Blaye is not as known for its Wine but it is a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its centuries old fortress.  Like much of old Europe, it’s built upon layers of history.  The 17th century fortress was built upon a 14th century fortress that was partially destroyed during the 100 years war with England.  It in turn, was built upon a fortress and basilica dating from before Charlemagne, sometime in the late 7th to early 8th century.  Before that, it was a Roman town.  The fortress was built by Louis the XIV (that is Louis the 14th for those of us less versed in Roman numerals), the incredibly egocentric French King who built Versailles and as a consequence sealed the fate of the French monarchy by virtually bankrupting the country.  It eventually caught up to his descendent,  Louis the XVI who was deposed and guillotined.  Incidentally, our American revolution finished the job of bankrupting France, after the French bankrolled the 2nd half of it.  He (XIV not XVI) had his chief military engineer tour France and over a period of several decades, rebuilt over 300 fortresses and Blaye was one of these.  Blaye was constructed in conjunction with a smaller fort on an island in the Garonne river as well another fortress across the river to effectively block any access to using the river as a conduit into lower France.  We spent most of the morning walking around the picturesque old Blaye fortress where most of the old city is still contained within the walls.

The ship left about the time we settled in for an early afternoon talk and tasting put on by our friend, Anna Dos Remedios of Idle Hour Winery.   We belong to Idle Hour’s wine club and have drunk enough of it to pickle several livers but having a few of its best to compare to French varietals was a lot of fun.

A couple of hours later, we landed in the town of Bourg, in the wine region of Cotes de Bourg.  By the way, if you see “Cotes” in any French wine name or area, it translates to “slope”, meaning the region has a slope to it rather than being generally flat.  Bourg is another old town with winding stone streets and a long history.  Cotes de Bourg is in one of the lesser known appellations of Bordeaux and as a consequence, its wines are quite a bit cheaper.  The town of Bourg had just constructed a new wine hall where the local vintners can showcase their wines.

It’s a very cool idea and the grand opening was the night we were there.  The owners of AMA Waterways were cruising with us because it  was the inaugural Bordeaux cruise and the town of Bourg treated them like royalty.  AMA made a conscious effort to reach out to the town and partner with them to provide not only a good experience for the AMA guests but also provide a real benefit to the town.  There was a rather extensive ceremony, consisting of royal looking garb, lots of reading from scrolls and several ceremonial taps with a sword bestowing either a knighthood, or threats to take a wallet…it was a little tough to tell.  The town of Bourg then provided local entertainment, regional snacks as well as four wines from local winemakers.  They are going to bring in different wineries each time a cruise ships come into town.

It was a great party.  The best wine was from a young, third generation winemaker from Chateau Conilh whose top wine went for 12 Euros.  What a deal!  We are going to see if we can help get him a distributor into the US.

Next up, more wine (were you expecting anything else) when we sat down at the chef’s table for a specially prepared meal paired with wine.   Oh yeah!  I could get used to living like this but I think Karen likes me doing most of the cooking so clearly, that isn’t going to happen.    Karen actually gave the escargot a try and politely proclaimed them OK but said that she had enough.  Having eaten common garden pests once before, I politely begged off.

We also got to experience a Redneck Yacht Club, river boat style.  If you don’t know what a redneck yacht club is, here’s a picture of one.

River ports aren’t exactly designed to hold a bunch of long cruise ships.  The solution…tie them all up next to each other.  It’s pretty efficient actually and the crews from each ship work really well together but it can be a little disturbing if you forget to shut your curtains and notice the window of the boat next to you is 18 inches away from yours, unless you are an exhibitionist of course.  We chose not to inflict our physiques on our new neighbors so we closed, tied, stapled and glued the drapes shut.

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