April 14, 2025

We sailed from Bordeaux this morning and arrived in Fort Medoc. On our way, we had a lecture called “How Bordeaux Survived WWII”. Our lecturer was Jamie who grew up in New Jersey but is now a French citizen. He was a really good teacher. We learned about the human side of suffering, the stories of the French resistance and many stories of the people responsible for the suffering. The reason Bordeaux survived the war was actually because of the wine that the Germans loved so much, that they did not want to destroy it.

This is a picture of Jamie and our cruise manager, Laura.We docked and the passengers who were going to the oyster tasting got off at 11;30. We then had to move our boat so the AMA boat could come in next to the dock.

After lunch, we went on our tour and our guide was Jamie! We did the Medoc Chateaux Route with private wine tasting. Jamie entertained us with stories about the region and the many Chateaux (which doesn’t mean castle!) There are 6000 wine estates in the Bordeaux region and vineyards as far as the eye can see. The soil is mostly limestone and the vines are much closer to the ground than in California for example. This is because of the rocky soil – it heats the grapes because they are closer to the ground.

Jamie talked about the types of wine produced here (90% red) and used songs to illustrate qualities of the wine. We had to guess the name of the song and the composer. Don’t ask me to repeat the exercise – the first one was from the opera The Marriage of Figaro and the piece he played was sung by Robin Williams in the opening scene of Mrs. Doubtfire.

We did learn a good deal about wine and the region. Our stop was at Chateau Camensac where we had a tasting to two different wines from the 2015 vintage. The guide at the winery compared the first one to eau de cologne and the second to eau de perfume, meaning that the second is stronger and more expensive. All red wines here are a blend of different grapes. These were merlot and cabernet Sauvignon. Both nice but we didn’t buy any.

Here are some of the local sights and chateaux.

At the last stop we saw some newly planted vines.

We returned to the boat and had a delightful cocktail hour with new friends. The captain greeted us and introduced us to the staff. There are 73 guests and 52 crew aboard and all are personable and knowledgeable.

Tonight is a black and white attire party with a singer that will be on board – Kania Allard. We are looking forward to it.

We bought some flowers at the market in Bordeaux yesterday.

Tomorrow we will be in Cadillac and will tour a Royal Chateau with more wine, of course!