Laundry and catch-up - 1 November

Today is All Saints Day and it's a national holiday in France. While a few places are still open, we've decided to take this as an opportunity to do laundry and catch up. This doesn't mean a day without wine however!

We started our day by gathering up all our dirty laundry and the Ariel pods we picked up at Carrefour the other night. We then headed out to Chateau de La Riviere. Kris picked this chateau to gain a better understanding of the wines from Fronsac because this is the biggest winery of that region. The rains must have run off the other visitors, because we had the tour to ourselves. Our guide gave us the history of the cellars and how many of the townspeople hid from the Germans in those cellars during WWII. We learned as much about the stone masons who worked this area as we did about the wines! We tasted a wine made with a varietal I had never heard of before - a Sauvignon Gris. It made for a very nice blend. It turns out that our guide's boyfriend is from Brittany so she provided us with some insider tips for the next leg of journey.

We headed to Libourne and to a laundromat that Chase concierge scoped out as being open on holidays. Added bonus points for a location that has a huge strip mall (closed for the holiday) with ample parking *and* a boulangerie so we could grab lunch while we wash. After figuring out the central payment system and separating our lights and darks, we settled in for the spin cycle and a baguette. I was a bit concerned about the dryers; a strong wet-dog odor permeated the building. Fortunately, everything came out Ariel fresh. That's Ariel pods, available at a Courefour or Auchan near you!

Since we spent much of the day before in the car and much of today running errands (I also had a run in with a gas pump. Turns out self-service pumps prefer it when you put the magnetic strip on your card in the reader the correct way...) we decided to head back to St. Emilion for a pre-dinner stroll. Holy crowds batman! Since we've really only seen the city first thing in the morning on the first day or after 7pm on the subsequent days, we had no idea how freaking crowded it was. People shoulder to shoulder everywhere. And this is the low season! It makes me feel even more lucky to have had the streets to ourselves two nights ago. Today, however, we did get the chance to climb to the top of the Kings Keep (the tower in the foreground of the picture.)

After that we stopped off at the Maison du Vin for Saint Emilion. They had a scent identification kit that I couldn't resist snagging a pic of. Who says wine's no fun!?

Tonight, we spend our last night in the tower of the Grand Barrail. We've really enjoyed our time in Saint Emilion and will be sad to go. However, we're both really excited to see Brittany and switch from wine to cider! :)

Dinner was at Table 38. The woman who ran the front of house was so friendly and welcoming! We felt like regulars by the time we left. I jumped at the opportunity to try duck tartare and it was fabulous. For a tiny little village, Saint Emilion punches WAAAAY above its weight on restaurants.