Bordeaux, the wine country
We left the Loire (hopefully not for the last time) on Tuesday and drove for a few hours to one of the famous wine areas of France: Bordeaux. Probably most Americans, if asked to name the big wine districts of France, would be able to recall Bordeaux and Burgundy. We briefly visited Burgundy (Bourgogne, in French) about four or five years ago. We happened to be there in a small town called Beaune just as they were having a festival with marching bands in traditional costumes. I would have sworn that we were in Alsace-Lorraine because the bands surely sounded like oompa-oompa beer bands and the players were wearing variations of lederhosen. We were, however, quite far away from the Alsace. When Larry asked me what part of France that I would like to visit on this trip, without hesitation, I said Bordeaux. I loved the look of the vines on the rolling hillsides of Burgundy and I was curious to see the vineyards of the other side of the country. In fact, of course, vine