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Entrance to Cos de Estornel. Great winemakers, Cos means hilltop (roughly) and the vistas from here were awesome.
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Vineyards on the hilltop, note the roses at the end of the rows. Their function is to be the canary in the coalmine -- be attacked by insects first, before the vines -- but they are pretty, too.
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Closeup of the crest of Cos de Estornel.
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Looks like it will be a good harvest of merlot if the weather holds.
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The famous Chateau Haut Brion. It was very neat to see the buildings in person after seeing them on the labels forever.
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A scale model of the village of Bages, as in Lynch Bages, one of the top 10. The latest owner refurbished the old derelict village to its 1950s height of prosperity. It was lovely.
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Among the classy and elegant chateaus, a bit of kitsch must fall.
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Driving by this signpost is as close as we got to Chateau Leoville-Las Cases, one of Rick's favorites.
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The grand entrance to the magnificent Chateau Lafite Rothschild.
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The gate was a bit intimidating. Our group was able to gawk at the buildings, but could not enter.
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Kind of a bad selfie at Lafite Rothschild.
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Interestingly, we were able to walk in the LR vineyards of cabernet vines.
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And then we were off to Chateau Kirwan for a grand banquet.
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Just a little Sunday dinner for 150 people. 6 courses, 5 wines. Yummm. 150 steaks came out at the same time all perfectly cooked.
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The centerpiece was a 1981 grand cru bordeaux from Chateau Kirwan.
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The wine with dessert was this lovely sauterne from across the valley. This particular version is made only about every 5 years when the grapes are perfect. We visited this winery a couple days later.
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Next day we are off to Blaye, another medieval walled city on the Gironde estuary.
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This is part of the remains of the star-shaped fortifications that protected the citizens. Blaye was a very advanced fortification in its time.
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They did not kid around. The walls are many feet thick, like thirty in this gate area.
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This is typical of the buildings inside the fortifications. This is one of the barracks, a tiny room that housed nine soldiers. Fortunately they rotated three at a time in three shifts.
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Just an idyllic little pathway up to the top of the hill.
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Nice landscaping. Weather here was gorgeous.
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Our guide through Blaye.
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These walls have been around since 1600, or maybe much earlier.
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And this is why Blaye was such a strategic military location. You can see for miles from the top of the fortifications.
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A very nifty picture of the rest of the world relative to our hilltop perch.
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Closeup of the pointers to many of the nearby towns.
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It was just a perfect morning, even if we did have to be ready to move off the boat at 8:30 am.
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From the hilltop we saw another cruise ship,smaller than ours.
The estuary at this point is several miles wide.
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Another view of typical barracks in the village.
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This bike has seen better days, but it was quite charismatic.
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Walking back to town. The old fort has been turned into a serene park.
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A vivid example of the tidal nature of the estuary. Tides here range from twelve to twenty feet. Looking at a map, you can really see how close it is to the Atlantic Ocean.
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Vineyards wherever you can find a bit of cleared land.
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The Town of Libourne, old tower, edge of the walled city.
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Pretty impressively thick stone wall.
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We think this is a Live Oak tree. It really looks like what we saw during our time in Texas.
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Almost every town/city we saw had a Rue Gambetta, named for a military hero of 1870.. Some were major commercial streets. This one had seen better days.
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In Libourne we saw so many houses that still had the old boot scrapers attached to their front entrances.
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Last remaining bit of the old Roman Wall in Libourne.
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We thought these manhole covers were pretty imaginative -- trying to make something utilitarian just a bit more aesthetically pleasing.
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But a square manhole cover? A square cover, if loose, can accidentally be dropped through the hole.
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Love the ornamental designs on these things.
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Maybe the square covers are hinged below or something.
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Classic French village architecture The town center looked for all the world like a movie set.
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Another classic image. Trompe L'oeil windows, French doors and sculpture.
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We just loved this door knocker.
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The village church in Liborne. Not so well preserved as Tours or Orleans, but still a magnificent Gothic structure.