UniWorld Bordeaux River Cruise, the Basque Country, and Paris: April 2022
A Gallery to start the trip in Bordeaux
Again, these photos here exclusively are from my iPhone SE (2nd generation), not any fancy schmancy digital camera.
This post will be less of a day-to-day narrative of our trip versus a general recap of the three phases of the trip, namely our UniWorld Bordeaux river cruise, the road trip south from Bordeaux in to the Basque Country, and our stay in Paris, after all, it was nearly three years since we went and my notes aren't terribly extensive.
As I said about other trips, we're largely independent travelers when it comes to western Europe, at ease on trains and other public transport, and driving rental cars (and newly "European Purchased" BMWs and Mercedes). This trip featured all three: we flew in to DeGaulle and took the TGV right out of the airport to Bordeaux, toured around Bordeaux for a day or so until we got on the river boat, then rented a car in Bordeaux after the cruise and drove south in to Spain, then returned the car to Bordeaux and took the TGV back north to Paris where we spent several days running around Paris using their excellent Metro.
The trip started Wednesday, April 6, 2022 and we arrived the next morning at CDG, and it took a while to catch the TGV, where the routing took us to Massay to transfer to the Bordeaux train proper. We arrived later in the afternoon and taxi'd in the rain to our hotel, the Renaissance Hotel across from a food hall and the Museum of Wine north of old town. A bit bushed, we had dinner at the "Les Halles" across from the hotel at the La Familia restaurant.
We spent the next two days (Friday and Saturday) exploring Bordeaux and the Cite' du Vin wine museum. Sunday was the start of the river cruise, so we taxi'd to the pier near the Old City, and while we were sailing to Blaye for our first stop, we attended a lecture of "Bordeaux in WWII." The deep wine caves, some literally kilometers long, dug throughout this region to store and age wine, hid a lot of people from the Nazis and Vichey collaborators.
Blaye is north of Bordeaux, towards the Atlantic estuary, and Monday we toured the Citadelle de Blaye, settling in to the routine of boarding the bus and hitting various sights, sites, and chateaux each day. The English built several fortresses in this area, as they controlled the Bordeaux region for many years way back when, which is where they get their fondness for "Claret." Later Monday, we opted for the only optional excursion of the trip and got to tour the Remy Martin distillery.
The next day we basically "popped a U-ey" on the river and docked near the Cussac-Fort-Medoc where the ship hosted an oyster tasting at the fort. Just outside the fort we watched a working dog heading a good sized herd of sheep, and as we made our way back to the boat, it started raining, so we bagged the bicycle tour of the area, opting instead for the wine tasting at the Chateaux Medoc. After that tour, the boat returned to Bordeaux for the night.
On Wednesday, we toured Cadillac and Château de Cazeneuve, which is still lived in by the Duke's family, complete with the Duke himself manning the gift shop. His winery features Sauternes, and he also hosted us with his tasting. We also were introduced to "sailing is subject to the tides" as the Garone and Dordogne Rivers, on which we were sailing, were fairly close to the Atlantic and subject to tidal flows. That evening we retraced our sailing back towards Bordeaux and we were now on the Dordogne River, spending the night in Libourne. The weather was perfect for a night's stroll around the town.
Saint-Julien-Beychevelle, one of the many wineries we toured that week
Sunset over Libourne
Thursday turned out to be the highlight of the UniWorld phase of the trip: St. Emilion. We bussed up there early, which beat the anticipated crowds, and we were treated to a tour of one of the few remaining "monolithic" churches, carved completely in to the limestone in the old town from the 12th century. A truly amazing sight, not to be missed. We were on our own for lunch and we ate with a couple of unattached folks for that day: a older woman traveling on her own and Ray-Ray whose wife, Joanne, was on an excursion he had no interest in. We walked around the town after lunch, then got another tasting and tour of the caves of a local winery. Deep in a cave on the tour the guide pointed out roots dangling from the ceiling, where old growth vines drill their roots down 40 meters or more to drink in the humidity in the caves. What we learned from the various tours we were on was that the Bordeaux appellation wines cannot be irrigated, and cannot have any additives. Hence, if one is allergic to sulfites, which is added to most wines worldwide, one must imbibe only on Bordeaux wines. Armed with this knowledge and informed of the more "value" appellations in the region (Cotes du Blaye, Cotes du Bourg), we stock up on $20-25 bottles of those areas as well as the "good stuff" for our "everyday reds."
The underground winery tour featured rooms where they were testing aging the wine in amphoras like the ancients
St. Emilion
Friday, still docked in Liboune, we had a free day to tour the town square farmers' market, where Janet picked up a lovely fabric that we use as an outside tablecloth. After spending a good chunk of the day in Libourne, we sailed back to Bordeaux for the last day of the tour. Saturday we took the "bike tour" of Bordeaux, with a very leathery older woman who pointed out that "Paris is the Bordeaux of the North." After the bike tour, we walked back in to the city with Joanne.
Bordeaux
Sunday was boat departure day, so we taxi'd to the main station in Bordeaux (St. Jean) and drove to our magnificent hotel in Donostia/San Sebastian. After fighting for so many years, the Spanish and Basque nations have settled their differences (I think) and we found it fascinating that all road signs were in both languages. We stayed at the Maria Cristina, her former palace (not bad), ensconced in the "Betty Davis Suite." Gotta love those Marriott points!
Luckily, as soon as we checked in to the room, I found Paris-Roubaix live on Eurosport, in German, with Jensie doing the color commentating! That's Matthieu van der Poel in his eventually futile chase of winner Dylan van Baarle. The skies were blue in northern France, but we had wet weather most of our time in the Basque Country. We ventured out that night for our first pintxos, the Basque version of "small plates" or tapas.
The Maria Cristina
Monday: The hotel had an amazing breakfast buffet, and from there we ventured out in the sporadic rain to the Mt. Urquell/Motako Gaztelua citadel. More pintxos for lunch and dinner...so delightful! Tuesday, I walked along the full length of the Bahia de la Concha to the Haisearen Orraszia/Comb of the Wind, that activates various blowholes as the waves come in. I tried to take the Funicular Monte Igueldo to the viewpoint at the west end of the bay, but what looked like a school group got to the ticket office before me and the weather seemed like I wouldn't see much more than we saw the previous day from the citadel. I'm not sure why Janet wasn't with me; maybe she was tired of the weather and didn't want to walk for miles in the (light) rain.
Wednesday was our move to Bilbao, after another wonderful buffet breakfast at the Maria Cristina. We hated leaving our Betty Davis suite, but leave it we must. The Bilboa hotel was tricky to find; I remember being on a one-way street on the east side of the Nervion River, but we missed the hotel and ended up back on the west side to swing way down river to get turned back around. We eventually found the hotel, quite modest in comparison to the Maria Cristina, and once we put our luggage in the lobby, we had to park the car about a quarter mile away in an underground garage under the Arenal Park. Once settled in, we walked through the old town to the Guggenheim, which had a fascinating auto exhibit to make it palatable to me (I'm not a fan of "modern art").
The "Guggenheim Dog" and the actual Aston Martin used in the filming of Goldfinger
Thursday, we reversed course and headed back north to stay in St. Jean de Luz, just back over the French border. The proprietors had an old black lab, Naomi, that was forever lounging in the lobby of this small hotel, interestingly named the Maria Cristina as well, and once checked in, we walked all around this lovely seaside resort that would probably be mobbed in the summer. Next stop, Paris.
Friday, we drove as best we could through Biarritz and Bayonne, but traffic was quite gunky through that area as the weather improved and the streets were narrow and confusing. We eventually found a seaside restaurant for lunch, then dropped the rental off at the Bordeaux St Jean main train station and caught the TGV back up to the Montparnasse station (a little over 2 hours of train trip) and Uber'd to the Renaissance Vendome, a block off the Rue du Rivoli and the Place Vendome (gotta love those Marriott points again). The only odd thing about the room was a large "fashion photo" was on the ceiling right above our bed...I've heard of mirrored ceilings in "love nests" but this one was a little creepy.
The weather was significantly better, drier and warmer, so we walked around a bit then settled in for a nice sidewalk dinner. Fortunately, France has banned smoking indoors; unfornately, smoking is allowed outside and EVERYONE still smokes, so when you try to have a nice meal with the Parisian people-watching experience, it's either put up with the smoking/vaping or escape the smoking inside.
Saturday, Janet was in a Cordon Bleu class and I headed up to the Musee Marmottan, which Janet had been to previously but I had never. The museum houses a modest Monet collection, in a house, unlike the massive Louvre, Orsay, or the Jeu de Palme. I walked my way back down to the Cordon Bleu School and met Peggy who had befriended Janet in the class.
Balzac's House and Garden, on the way back from the Marmottan
Easter Sunday we headed to the Bastille farmer's market then made our way to the Gare du Lyon where we lunched at the stunning Le Train Bleu.
Le Train Bleu's stunning decor
Walking to the Gare du Lyon we came upon an interesting Instagram anomaly..
 What this "Insta-Famous" street looks like IRL |  |
After lunch we walked along the Canal St. Martin, a side channel off the Seine, then dropped by Notre Dame, still closed and under restoration. The rest of that day and the next two days we partook of some of the usual things we do in Paris, and explored some different neighborhoods as well:
- Explored the Jardin du Luxembourg, watching children sailing their toy boats in the pond
- Respectfully eavesdropped on a service at the St. Sulpice
- Explored the Latin Quarter, the Sorbonne, and the Pantheon, as all other museums are closed on Monday in Paris
- Swung by the Opera Quarter and made the usual Maile mustard run
- Met Peggy for raclette on Monday night...interesting way to eat a massive hunk of cheese
- Went to the Rodin Museum--never been, amazingly enough
- Lunched at the Rue Cler foodie street by Les Invalides
Lunch on Rue Cler, interestingly served me Goose Island IPA
The Rodin Museum's "Five Burgher of Calais"
The only stressor of the entire trip happened after I got a text from Pedro, vacationing in Italy, who was going to be stuck in Milan when he tested positive for Covid before their flight back...WHAT, you need a negative Covid test within 24 hours of your flight to get on a plane?!?! Yup, and we had no idea...so we asked the concierge where we could get tested--up by the Opera--so, with trepidation (but we both felt fine) we paid our 20 Euros each and went upstairs to get swabbed by the young pharmacist. We had a nice conversation: her, "smoking is such a dirty, unhealthy habit" us, "neither of us ever smoked, and we're amazed that everybody still smokes in Paris" her, "yes, it's very unhealthy" us, "so do you smoke?" her, "yes!"
After we got the good news, both negative, we got our certificates and as we were leaving we ran in to an Eastern Indian American tech bro with his wife, two kids, and mother in law in tow, absolutely stressing that they too just found out all then needed negative Covid test results to leave the next day. We talked them through the process--hopefully, they all passed!
The only other (very) mild stressor happened in our Uber ride to CDG: our flight left from terminal 2A but we didn't communicate that clearly to our driver and we were dropped at 2E. I assume 2E is the default terminal for Uber drops...It wasn't a huge deal as we had plenty of time for the long hike over to 2A, but if your time is tight, make sure you're clear with the driver.
I will NEVER (never say never but I think both Janet and I can safely say NEVER) will we set foot on a massive 1,000 - 5,000 passenger cruise ship, but our tiny-in-comparison river cruise with UniWorld (maybe 100 - 150 passengers) was fantastic while spending minimal "bus shuttle time" to visit the wineries and sights in the Bordeaux region, and the guides were very informative and we learned a ton. We dismay at the many examples of "overtouristing" we feel is being largely caused by the cheap "vacations" offered by the huge cruise lines.
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