Road trip #1

Bonjour

Word of warning, if you are stuck at home and the idea of having a holiday and/or going on a road trip will make you turn green then you may want to stop reading now.

As our days in France are decreasing and our original travel plans have flown out the window, we have taken the plunge and doing some road tripping to southern parts of France. This will not all fit in to one blog post so stay tuned for more. And I’m trying to write this on my iPad which is a first so here goes 🤞

First stop was La Rochelle on the west coast overlooking the Bay of Biscay. It’s a very pretty place and like everywhere else, would probably be packed full of overseas tourists in a normal year.

After we planned to stop there we were very happy to discover that the Tour de France happened to be peddling through town during our stay, in fact the route was about 100 metres from our hotel.

The day before the race we drove out to Île de Ré where the race (well that leg of it) was due to finish. The French are fantastic at organising events. The planning must have been going on for months and the original race was scheduled for July on a totally different route, so to pull this off and have it all go so smoothly is a huge credit to them. The day before you can see temporary barricades and signage all ready to go. Roundabouts had been removed so the cyclists could ride straight through intersections, and roads had been resurfaced. We watched most of the race on tv then went out to watch it live outside the hotel. They whizzed by at about 40-50 kms per hour so it was a bit of a blur but below is our view of things.

Then as soon as they were through town, the army of workers stepped in and removed everything to do with the race and headed off to prepare for the next leg.

After La Rochelle we headed to Bordeaux. And we all know what that involves. The region takes their reputation of wine production very seriously and we have learnt a lot about how they maintain the standards. Many of the vineyards have been bought by international investors for eye watering amounts and their success is just as much about business and marketing as it is about quality wine production.

Here’s a few fun facts that we discovered:

🍷irrigation is forbidden, any watering apart from natural rainfall means the wine maker will lose their AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) wine quality rating.

🍷it really helps to know about the elements each year. 2015 and 2016 had perfect weather for the grapes so wines were very high quality. 2017 had a very severe winter and some vineyards had zero production because frosts destroyed the grapes. This year sees great crops but no market (damn you Covid!) so there is much surplus.

🍷because of the lack of market with lock downs, cancelled weddings and no restaurant trade, many grapes were left to rot on the vines or surplus is turned into alcohol for use in hand santizers.

🍷the concept of organic wine is not popular in France. Small wineries have to get cooperation from their neighbours to agree not to use pesticides etc, then it takes years to get to the point of being granted official organic status. Even then, many organic wines are not labelled as such because of the suspicion by French wine drinkers. One organic winery said they get coach loads of foreign tourists who seek out organic wines, but not the locals.

We booked on a wine tour that took in Saint Emilion, very famous for its prestigious red wine, but also a small and well preserved medieval town. These days it is all about tourism and the permanent population of the town is 200 people. At the other end of the scale, the number of visitors to the town each year is 1.5 million! It is incredibly hilly and much nicer to walk around with less tourists.

It wasn’t all just about wine. We also visited what would have to be the longest and straightedges beach in France. The map shows the coastline and the straight bit is about 250 kilometres. had to go and check it out. Very ordinary beach and waves were a mess. (Humble brag from Australians but our beaches are very hard to beat)

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That’s part 1. Next stop Sarlat. No we had never heard of it before either but will report in next time.

Au revoir

L & M