Wednesday April 25, 2017 :  we had a meeting point in Blaye to take advantage of the farmer’s market. This group of 4 Australian couples from Adelaide was staying at Château Couffins on the banks of the Dordogne river.

Today I suggest we talk about wine! not just any wine,  Saint-Emilion wines!

Are you ever puzzled by the many different labels on bottles of Saint-Emilion wine? You're not alone! This complexity arises because there's one main appellation, Saint-Emilion, and four satellite areas that also bear the Saint-Emilion name. Let’s unravel this mystery together. Let me break it down for you!

Click to read more ! 

These last days of April 2016, it was a real parade of cruise ships expected to dock in Bordeaux port of call!  The docking of these large vessels or their leaving combined with the lifting of the Jacques Chaban-Delmas Bridge is always a a real show ! This year nearly 50 calls are expected in the port of Bordeaux.

Montaigne (16th century), Montesquieu (18th century) & Mauriac (20th century), are all three emblematic figures of French intellectual heritage and literature but did you know that they all come from the Bordeaux region? Hence the charming nickname "the 3Ms of Bordeaux"! 

The Ford Custom Tourneo is one of the best vehicles on the touring  people movers scene.

That's why I chose this vehicle for my private tours of the Bordeaux wineries and Cognac distilleries; it's also perfect for enjoying panoramic drives along the Arcachon Bay or the wild banks of the largest estuary in Europe, The Gironde!  

It’s a flexible and capable people mover that features a modern design both inside and out, and a range of advanced options. With this people carrier, I deliver first class trips for up to 8 passengers for all your private tours through Bordeaux wineries or Cognac distilleries.

As this is a trade fair for professionals, perhaps some of you have heard about it without being invited... If you had come to Need Wine's wine tourism workshop, you could have met 120 exhibitors but also many visitors who had come to meet wine tourism partners to organize wine tours in the Bordeaux region but not only... Let me tell you about it below!

I would like to share with you my selection of works of art that should not be missed at the Musée d'Aquitaine.

Bordeaux has one of the largest provincial history museums in France. Throughout the collections, you will discover Prehistory, Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the 18th century (the golden age of the city of Bordeaux) and all the periods that made up the region's rich history.

For the more than acceptable amount of €5, you can join the 150,000 visitors who visit the Aquitaine Museum every year. It presents the history of Bordeaux and Aquitaine region on 2 floors, from prehistory to the present day, through a permanent collection of very varied objects.

When you follow a guide, the advantage is that you will be explained what you see... The tour guide will try to draw your attention to the essential parts. The disadvantage is that you will always see things through my eyes and it is often very subjective.... But if you trust me, I'll show you some interesting things, through a very subjective selection of meaningful items...... I chose here to focus on my 7 favorite items from the permanent collection at the Musée d'Aquitaine that I unroll in the chronological order of the rooms of the groundfloor, from Antiquity to Renaissance.

Yes yes I know...  Everyone will be able to share the memory of a long and boring tour...  A taste of "It will never happen again!" after an unfortunate experience... It happened to me too even if I am quite easy going...

Let's go through the 5 clichés about guided tours that are hard to uproot and that we hear far too often!

Just like the Paris zero point located in front of Notre-Dame, there is also a zero point in Bordeaux! But do you know where to find it?

The zero point or kilometer zero is a precise point, most often located in a capital city, from which road distances were calculated. A zero point sometimes does exist in some secondary cities, but not the least, such as Bordeaux!