Thermal spas are a great way to spend a day. As a mom, they're a wonderful, rejuvenating experience alone. They're also really fun with kids! There are so many different styles and price points, how do you know which one to choose? The Landes region, South of Bordeaux, has multiple historical thermal spa towns.
Villandraut is around an hour from Bordeaux, only accessible by car or bicycle, but full of history. The Chateau which dominates the center of town was built by Pope Clement V who was born in Villandraut. The Ciron River flows through, offering water activites in the summer, and a weekly Thursday market is a great way to take in the local culinary culture!
Cepe mushroom season! While best used fresh - my ideal serving for cèpes is to get really firm smaller ones, trim the ends and sear in a pan with olive oil then adding butter, minced garlic and parsley towards the end.
Travel tips from a travel planner on the best days to book tours, flights and restaurants. Vineyards in Bordeaux often take the weekends off and many restaurants will have great lunch menus at half the price of dinner. What to do and when to do it!
So many of us who love France and wine, will dream of spending a day harvesting grapes in one of the vineyards. Is this possible? Can I work on a vineyard if I'm a tourist? Where can I find harvest employment if I can legally work?
Long and warm days are the best to explore the department that you will end up liking a Lot! Less known than its neighboring Dordogne, the Lot department is rich in natural beauties as much as in historical landmarks. Over the course of three road trips from Gironde, we started exploring the department, from North to South and from West to East, with younger kids, with older kids and once even leaving the kids at home.
While many of our Bordeaux tours are created with adults in mind, we are seeing the importance of finding ways to include our smaller travellers. Aquitaine Travel Guide is happy to help you plan a trip with your children that can include not only a family friendly food tour, but excursions into the countryside to farms to meet animals and run around in the fresh air! Contact us to help plan your trip contact@aquitainetravelguide.com
Meals at the French court of Catherine included the ancestors of unmissable classics: onion soup, known then as carabaccia, and vegetables with béchamel sauce, salsa colla (it was made using olive oil instead of butter). She loved broccoli, peas, artichokes cooked in wine and a classic of the French south west: asparagus!
The hotel and restaurant designed by Lalique at Chateau Lafaurie Peyraguey is an incredible experience. Tucked away in the Sauternes vines, creating some of the best wine and offering stellar service. Chef Jerome Schilling creates memorable dishes using unique cooking techniques and surprising flavor profiles. Paired expertly with unique, playful wines choices, it's easy to see why this is one of Sauternes gems.
which is an appellation created in the 1980's, but one in which wine has been made for thousands of years. In fact, the oldest wine producing chateau in the area is Chateau Pape Clement, named for Pope Clement V who started planting vines there in the 14th century.
the butchers of Bazas were to offer a bull to the bishop in occasion of the celebrations of St. John (another day still honored in Bazas today). They were granted the right to parade their best cattle in the streets of the village on the Thursday before Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French/Shrove Tuesday).
One of my favorite places to visit on the coast are the ostréiculture cabins that offer platters of their oysters (and shrimp, pate) with local wines on benches while sitting in the summer sun, admiring the sparkling seaside. If you can't make it there though, where can you try some fresh local oysters in Bordeaux?
Where to try Aquitaine caviar in Bordeaux? Where to take a food tour with a caviar tasting in Bordeaux?
Our first stop was for a carriage ride (balade en caleche) through the estuary, at Marais du Vigueirat. We took the tour in the late afternoon and it was rather hot this June day, so I would recommend an earlier morning visit. It was around an hour long and all in French, but the scenery was incredible and we learned a lot. Especially how important the role of the black bulls are. The course Camargue (bull fights) held in the Camargue are not to the death and the 'Razeteurs' (bull fighters) are less important than the bull.
introduce you to high quality food and local products. While passing famous locations like the Grand Theatre or Place de la Bourse, maybe we will taste caviar, oysters, Landais duck and Basque goat cheese. Our food tours include Bordeaux wine, with a description of the many styles of local wines. It's not only bold reds in Bordeaux!
In South-West France, during the months of October and November, there were so many people hunting wild pigeons (when the birds migrate flying from the northern lands towards the Iberian peninsula), that it was not possible to get married because the priest would have been at the palombiere.
We visited the east bank of the estuary right before the summer break in 2021, crossing from our home in Gironde into the department of Charente Maritime, luckily when restaurants were just restarting their on-site service. Being so close to the water, it was no surprise to learn how important the fishing sector has been throughout the years, with a few typical varieties getting the podium: the Lamprey, the Meagre (that, despite the name is of XXL size and can weight up to 55kg) and the Sturgeon that is a protected specie since 1982, after being overfished to the point of risking extinction in barely 60 years since the French "discovery" of caviar.
Located just west of Bordeaux, between the Landes pine forest and the Atlantic ocean, the mighty dune du Pilat is a great place to view both land and sea! It is almost 3km long, just a little over 106 meters high and more than 600 meters wide. Each year the measurement has to be recalculated, as the dune is still in movement and it continues to advance inland, through the forest from one to five meters per year.
The south west of France has always been a land of passage and trade: the Romans introduced the vine (la vigne), the Arabs the still (l'alembic armagnacais) and the Celts the barrel (la barrique). This is how the oldest recorded distilled wine in France came about. There are even documents citing the Armagnac as early... Continue Reading →
Built along the Garonne river, the historic part of the city is found on the left bank. If it feels like a mini Paris, you wouldn't be mistaken. 'Modern' 19th century Paris was modeled after 18th century Bordeaux. Even the Paris Opera was inspired by the Bordeaux Opera house. My favorite area to wander is probably along the narrow streets between the Grosse Cloche and the Eglise Saint Pierre. It's a great area to wonder around and find some of the old Medieval buildings on streets with names like 'Rue du Loup', named after the trades of people who used to work on them, in this case selling wolf skins. You can taste historic dishes like lamproie a la Bordelaise at the oldest restaurant La Tupina or more modern and unique meals at chef owned restaurant C'Yusha.
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