Today was our first full day in Bordeaux, and if there's anything we learned, it's that it sure can get hot here. I suppose we didn't *learn* that, per se, but whatever. We sure rediscovered it. It was easily close to 100 here today, and as I've always said, that whole "dry heat is better" routine is total bullshit. When it's 100 out, it sucks all around. It's of course true that the shade can provide some relief when it's dry heat, but that's not going to get you very far when you're out walking through vineyards, where the vines are all only a foot or two high. No shade to be found anywhere.
Anyway, I don't have much to say about Bordeaux yet, mainly because we haven't spent much time here, haha. We are going to be hittin' the town for real tomorrow (and you'll all be proud of us, we're starting our morning off right, with a wine tasting class at 10 am! hahahaha. It'll be 6:00 somewhere. Just not here. Details, details.) So I should have more to say about Bordeaux later, once I've actually seen the place!
For now, all I've experienced in Bordeaux is its tramway:
It's a super special tram system that only uses a fraction of the energy that other trams use. Apparently the rails are only electrified a few feet in front of the train, so the only electricity is just what the train uses. The system is fairly new; when I lived here in 2004-2005 and mentioned wanting to go to Bordeaux, people were always like, "it's great, but the tram isn't working right, give them some time to figure it out." haha. So I waited, and 5 years later, the tram is indeed awesome. Very convenient.
We've actually spent a good amount of time on the tram, since it connects the city center with the train station. We arrived late yesterday afternoon, and today we went on a day trip to St. Emilion:
As you can see, St. Emilion is quite literally IN the vineyards. Perhaps the coolest thing about the vineyards is that they're lined with roses, as a "canary-in-the-mine" sort of thing. The bugs that go after the vines also go after roses, but roses succumb three days sooner. So the winemakers get a bit of a lead on the bug. So here are some vines with their rose protectors:
But there's also an awesome medieval village, as you can also see:
But in the end it's really all about the wines and macaroons, as this is the town where macaroons were invented. Apparently macaroons are indeed a gift from god, since they were invented by nuns in St. Emilion in 1690. All I have to say about that is thank goodness they figured it out, macaroons sure are a winner. And a dairy-free one at that.
Every other store front is a wine seller, and we stumbled upon a great place with a whole collection of tastings. My father ended up buying a case, so we tasted 4 reds and 2 whites, all of which were awesome. And that leads me to what is clearly the Picture of the Day:
This has GOT to be his new facebook profile pic, don't you think? Totally made my day when I saw the result. hahahaha,
