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The wine press at Chateau d'Arche. Looks a little rickety, but produces a great product.
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Beautiful color in these bottles, yum yum.
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A poster shown to us by one of the guides at the chateau. Some of the apparent grapes are other fruits, suggesting that their flavors are present in sauterne.
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The main chateau, production on the right, tasting rooms on the left.
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The grapes on the left clearly show the "noble rot," which is a mold that thins the skins, causing the grapes to dry out. Less water = more sugar = sweeter wine.
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The famous Chateau d'Yquem, the king of the sauternes. Never had it and probably never will; can't afford it.
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Lights of Bordeaux at night.
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Before sunrise, with the new lift bridge on the river, and a sliver of the new moon above the first light.
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A few minutes later, nice clouds and contrails.
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Finally the sun comes up. And there's that boat again.
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During the night, two more tour boats arrived and docked at the next berth.
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The boat was designed to duck to pass under low bridges. The wheelhouse can move down about eight feet. All the cables and wires are in a special folding cable trough.
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Bev's friend Nan came down from Paris to spend a day with us.
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Bev and Nan took the train to Arcachon, just as the poster says, to feast on oysters and rose wine.
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While they were traveling for lunch, Rick toured downtown Bordeaux.
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This building had a bold, modern facade. An art gallery perhaps? No, an insurance company.
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The Public Garden is a large park in the middle of the city, a leftover from a previous age.
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This had originally been a formal French garden, but then was largely redone as more of an English garden.
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One of the trees near the entrance looked oddly familiar, a magnolia, just like in the southern U.S.
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These pigeons came to join me on the bridge overlooking some trees pruned in a Japanese style.
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Near a couple benches was this leave-a-book/take-a-book cabinet. It had a number of books and magazines in it, and some of them were even in English.
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Bust of one of the garden's designers.
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The entrance to the Botanical Garden section of the Public Garden was this long, narrow building.
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The Botanical Garden building was covered with this collection of vines. Most of it looked like ivy, but the light green intrusions are something else.
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And it's warm enough to support these palm trees.
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And of course there were chestnuts.
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This is the Grosse Cloche, another gate from the ancient walled city.
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Grosse Cloche is famous for its clocks and bell, and its graceful stonework.
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A plaque commemorating local politicos.
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A graceful and ornate residence right across the street.
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Decoration on the back, inside (the city side) of the Grosse Cloche gate.
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The narrow city street inside the gate.
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Must be the place to go for American-style bagels, given the English signage.
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This, the Feeling (?) Tattooing and Piercing parlor, had quite wonderful sculpted metal figures in the window.
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A male figure on the left. . .
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And a (modest) female figure on the right.
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Remember the boots of Puss 'n' Boots? That's the logo of this Minelli (probably shoe) shop.
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These little tourist trains can go down narrow streets where buses cannot. The tourguide was speaking English.
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The lovely old St. Pierre church off one of the plazas.
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I got a quiche for lunch at this little shop across the street from the back of the church.
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And then sat at the tables here across from the shop to relax and have lunch.
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Jazz and jazz groups, some from the U.S., are popular in France. True since the early 20th century.
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Of course this church has beautiful stained glass, too.
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This window I particularly liked: God wagging his accusing finger at Adam & Eve.
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Back to the Place de Parlement, checking out the dozens of restaurants for something yummy.
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This street was laid out as the main east-west street of the town by the Romans two thousand years ago.
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And Bordeaux, too, has a Place Gambetta.
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Which is a nice little park, a square two blocks on a side. Nicely landscaped, filled with people relaxing, having lunch or coffee.