Bonjour mes amis, C’est Stewart ici……….Sarah is poorly!

We woke this morning to a thunder storm – welcome you might think after the really hot days we had had the past few days, however, we had done a full load of washing last night and it was out on the line drying…….or getting wetter!!!!

So, morning time in Freckle showed a worsening for Sarah’s cold, she spent quite a bit of time coughing, sniffing and sneezing in the night, she really was quite ill. There had been suspicion that her cold like symptoms could have been Malaria from the many mosquito bites she had……she thought the disease may have travelled from Africa from the immigrant launches which made it from North Africa to France, then flew north! A few day/night nurse tablets were quickly consumed to alleviate the “Malaria” symptoms (though she really is actually quite poorly though, poor Sarah).

By this time the sun was again shining and the washing was rearranged on every bit of upright equipment we had and moved across the road, into the sunshine to try and dry the washing. We then started the pack up for a move to Soulac.

We managed to bribe the children to doing some of the packing up jobs with a swim before we went. All went well and we paced up nicely and I popped on my budgie smugglers (ready to whoo the ladies by the pool) and we headed off to the pool. They missed out, no one there, we had the pool to ourselves!!!!!

A quick change and we were off, through the roads once again of the Bordeaux (Medoc) region. Just so many Chateau’s with vines as far as you can see, it is lovely. They are all so uniform in their planting, straight rows of nice neat plants, beautiful.

We arrived at Soulac-sur-mer mid afternoon and found the site easily. Really empty here with loads of pitches not being used……yet…….we are lucky to be away now and before the main school hols. Sarah had a quick lay down to fight off the Malaria and the rest of us chilled – me trying to finish a book……..yep a real book!

Early evening was Oysters and nibbles time – we had stopped on the way to Soulac. We had a dozen Oysters, some olives, anchovies, peanuts and of course french bread! All of course with little vin!

After a few nights a bit away from everywhere, tonight was dinner out night. We popped on the bikes and cycled to a little “plage”, L’amelie. A lovely little row of shops and restaurants, not far from camp, right next to the beach and the crashing waves of the Atlantic. Sarah and I had Moules (of course) and the children had another good kids meal. I followed up by being a fat boy with a cafe gourmand – the best pudding ever FACT (another thanks to Andy and Emilie Heissig on that one)!!!!!! Luckily (not really) I had two willing small people who wanted to share my four small beautiful puddings!

So end of the day, small people asleep. Fraser is in the tent on his own again, with Penny in the van with a whole bed to herself (she really has it cracked there). We are sitting out with less bugs, listening to some Europop (from a beach party we seemed to have not been invited to)! Sarah is willing herself through her “Malaria” and hopes to be back tomorrow to stave off the boredom of my updates

Bon Nuit tout les monde!

Another blisteringly hot morning. Stew took the children for a swim after a hearty breakfast of Eggy Bread and the french version of bacon (France you are good at many things but milky coffee and bacon are not them!).

I was well into my third book and decided my time was better spent nursing my sore throat and having a read. I got the Freckle ready for a quick get away when the Scamps were done swimming. I had done some research and decided that a vine yard tour was essential, and I had found a place that offered a tour in english.

Chateau Larose Trintaudon offered a tour, and as one of the largest vineyards in France and the largest in the Medoc we had to pop along. We pulled into the impressive gates opposite the chateau and parked in around the back…. As we approached the front doors with some trepidation we weren’t sure what to expect. a few years ago we had tried with no success to have at tour of a vine yard and do some wine tasting. We approached the counter, and were greeted by Pacal who spoke great English and offered us a personal tour starting immediately. The building was vast and air conditioned and he suggested given the heat that we stopped past the vines and had a look at the grapes and he would fill us in on the history of the Chateau when we were in the tank room.

I was intrigued by the fact that the vine yard was owned by Alliance and we were told that a number of vine yards are being bough by financianal and insurance institutions. I guess its a safe bet!

The history of the chateau was interesting too… during the late 20’s it was a bad time for growing wine, so a Russian Tzar bought the chateau, ripped out all of the vines and decided to graze cows on the land instead. As we had discussed a day or two earlier that you didn’t see many cows around these parts, it was explained to us that the land is very poor for grazing animals and is much better suited to vines. I have since read that the whole area was a tropical sea around 50 million years ago, and the sediment that remains is what gives the bordeaux wine its unique teroir, and the soil its sandyness!

They grew 3 grape varieties on the site, with the predominance being Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, with less Merlot and Petit Verdot. I was interesting in whether they water the vines as it had been super hot for a number of days. The mark of Bordeaux wine is AOP, i think its like champagne having to come from champagne… if they water the grapes they cannot have their AOP certificate if the vines are older than 3 years. Pascal was telling us that the head wine man has to make a decision if the crop looks like it will be ruined, as to whether they loose the mark for that year. The same he said applies to the organic wines of the region, as due to times of large rainfall (such as France experienced in June) the crops can get mildew and they have to decide to loose the crop or use pesticide on it. At this particular site they had 165 Hectares of vines. They also had 2 other chateau in the region. Here at Larose Trintaudon they picked the vines using machines and sorted the grapes in a similar way. At their other sites they did it by hand, and reading between the lines it created a more premium product. They picked each of the grape varieties on a set day, and then processed each grape type separately. Once it was fermented and bashed up a bit, they recirculated the wine through the pulp and tannins so it was all very well mixed before draining the liquid into barrels. They then pressed the pulp which was super strong and concentrated and also stored in the same way. Once it was appropriately aged ( for their signature wine it spent 12-14 months in the oak barrels) it went back into the tank room to be blended. This was when they mixed the 3 grape varieties together and then added the concentrated stuff if it was needed. That was where they made it taste like wine!

We left the tank room and headed over to the barrel room. It was huge, with 3400 barrels of wine each barrel containing about 300 bottles. The children though it smelt horrid but we thought it smelt great! The barrels were mainly new or had been used once before so they looked lovely. Then it was time for the tasting.

We tasted the white wines which they trade, though don’t make and then moved onto tasting the reds. We noticed that the best recent years were 2010 ad 2009… the year Fraser was born. We were interested to know if this wine would keep for Fraser to drink when he was old enough. Pascal advised us due to it being a good year that it should be good for another 10-15 years if stored well. The children had found the visit really interesting and were really engaged with it so it felt great when we found a box of 2 wines, one from 2009 and the other from 2007, Penny’s birth year. We have bought them and will put them away for another day to reread this blog in a few years time and drink the wine with them!

Whilst we were tasting the wines the scamps had a sniff and had their own glasses of water to taste! There was also a corner full of toys for them to play with which meant when it was time to go they were as disappointed as we were.

We also bought the Christmas wine! In what is becoming an annual tradition for us to find a magnum of wine we love from our holiday for Christmas day. We went for the 2009 again as it did taste lovely!

A fab experience we all enjoyed and I would highly recommend visiting if you are ever in the area.

When popped into the supermarket for supplies and ice creams, before heading back for a swim and cool off. A BBQ for tea before my bug bites got bug bites in the evening!

After a super long sleep we woke up and enjoyed the delicious pastries the site had on offer. The Scamps went over to the bar to get the bread and asked using only their french which has improved hugely over the last year.

We had plans for an outing but by the time we were up and dressed the temperature had risen and the children favoured heading to the pool. Its been a good day for my target of reading 4 books this holiday! We headed to the pool and the kids had it almost to themselves for about 2 hours. Numerous goes up and down the slide left me with ample time for the book reading…. though i was sat in the shade! I must confess that i joined the party slightly later than the rest of team adamson due to an appointment with a double expresso first!

After the pool we had a spot of lunch and really did need to head into the local town to buy some more defences against the Mosquito! Last night was an all time high for getting bitten! The children weren’t drinking enough so stew devised a fireman game to encourage them! He filled all our glasses to the brim… and if you spilt a drop you had to get the rest tipped over your head! it resulted in much amusement and cooled us all down a bit.

We headed out the back of the campsite down a “short cut” which clearly it wasn’t but did steer us through some truly beautiful vine yards. I read on a website that they pull back all the leaves that over the grapes at this time of year to get most sun so that the grapes ripen in time for the harvest and this was clear to see. I’ve emailed a couple of vine yeards to see if we can visit tomorrow for tasting and tour… as id love to see this famous regions wine first hand (and maybe have a little taste!) Eventually we found the supermarket and bought some emergancy candles, bug spray, ice cream and pastries! along with a fan for the van! A brief look at the weather shows it will be over 30 for the next week or so with a 0% chance of rain, and the van is just a heat trap with it not being possible to leave the door or windows oped due to mosquitos, so we thought it best to prepare! The gingers are faring well with no sunburn to report to date.

Back from the shop we had to cycle down the main road… picture the A3!!! and the children did a super job, even though fraser took cycling along the white line to the letter slightly more than i was comfortable with.. Back at camp we hit the pool again, giving me chance to finish my second book. Penny made friends with a group of french girls who clearly had limited english. It was so great to watch her confidence grow as she tried to speak their language and they tried hers. I was thrilled they arranged to meet in the disco this evening…. no really!! we returned from the pool around 7 to have our dinner (steak and pork chops) before heading to the bar for possibly the worst duo playing country music in broken english! the kids enjoyed playing and we sat and watched!

A cold shower and they are deposited into their beds now, counting their bug bites and trying to recall all the french words they have learnt today.