steep taxes on the existing owner. Sounds a bit like the real estate market in the States doesn’t it? The vineyards here are the largest we’ve seen, stretching to the distant woods. We do some sampling here, too, but of the dry white wines and the wonderful brut sparkling wines. Here we toast with the vintner.
Where in the World are Ethan and Siena?
This is one of those iconic locations, one that you have seen in countless photographs. It becomes an island at high tide, when the tides actually fill not only the surrounding marsh area, but also the lower parking lots. The steeple is part of an Abbey, built on this rock following a priest’s vision of the Archangel Michael. It was an unbelievable feat of engineering to build such a huge structure, precariously balanced on the peak of a mountain, in the 9th century. This is Mont St-Michel, the only spot in northern France to never be captured by the British. But, this whole northern part of France greatly resembles Great Britain, even treating us to the same cold, rainy weather for most of our time here, although the sun was shining on Mont St-Michel.
A votre sainte!
(to your health)
The Beattie Clan
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