No place like my home...Chateaux in Medoc region of France

[mnhtnbb]

We are in Bordeaux on the last leg of our trip. Today we toured the Medoc region and here are a few of the wine producing chateaux


Chateau Lafite Rothschild (Not clouds behind the chateau, but smoke from a forest fire!)




Chateau Margaux




Chateau Pichon Baron



Chateau Palmer




Chateau Branaire Ducru



At the Chateau Pontet Canet, horses are used to turn the soil in the vineyards. Here is a shot of a working horse,
with the smoke from the fire in the background.



A pair of these water tanker planes were flying between the Garonne River and the fire, gathering water to drop, while we were touring
the Chateau Pontet Canet vineyard.



And finally, a shot of the sunset over Bordeaux (with the color affected by the smoke from the fire) taken from our hotel window.

[FakeNoose]

1. Wow! Amazing photos

Gorgeous countryside, sunshine, blue skies.

I'm envious, have a great visit!

[JDC]

2. Awesome. I need to travel with you

[Useless in FL]

3. wow!

So beautiful!

I wish I could afford to travel.

[DFW]

6. If it's ever in the cards for you, do it.

It opens eyes and broaden horizons like nothing else.

[JudyM]

4. Magnifique! Merveilleuse!

Zut alors!

A ton santé! 🍷

[DFW]

5. I recognized Lafite right away

I've never been there, but I had someone draw it for the first cover of my wine book.

And of course, it's cool to see Branaire Ducru because I always loved Roald Dahl's story about the evil wine connoisseur who tried to win his host's daughter by "guessing" from taste the vintage of a wine bottle he previously snuck into the storage area to view.

[Ligyron]

10. OMG, yes!

Haven't read that story in years but his intense description of the food served makes my mouth water just recalling it. Fried Whitebait to start things off with I forget what wine. One of the most appetizing stories I've ever read.

What was the name of that book of short stories anyway? Kiss, Kiss?

[DFW]

13. I don't have his books here in Germany

Those were back at my parents' house in Virginia, and I haven't seen them in decades. I don't recall, either, which of his collections contained this story, but I sure as hell remember it! He had so many others. The Old Switcheroo, and the one where some guy tells his wife he's leaving her, and so she brains him with a frozen leg of lamb. She then calls the cops and says she found her husband dead when she came home, is so grateful to them for their comforting ways that she serves them the murder weapon for dinner.

There are so many twists and turns you can play with when writing these things. In my book, the central character is a wine nerd who dabbles in physics and accidentally opens two portals to the past, one to Château Lafite in 1860 and another one to a retired Thomas Jefferson in 1818. One generous (but misguided) critic wrote that "the author's (i.e. my) passion for vintage wines shows through on every page." Nice, except that I hate the taste of wine and never touch the stuff. I just used my imagination.

[Ligyron]

14. Sure, I remember the leg of lamb story which was made into an episode

on Alfred Hitchcock's show in the 60's, i.e. "Lamb to the Slaughter". Even though I was young I remember everyone talking about it at the time, especially my parents, since it was a quite clever plot twist just like so many other of his works.

The wine story actually was in Kiss Kiss, a collection of his short stories many of which had debuted in magazines like The Saturday Evening Post and Cosmopolitan. I forgot about how many children stories he wrote like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach.

I'll have to look for your book because it sounds interesting and since I now know the author, lol.

Thanks for the pictures of the Medoc region. I recognize several of the chateaux from pen and ink drawings of them on the labels of wine bottles.

[DFW]

15. I can't take credit for the pictures

That was the OP.

As for my book, It is available in the States on Amazon. "The Time Cellar." Several on DU have read it, and so far, if someone didn't like it, they had the good graces not to tell me! The comments I got from California Peggy and Panader0 were much more to my liking, anyway.

I think "Matilda" was by Dahl, too. When both of my daughters were old enough for me to read to them in English, it was one of the first books I read to them. I didn't do it all in one sitting, and it got them so interested in "what happens next," that to this day, they pick and read books in German or English with great enthusiasm. My wife read them a German translation of 1001 Arabian nights, and they couldn't wait for the next chapter of that book, either.

[Ligyron]

16. Ooops... my mistake.

Another mistake I made was that the Dahl short story about the wine, called "Taste", was contained in his book Someone Like You, another collection of his short stories.

The recent kid's movie, The BFG, was based on one of his stories as well.

Cheers.

[Shrike47]

7. No chateau for me; too many stairs.

[NJCher]

8. oooh, nice raised beds

in that first photo.

Thanks for posting. Really enjoyed the pics.


Cher

[AllaN01Bear]

9. too bad about the forest fire , but the houses , ohm myyyyyy!!

[Mira]

11. Wonderful photos, great report.

I'm happy you get to enjoy and photograph these vistas. I'm happy I get to share in your trip, all depictions are stellar, but I especially like the crisp skyline in the last one.
Thanks. Wishing you safe and happy travels.

[mnhtnbb]

12. We are actually in an apartment--with kitchen--in a boutique hotel here. I climbed on the counter

top in the kitchen and opened the window over the sink to get above the line of the rooftop of the building next to us for that shot.

[Adsos Letter]

17. Beautiful!

We are heading to Italy, France, and Spain next year to celebrate our 40th anniversary.

Your images Make me want to go now.

[mnhtnbb]

18. Oh, that will be a wonderful trip!

This is the grand finale for me, I think. It's just getting more and more difficult to travel. I find myself wanting to just go to the beach with a bag of books and my camera.