Day 8 July 17, 2007

Pouillac, France

After another lovely breakfast in the garden of Noizay, we loaded our luggage into the Golf and headed southwest toward Bordeaux. We had problems again navigating through Tours , but we followed our driving directions and finally made it to the town of Royan where we were to get on a ferry to cross the Gironde River. We had a bit of trouble finding the port, but once we did, the ride was beautiful and very pleasant (about 30 minutes). We drove off the ferry at Le Verdon and continued driving south to Chateau Beau Jardin (aka Chateau Layauga) between Lamarque and Lesparre in the Medoc area of the Bordeaux region. We were greeted in front of the chateau by Michele Pasque, the proprietress, along with her 5-year-old daughter, Anais, and her 8-week-old son, Luc, all of whom speak perfect English (yay!). The chateau is in a beautiful setting just off the main road – there’s a pond with a fountain, tennis court, and a small pen containing Anais’ pet ducklings. Anais couldn’t wait to introduce us to them! We unloaded the car and dropped our things into our beautiful room (with AC – yay again!) with very comfy bedy and a large bathroom. Jean (Michele’s husband and the chef) had put some bottles of Evian into our little fridge, so we cooled off before heading over to Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou. The drive into St. Emilion took about 30 minutes. Michele had arranged a private visite and degustation with Rene Lusseau, the Maitre du Chas (cellar master). Rene speaks very little English but seemed to understand us just fine! He took us on a thorough tour of the vineyards (he let us each pick a grape and taste it – very tart and crunchy like a green apple!) and wine-making facilities. Rene is such a cute man – very animated and visibly in love with his job! He told us that he worked at Chateau Lafitte before coming to Ducru-Beaucaillou. Rene let us taste several different wines, most of which were too young to drink yet. The chateau doesn’t sell wine directly to consumers due to agreements with its agents, so, sadly, we couldn’t buy any to take with us. 🙁 After our visit, we drove back to Beau Jardin for a delicious dinner prepared by Jean (with help from 17-year-old Andreus, who also speaks perfect English) and served by Toni (with help from Guillaume – both of whom speak perfect French!). Emma had her first taste of foie gras, and we drank a bottle of local wine (Tour de Seme) which is being bottled by the chateau’s owner (but blended at another chateau), Robert Tan. We walked a few feet back to our room for a restful night.