Pink Slip Gourmet: Bordeaux Trip: Day One

In an effort to reward our hard work (or help us forget the mental, physical, and financial cost of all that hard work), Ferrandi sent us on a three day trip just before graduation to Bordeaux. Our Chef was ecstatic. He LOVES ze South of France and despises Paris. For him, the south means one thing - Bordeaux, where he calls home. To me, the south means Provence, but I wasn't about to open that can of worms on an all expenses paid trip.

We spent three seriously action-packed days in Bordeaux and by action-packed I mean food and wine overload with a few cultural excursions thrown in for good measure. I have decided to post separately about each day due to all the things Chef inexplicably squeezed in to 72 hours. Here, my friends, is day one. Enjoy.

Most of us made the 6 am train (some didn't) to Bordeaux, and we were now all too ready to jump into the three minivans waiting to take us around Bordeaux and the surrounding areas.

Chef at the wheel. Is that safe? Hmm...I'm alive to write this blog, so I guess so.

First stop - Saint Emilion. If you are a wine aficionado, you will certainly have heard of this Bordeaux region. It produces some of "ze best" and most well-known Bordeaux wines. The town is very small and quite quaint. It has walkways like this steep one since it is on a hilltop.

Our first visit was cultural: the largest monolithic church in Europe. It was carved out of stone and is essentially underground, which makes it quite chilly and also a bit scary considering...

this was built on top of it. So, it is in danger of collapsing. Should we worry about that? Apparently not since we took a long tour through it (during which I kept my eye on the exit the whole time, thank you).

View of the town of Saint Emilion.

Next stop: Bordeaux city center.

And of course a local boulangerie.

Ok, and a chocolatier as well.

That is impressive chocolate work, in my opinion.

And oddly they had a chocolate American football too. Go Saints!

Our first official meal in Bordeaux was at a small restaurant in the city center. First course was shrimp on top of a "taboule." We were starving, but that didn't stop us from critiquing everything that was brought to our table. It has become a bad habit; one that I'm sure we all share. Well, maybe not such a bad habit for us but one that probably annoys our friends and family. I mean, who wants to eat with someone that is constantly critiquing (good or bad) the food? If you do, come eat with the Anglo program from Ferrandi then.

Second course was veal with puree of jerusalem aritchokes and potatoes. Yum.

Dessert was a millefeuille, but it was so good that I ate all of it before I even thought to take a picture :)

While digesting lunch, we took a quick tour of Bordeaux which was soured by the rain.

The city, though, was really beautiful.

And has undergone a bit of a renaissance in the past 10 years.

Note how the top of the building on the left is black. This is how most buildings looked 10 years ago in Bordeaux. The new mayor has instituted a cleaning program to revitalize all the old buildings. However, not all have been cleaned just yet, as you can see.

Afternoon activity: wine tasting. Bring it on.

This wine tasting gallery is different from most. It is not attached to a winery. It serves the more expensive Bordeaux wines so that those who want to taste the famous wines can do so without forking over hundreds of Euros for a bottle.

We found it to be a pretty good concept. As you can see, we kept lining up for more tastings. We tasted three reds and two whites in all. Not too shabby for a Tuesday afternoon.