MORE DETAILS - Ste. Emillion

As mentioned in an earlier post, Ste. Emillion is by far the most touristy town in the region near Château de Sanse. Many will recongise Ste. Emillion as one of the most prestigious wine areas in the Bordeax region of France, producing some of the most delicious reds you'll ever drink. (http://www.saint-emilion-tourisme.com/)

The Jursdiction of Ste. Emillion is made up of a number of small "towns" or "areas", whose names you will also notice on a wine label. These areas are some times refereed to as "Saint-Emillion satellites" or more properly as Appellation d'origine contrôlée(AOC).

One example of an AOC is Lussac, a small town 9km from Ste. Emillion proper. Most of the vineyards are small and family-owned. That is something I really noticed in this wine region, the wine makers are front and center in the sales of wine. Names are almost always mentioned when you enter a Maison de Vin to taste and purchase their wares.

Towns like Lussac have all you need. A grocery store, a small market (on certain days), a wine seller...really food and wine is all you need in life...right?

The only issue with small towns outside of a main center is transportation. There is a bus route and I am sure it runs more frequently during the high summer season, but didn't see one at all over our stay. Rental car is by far the best way to get around this area of France.

NYC: HERE I COME!

Just about a week now until another trip to NYC. I figure I will make this a yearly thing :) Dinner reservations are already made for Artisanal (http://www.artisanalbistro.com/art_bistro_menus_index.php) for the Friday evening. Oh cheese how I love thee. I pretty much figure Artisanal is a fair bet. Any one that Anthony Bourdain can call a hero, I figure is a good guy. Terrance Brennan, bring it on.

So, wait for the details, because I am excited to deliver.

An Evening Drive

Funny story. A warning to all, some places in south western France have the same name as others. Tom and I found that out the hard way.

We decided to check out a restaurant other than the one at the hotel, and outside of Ste. Emillion. I discovered that Pujols, a very small close to our hotel had a Michelin stared restaurant. So after a number of trips around the town...I discovered that Pujols, was not the town near us, but one quite a bit larger. Now, in my defense, we were both exhausted already from all of the traveling. But of course that left us more hungry.

Our adventure then took us to Gensac, further east from our hotel, where we found nothing open. These small french towns really do shut down when the tourists aren't around. We did find what looked to be a very nice hotel, also close to Chateau de Sanse; Les Remparts (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g967912-d560440-Reviews-Les_Remparts-Gensac_Gironde_Aquitaine.html) also closed.

With that, we headed back to Castillon-la-Bataille and to the only open restaurant, Le Pheonix (http://www.hotel-restaurant-lephenix.fr/le-restaurant.html), which ended up being delicious! Great pizzas! For those interested, the hotel upstairs charges 45 euro for a single room, and 50 euro for a double. I am sure you'd be pleasantly surprised by the place, but the town really does not have much of interest. It is close to

Entre-Deux-Merres

Over our few days at Chateau de Sanse, we began each morning with some of the freshest and best croissants we had ever had. They really do know how to treat you well at this nice little hotel.

The one full day we had in the area we spent driving around the Entre-Deux-Merres region. Our first destination was the town of Duras; a small town with a large castle, known for it's sweet white wines. Unfortunately the castle (http://www.chateau-de-duras.com/patrimoine-duras/cote-de-duras/siecles-histoire.asp) was closed until 2pm, but we did take a walk around the town, one of the many Bastides in the region or "fortified towns" originally constructed by the English in the 12th Century.

We also headed down from the town to the Maison du Vin des Cotes de Duras. Les Maison du Vin are located all over the region and sell the regional wines at the same prices as the producers do at their vineyards. As it was off season, the place was empty and we were treated to a sampling of each different type of wine produced. It was too bad we had a limit on the wine we could bring back on the plane.

For lunch we headed further south to Monsegur, a small bastide. Now, we decided on a restaurant that even Tom was a bit hesitant about. It was called something like Restaurant des Sports or something. The food they served us was fresh local fair. I had a lovely salad with lardons and the local goats cheese served on croutons with a bit of honey, and Tom had a very tasty chicken sandwich. We found similar extremely good, fresh and reasonably priced (that meal came to around 20 euro with a glass of wine for me and a coffee for Tom).

Following lunch our trip took us to La Reole, the location of the oldest remaining city hall in France, dating back to the 12th century. Richard the Lionheart had granted the town some independence to manage their affairs, and that city hall dates back to those days. There are also a number of timber houses around the town that look like they belong back in Stratford Upon Avon.


Our final stop was another town famous for its castle, Sauveterre-de-Guyenne. This castle was also not open, as winter in the region is pretty slim on tourists. It would definitely be a place to stop during the summer months.

Part 2...continued...

First impressions of Ste. Emilion...wow. We could definitely see how busy this little town would get during the summer and why. Ancient cobble stoned streets dominated by a huge "Monolithic" church surrounded by a small square where one could easily relax with a glass of local wine at Amelia Canta (Which we did do before leaving St. Emilion the final time ).

We hit the road again after a walk around town and some photos we hit the road for what would be a longer than expected trip to find Chateau de Sanse. This is a warning to all...it is not initially that easy to find, and what is suppose to be a 15-20 minute trip ends up being a lot longer the first few times, but once you get used to the narrow country roads it gets a lot easier. A good map, or GPS is recommended for this trip. The GPS coordinates are available.



Chateau de Sanse is located outside of Ste. Radegonde, (a town that is really only 400M in length) closer to the small towns of Julliac and further Gensac. It's a lovely re-modeled 18th Century Chateau with views of the vineyards. And the food... We had a dinner booked for our first evening. We went for the 3-courses and a lovely bottle of Ste. Emilion Grand Cru (we had tried a bottle of the local sparkling wine, Crement de Bordeaux prior to dinner). Tom started with a goat cheese and parma ham and I had poached oysters and langoustines. Tom's main went very well with the wine, as he had venison with a winter berry sauce. All produce are sourced locally and the menu changes with the season. I had a lovely fillet of red mullet. Desert...yum. Don't even remember the details, Tom had an apple crumble and I had poached fruit with a spiced glacee ice and spiced syrup. Awesome.

Day two in the region to come...

Part Two - Details

London - So after a bit of worry we made it to London only to discover we would not be able to get on a flight to Belfast until the 26th of December. We quickly booked a hotel online at Last Minute, at half the price. Heading to the Cavendish, on Jermyn Street (home to the first Thomas Pink shop, which unfortunately did not open before our departure on Boxing Day) we cleaned up and headed out to find some grub.

We were lucky to fall upon a funky little restaurant, Randall & Aubin (http://www.randallandaubin.com/restaurant.html). Dressed up like a new years eve bash, this champagne and oyster bar (with so much more) had an open concept kitchen serving fresh seafood and roasted meats. After a delish dinner of seafood (of course I had oysters) and Prosecco, we met up with Tom's brother Declan for a few drinks at a West End Pub.

The following day wandering around London we realized that Christmas Day has to be the quietest day of the year in this city of 7 million. With not much open, and the tube not operational, we really just investigated different areas of the city, took pictures and found the odd coffee bar to warm up. We eventually ended up having dinner in a Pret a Manger because we figured that 70 pounds we'd end up paying for dinner was probably not all that worth it, plus we'd be eating Tom's mom's leftovers the following evening. Turkey sandwiches it was.

Belfast - Newry - Dublin - We finally got our Christmas dinner on Boxing Day. Arriving into Belfast in the late afternoon we spend a quick couple of hours at Windermere (Tom's Belfast house)wrapping gifts and packing for the trip over to France.

Dinner in Newry was followed by an evening of drinks and catch-up.

Bordeaux - An early afternoon flight from Dublin to Paris had us in Bordeaux for a late dinner, which we ended up eating at McD's (amazingly I got a very fresh salad with a lovely walnut and balsamic vinaigrette) due to the fact that we really only had fast food joints to choose from near our airport hotel, and it's recommended not to drive into Bordeaux due to its difficulty to negotiate and find parking. Orginally, we had though our arrival into Bordeaux would be much later, hence the airport hotel, but given the past few hectic days, we were happy for the uneventful night of drinking champagne we found for 10 Euro at the Champion supermarket. The Etap hotel was a steal at 42 Euro and was completely clean, quiet and with flat screen.

Wine Region (Sainte Radegonde) - We were very happy with our decision to travel to Chateau de Sanse the following day, as navigating the narrow country roads around the region, and the limited signage (resembling rural Ireland somewhat) would have been impossible the evening before. We were also quite happy with our decision to rent a GPS along with the car, but after a few days relied mostly on our accumulated knowledge of the area, and the relatively good map given to us by the hotel manager.

Our first stop on the road was to Ste. Emilion, which took us under an hour to reach from Bordeaux.

To Be Continued...

Part One - The Adventure

Tom and I arrived nice and early for our 5:45pm US Airways flight to Dublin via Philadelphia on December 23rd; knowing that there would be traffic both on the roads and at the airport. While waiting in line (a line where many of our fellow passengers for Dublin where also standing) I received an email stating that our flight had been cancelled and thus began the mayhem of the trip that was to be my first Irish Christmas.

We were able to cancel our flight to Dublin and re-book on an Air Canada flight headed to London, thinking we could easily get a quick flight over to Belfast or Dublin...not so. Christmas was spent at the Cavendish Hotel London. From Heathrow we flew to Belfast, arriving in Newry on boxing day, in time to enjoy some Christmas dinner leftovers. One night at Tom's parents in Newry and we were in the car again and on our way to the Dublin Airport this time, and off to Bordeaux via Paris.

A night at the Etap Hotel near the Bordeaux Airport (Etap hotels are clean and a great deal, our night costing 42 Euro!) and we were on the road early the next day to Sainte Emilion and then to Sainte Radegonde, where our hotel, Chateau de Sanse was located. Great food and wine over the next two and half days was enjoyable, but did not last long enough. Soon we were back in the car and heading to the Bordeaux Airport to fly back to Dublin, again via Paris.

From Dublin back to Belfast, with a stop in Newry around 11:30pm. Finally we had a full day to spend in Belfast wandering, and it was New Years' Eve. But no late night celebrating for us, for we had to be up at 7am on New Years Day to catch a flight back to Toronto via London, and there ends the Christmas Holiday Journey of 2010.

I'll get my first Irish Christmas some year...and we'll book that trip with Air Canada!