Bordeaux to the Pays-Basque

We spent only about 1 ½ days in Bordeaux, but made 3 visits to a great wine bar – Wine More Time – which was recently featured in an article by Robert Camuto, the author of Corkscrewed.  I had first heard about the Chatus grape when I read Corkscrewed a few years ago, and kept track of Camuto's writing through his blog.  He had highly recommended a couple of wine bars in Bordeaux, so we decided to give this one a try in the afternoon after arriving in Bordeaux on the train from Paris.  We had a couple of glasses of wine each, and liked the place so much we returned twice the next day – before dinner for an aperitif then again after dinner for a glass of dessert wine.  They have a great selection of wines by the glass, and we wound up trying 2 different red Bordeaux and a fantastic sweet Coteaux du Layon from Domaine des Forges, which we now hope to visit when we're in the Loire in a few weeks.

While in Bordeaux, we mostly just wandered around the city, ate, and tried wines.  Although it was pretty chilly at times, flowers were in bloom in the public gardens.

After 2 days in Bordeaux we picked up our car and drove to the Basque region. We had rented a gite in Saint Jean Pied du Port, a beautiful town on the Nive River that is best known as a stopping point for pilgrims heading to the Spanish section of the Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle from the various French segments that make up that pilgrimage route.  Our gite is in the upper part of the town, and we have great views of the surrounding hills and the Pyrenees in the distance.