Day 6 - Friday

It was foggy when we set out, and didn’t lift for most of the morning. Not too much so, just clouds on the trees and wisps across the vineyards. 

The vineyards (we were in the region called Entre Deux Mers, between two seas, although it is really only part of the land between the Dordogne and Garonne Rivers) were on rather hilly slopes, almost like Athens. Led by Pierre, we mostly walked for the first hour. As the land flattened out we were joined by Pierre’s friend Monique, riding her own horse. I didn’t get the name, but it was the fattest, shittingest (at least 15 times) Appaloosa cross I have ever seen.

 Monique was a local so showed Pierre some new trails, including right along the Garonne River, people’s backyards on the other side, often stocked with chickens, geese, goats and sheep.

We turned into the town of Cadillac, yes, you heard me right, and rode past the ancient walls of the city. Then down another street, around a river and there was our picnic set up, right under the bridge that crosses the river. 

Monique ate with us: sausage, salad, THEN the main course of fried eggs and a sort of ratatouille but only with eggplant. Sarah makes all this on a burner.

Monique then kindly took Sue and me on a walking tour of Cadillac, including the outside of the castle, the quite nice old church (decorated all gaudy like Spanish churches are; we are only 250 kilometers from the Pyrenees) and a very old door. And the city fortifications, built by the British when they occupied the area. Note to self: look up when that was. It’s very hard writing this blog without access to Google or Wikipedia or, for that matter, the Internet.

 

Monique also VERY kindly let us use her bathroom. Then we saddled up and crossed the bridge over the Garonne, Sarah leading now. Considering that Sue’s horse is afraid of trucks it went better than expected.

We moved across flat vineyards now, and took an elevated old Roman road at one point. 

The fog had lifted during lunch and it got a lot warmer. Some nice trots and canters, and more winding between backyard walls, with a dropoff and a stream on the other side. A few encounters with hand pickers.

Then we began to climb, vineyards all around us. We were in Sauterne, land of the really sweet, expensive dessert wines. It’s also drunk with pate de foie gras. Sarah explained that the grapes needed to be touched by fog each morning and evening to make them sort of rot, which adds to the sweetness. Harvesters move through the rows three times to get the grapes at just the right point, which helps explain the cost of the wine.

Then we came to a pasture by the road where the fence was all laid out and, unsaddling the horses for the last time, put them in with food and water. A minute’s drive up the hotel was our hotel, the Relais du Chateau d’Arche, the fanciest place yet. I almost groaned with pleasure when I saw the enormous shiny white bathtub. 

And my room looked out on the horses’ pasture far below, so I could watch them while Sarah drove Monique and her horse home in one trailer and Pierre drove back from his base near Agen in the large trailer that would transport all three horses home tomorrow.

We ate at a restaurant in nearby Sauternes: marinated raw salmon with lemon and orange, duck leg and French fries, cheese and tiramisu. We brought our own wines, a collection of what we had tasted over the trip, plus a Sauterne at the beginning. Sweet wines don’t really do it for me, although I’m sure this one was quite good. Then a Medoc, then a Cote de Bourg, then a Saint-Emilion, all very nice and yummy. Monique ate with us too and it was quite jolly.

And then next morning, cloudy and rainy, we said goodbye to Pierre and Sarah.

 Then Sarah took Sue and me to the Bordeaux train station, where we learned that despite strike threats our train was set to depart on time, which it did.