The Viking Forseti – Chateau’s, Wine tasting and Tina Turner

After arriving late into Bordeaux on Tuesday evening, which is a fantastic little airport, we was transported to the beautiful Viking Forseti awaiting us on the river in the heart of Bordeaux itself.

Unfortunately, due to unusual weather conditions in the region, the ship is not going to be sailing during our 4 nights whilst on board due to the high water levels. This is a real blow as obviously, the whole point of the trip is to experience sailing on the river. I’ll have to book another one!

All is not lost, we have plenty of time to see the beautiful city of Bordeaux, which at this time of year is stunning with the Xmas lights and has fantastic Christmas market to explore. I’ll blog on that mare later in the month.

After a delicious dinner on arrival and a few drinks in the bar it was time to hit the hay and get ready for our first inclusive tour the following morning visiting a Chateau and then a vineyard.

Yesterday, we headed by coach for approx. an hour as we was unable to sail to the area, towards the town of Cadillac to visit le Chateau de Cadillac a 17th Century Chateau built by the Duke of Epernon, a place favorited by Henry the Third with lots of history of deceit and planned assassinations which was virtually destroyed in the revolution of France. The ailing building was then turned into the first Women’s prison on France and remained so until the mid 20th Century. With these fantastic excursions included by Viking, the French are in a position to be able to restore the Chateau to it’s former glory and show pieces of real history dating back centuries.

Next stop was to the Chateau d’ Arche, one of a few vineyards in the Sauternes area that is classified to make the sweet wine Sauternes.  This wine is specific to the region and is a very difficult wine to make due to the special Noble Rot (a type of fungi) that is required to give the grape it’s specific sweetness. Not really one for a dessert wine, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it.  On arrival, we was presented with a glass in a plastic holder to hang around our neck, so that we kept hold of our glass whilst moving from the different areas of the vineyard and to taste the different types of Sauternes wine that they produce. I have to say I was so impressed with the wine glass I kept mine, it will come in handy for general duties like ironing and cooking at home! The tour was very interesting, normally just one to drink wine and not think about the process, I was amazed at the production that actually went into just one bottle of wine. I now have a new found respect for wine and will enjoy drinking it more..

This was always a planned itinerary and even though we couldn’t sail towards Cadillac, Viking still made sure we had the planned excursions. With comfortable coaches and knowledgeable guides.

After arriving back to the ship, there was just time to change for dinner, which was amazing and then head to the main lounge for a few drinks and help two of our travel companions Andrew (33) and Beryl (83) celebrate their birthdays. With a day of wine tasting and then a few drinks in the bar, it wasn’t long before the dancing started and everyone in the lounge was throwing a few shapes and cutting a rug on the dance floor. As the night went on, the signing got louder and the dancing got wilder and that was just from Beryl!! I even managed to entertain the guests of Viking with my  Tina Turner like dance moves, something I may never live down..

Today, we are off to see a bit more of Bordeaux, enjoy the captains cocktail hour and visit the Christmas markets.

Don’t miss my next blog, where I show you the ‘cribs’ on the river ship..

Dawn

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