Holiday souvenirs

[shewhomust]

By rights, the next holiday post ought to be about our second day in Bordeaux. But we drank a bottle of Gaillac the other night, and enjoyed it, and wanted to make a note of it, so here's a brief post about Gaillac instead.

It was the briefest of visits: durham_rambler has good memories of a walking holiday in the region, and when he saw how close we would pass on our way from A to B (Figeac to Pau, in fact, but that's another story) he demanded a detour to buy some wine. Gaillac has a Maison des Vins, an organisation whose function is to promote the wine produced locally. You'd think this would be usual in a wine-producing area, but no, and it can be quite difficult to get a general idea of what is available: Irouléguy, I am looking at you. In Gaillac you head for the former Abbey of Saint Michel: it's very central, by the river, which is just as well, because the roads into town were busy, and some streets were closed - I was distracted by the site of a tanker parked outside one wine shop, blazoned with the description 'liquide alimentaire' - but we found the abbey (it's quite a landmark) and parking right across the way. Inside, we mooched around and looked at bottles and tried to guess from the labels what we would like - and there were some wines on offer for tasting, too.

I don't think we tasted the Mas de Grouze (it was this one, in fact, although ours was the 2012). So it must have been just luck. I'd have been attracted by the presence of local grapes (braucol and duras) alongside the usual suspects (syrah, merlot and cabernet sauvignon), and the price (5€) made it worth a try - though by this stage I was more concerned about where we would pack all these bottles!

durham_rambler didn't think this would be a problem, so I left him to sort it out, and dived into the secondhand bookshop which was having a clearance sale: everything was 60% off, but as soon as you started to look the staff rushed up and warned you not to move anything. This was unnerving, but I still bought several very large and very cheap picture books. And there was enough of our two hours parking left for a quick stroll around town (which was mainly closed, because it was Monday.

Gaillac was the first place we had seen these pink umbrellas (a regional promotion about screening for breast cancer) and they looked particularly well against the red brick of which the old town is built. We could have stayed a lot longer, but we had to move on. Just one more photo:

Comments

[sovay]

Gaillac was the first place we had seen these pink umbrellas (a regional promotion about screening for breast cancer) and they looked particularly well against the red brick of which the old town is built.

That's a great picture!

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

I (we;) love the Maisons du Vin, why don't they do it everywhere, indeed??

It's so inexplicably silly not to, as they are such excellent tourist magnets and wonderful small shopping areas with voluntary expert advice and tastings on demand (only, thankfully, for explorers with tiny budgets who oppose to bla-bla Sales Speak as M. Cro Magnon is allergic to it;), often combining much of the best of an area in one single place; promoting local everything and -one from bio producers' produce (and sometimes the person in charge comes with the offer so to speak, explaining it) to artisans and artists, musical events, etc. whatever; they must be the perfect pendant to the tourist office so maybe we need to make a tour de Mairies to tell them?

For instance in Bazas http://www.tourisme-bazadais.com/z/index.php they desperately need to know, how it is not a brilliant idea to close for lunch, as they will, which is when everyone like yours truly who came there to have a non-vegan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazadais veal-meal wants to have a few Q.s answered, geez, I may need to get into tourism to show'em all, how it is done...I'll bring my books in a bag.

Three favourite Maisons du Vin reasonably nearby are in http://www.tourisme-blaye.com/ and https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Macaire_(Gironde) and http://www.bourg-gironde.net/ but we haven't been to the Gaillac one, yet!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'm pleased with it!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Are you suggesting that somewhere in France should not close for lunch? This is a terrible unFrench thought, and may get you expelled...

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

I deliberately came here to destroy such traditions from within and can't think, how come I haven't been thrown out just yet along with all the rest of us who lack three générations of true Frenchdoom in our space invader shoe-soles but meanwhile They (these French; who make my soles hurt from walking everywhere) still keep closing for lunch just when one wants to go ask, where one should have it. I can only conclude, they (the French) don't really want all us visitors to come eat their food and drink their wine for then, what shall the French have, themselves, after the invasion? Bet, this is why they import beer from Belgium. Chocolate, too! I was going to import https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bionade to destroy their fibres morale from within their digestive systems but too late; some capitalist from Mordor outdid my plans, pft. (Extra commas -now removed- from a magic calendar-decorated box I received by post at Lucia and only then after munching on'em did I realise, I'm not supposed to use them up all at once;)