We really enjoyed the singer last evening, Kania. She is from Montreal and she has a party vibe and a great voice. It was the black and white party night and the small group that was there certainly had the dress code right!
Today we traveled from Bordeaux to Cadillac. The same AMA boat docked first and we walked through to go to our tour of the surrounding wine appellation which is famous for sauterne wines.
Our guide was Anne. She is originally from the US, North Carolina and other eastern states. She married a French man and has lived here since. She was an absolute wealth of information on our ride to the Chateau. Here she is, on the right, with the owners of the Chateau. The owners are Louis and Caroline de Sabran-Ponteves. They greeted us on arrival.
The area around Cadillac is the site of an ancient Roman port. The hills in the area are full of oyster fossils. Unlike our previous area excursions in the Bordeaux region, this area is known for sweet wines, mostly sauternes. The vines are self pollinating so bees are not needed for that, yet many people keep bees for pollination of other plants. Also, water is the enemy of grape vines, so no irrigation is needed. Horses are used to dig up the spaces between the vines – I just missed a picture of two of them while we were traveling on the bus. Breeding horses is common in this area and lots of children take riding lessons.
Anne lives in this area and has children in the school. She says they have every Wednesday off (they do things like riding or art lessons on that day, 2 weeks off every 2 months and the months of July and August. She says they still complain!
The crops in season right now are asparagus (explains the various ways we have seen white asparagus prepared) and strawberries -there are 7 varieties grown here. Just the delicious smell of them in the market was amazing. We have wonderful food on our boat and also enjoyed our meals in Bordeaux.
Our tour today was to the Chateau de Cazeneuve which was one of the castles owned by Henri IV who was a Protestant king of France in the 16th century. It was built in the 14th century. Over the years, two other kings came to the chateau at a later date, Louis XIII and Louis XIV. The estate still belongs to the descendants, the SABRAN-PONTEVES, a famous family which has produced 5 queens, 2 kings, 2 saints and a pope. Members of the family live in an apartment in the castle. The last significant reconstruction was in the 17th century and many of the rooms have been redecorated as they would have looked in earlier times. We were not allowed to take pictures inside except in the first room and outside in the separate wine cellar.
The area around the castle is quite beautiful. The location is built on sheer cliffs at the confluence of 2 rivers
We had a tour through the bedrooms, the gallery, the drawing room, Louis XVI bedrid, the dining room and the massive kitchen with its walls of hanging copper pots – wish I could have had a picture of that! It has a huge fireplace with the rotisserie. There are 2 salt chests. Salt used to be very hard to obtain, so those lucky enough to have it used to sit on it to keep it safe. There is a bread box on the wall which is not really a container but more of an open area with posts that are close enough together to keep the bread safe from rodents!
We heard a lot of stories about the residents of the chateau over the years including tales of infidelity, mistresses and murders.
After the tour, we had a glass of sauterne and some chocolate covered grapes.
Outside, we toured the wine cellar and went into the grotto. There is also a hole in one wall which used to be a place that prisoners were put into – then the ladder was removed so that they could not get back out. The underground flooded and that was the end of the prisoners.
Here are some other pictures of surrounding sights.
In the distance is the chateau owned by Selma Hayek’s husband – first in the 1855 designations. It is called Yquem.
Sauterne wines are generally quite expensive. This is because with other wines, generally one foot of vines can produce 1 bottle of wine. For sauterne grapes, it is 1 grape per foot! And they need to be picked individually.
The ideal lifetime for vines is 35 – 40 years. However they can survive much longer but don’t produce as much. Many vineyards we saw were just starting with new plantings.
Luckily the rain held off while we were out and sprinkled on our way to Bordeaux. Norm loves to be outside anyway!
We returned to the boat after lunch and sailed back to Bordeaux where we will be overnight. From there we will head to Blaye.
And we will have a Cancan workshop in the afternoon and a Cancan show on board after dinner.
Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures 