Viking Cruises

viking.com | 55 E X P E R I E N C E S I S S U E 2 3 The town was, and remains, an economic powerhouse driven mostly by wine. On any given day, fleets sailed up the Garonne from the Atlantic to load up with the latest vintages. A disruption to the trade would have been catastrophic. A guided leisurely stroll around this picturesque town was followed by a delicious wine tasting in Sauternes, where the world-famous sweet dessert wines are produced. After another wonderful evening dining on board, where the three-course menu changes daily and always features regional specialities, we arrived in the pretty town of Libourne, which enjoys a respected status as a wine-making capital of northern Gironde and hosts one of the largest fresh food markets in the area. As luck would have it, the market was in full swing and bursting with aromatic fruits and vegetables as well as typically French arts and crafts. Located at the confluence of the Dordogne and L'Isle rivers, Libourne was a favourite town of King Charlemagne who, in the 8th century, gave a thorn from the crown of Christ to the town, which attracted visitors, including Eleanor of Aquitaine. The thorn has since been carbon dated and matches the genus from Israel, so the sceptics were apparently proved wrong. From Libourne, we were driven to that Mecca for wine lovers, Saint-Émilion which we were advised is the best place to buy wine to ship home. Laced with cobblestone streets and blessed with stunning views of surrounding vineyards, some of which were originally planted by Romans, the entire town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is beyond beautiful. We explored its narrow lanes and wine shops —the town is home to 230 residents and 50 wine shops. Our guide advised us that if you are charged for a wine tasting there is no obligation to buy. If, however, your wine tasting is free, you are expected to leave with a bottle or two. Given that some vintages sell for thousands of euros, we were very pleased to buy an €18 bottle of Saint-Émilion to open on the ship that night. Viking doesn't charge corkage, so you can bring your own wine on board. Having said that, the complimentary wines served with meals are faultless. The following day, we sailed along the river, lined with picturesque fishing shelters, into Bourg, another sleepy French riverside town where our guide gave us a potted history of our idyllic surroundings. Here, the Gironde is 2 km across. At the full mouth of the estuary it is 12 km and you can appreciate why centuries ago the Bordelaise mistook it for the sea. We strolled along a small avenue of fig trees where, we were told, Louis XIV came as a child and reached for a fig but he was too short. When one of the gardeners picked him up so he could reach, he was immediately arrested for touching the Dauphin. Thankfully, the Queen Mother intervened and subsequently organised the planting of lots of fig trees in Bourg. It was a lovely story told by our equally lovely guide who disappeared into the boulangerie and returned with a tray of still warm fig pastries for our group. Savouring the delicious pastry in the dappled shade of those fig trees will be a lasting memory. It is also one of many ways I discovered—or rediscovered—how the people who work for Viking always go the extra mile and how, on a Viking journey it's the little things that count. Like when I returned to my stateroom to find my tissue paper bookmark has been replaced with a Viking bookmark. And how, after one especially hot day, we returned to the ship to be greeted by the hotel manager and the chef handing out ice-cold lemon or lime sorbets. Sailing towards Blaye past several houses and châteaux overlooking the river, I joined an onboard painting class led by a local artist. My little watercolour of the river and its banks is no work of art but it is a memento that I will cherish. Our penultimate evening on board was not spent on board, but in the beautiful dining room of Château Kirwan where we were treated to an extraordinary four-course meal with wine pairings. It was the culmination of an afternoon driving through Médoc and Margaux wine country with Elisabeth as our guide. When she declared, "Wine is not something intellectual, wine is something you experience," her words made a lot of sense. Words that came back to me that evening as we dined in the historic châteaux and I took a long, delicious sip of yet another world-class vintage. Santé! Clockwise from above: The Pont de Pierre bridge, in Bordeaux, at twilight; the picturesque town of Saint-Émilion Paris GIRONDE DORDOGNE GARONNE Loire Valley FRANCE San Sebastián Bilbao SPAIN Médoc & Margaux Blaye Libourne Cadillac Bordeaux Saint-Émilion Bourg – Cruise • • Overnight in Port VIEW VOYAGE GETTING THERE: Consider our 8-day Châteaux, Rivers & Wine journey, round-trip from Bordeaux.

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