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Self-guided hiking
tour across some of the most famous vineyards of the world.
Bordeaux. Mixed up of landscape beauty, oenological pleasure and
cultural discoveries...
From the vineyard of St Emilion, without any doubt the most
famous, to the vineyard of Sauternes, famous for its
high-class wines, you will also cross the Entre-Deux-Mers area
to discover charming villages which astonish by their
marvellously preserved inheritance... and by many wine châteaux
and wine storehouses which decorate the landscape by their
sumptuous architectures.
Hiking tour with varied landscapes, alternating footpaths
across vines and woods, edges of rivers and minor roads,
without forgetting stop over in wine producers
You will cordially be accommodated each evening in Charming
guesthouses, hotels***, and sumptuous castles or wine châteaux
in the hearth of the vines.
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Day 1 : Arrival in Bordeaux
and transfer to St Emilion
Arrival in the train station or Bordeaux Airport. Taxi transfer to the
"Moulin de Palat" to St Emilion.
Welcome in your guesthouses. The owner will accommodate you in this old mill
surrounded of a park with swimming pool , located at the heart of one of the
most prestigious vineyards of the world.
Delivery of the rout notes.
Dinner in a restaurant, in the medieval city, 400 meters far from your host,
in a remarkable house of the XIV 2nd. You will be able to taste a generous
kitchen of soil there.
Day 2: Saint Emilion vineyards – UNESCO inheritance
You will begin your week with a hiking day in the jurisdiction of St-Emilion.
All around the city extends the vines: Châteaux and wine properties, like
Petrus or château La Clotte or Beau Séjour, draw up themselves there, well
planted in the grounds, proud of their history and the men who set them up.
Circuit through the characteristic landscape of the coomb as well as
specificities of the vineyards. Exceptional site formed by a succession of
coomb covered with vines.
This " landscape " was the first “no architectural” site, classified by the
world inheritance of UNESCO.
Depending on you willingness, you can visit and taste the Château du Clos de
la Madeleine (great classified vintage), located on your course.
Back to you guesthouse and dinner in a restaurant located at the heart of
the village.
Day 3: Saint Emilion : Exceptional medieval village
The morning, you will take part in a wine tasting Initiation animated in
English.
An oenologist will show you the technical and specific characteristics of
the vineyard of St. Emilion, as well as the principles of development of the
wine. He will make you discover various visual, olfactive and gustatory
feelings.... around 1h30.
After a picnic in one of the many magic places of this small city, you will
have a guided tour of the city and of its underground monuments. (in
English). Built in amphitheatre and true museum in the open air, the town of
Saint-Emilion will astonish you. Its troglodyte tradition is seizing: a
single church monolith in the world, more than 70 hectares of underground
galleries dug in the calcareous rock.
The monuments and vestiges of the great Roman time follow one another along
the steeps lanes, defying the rules of time the most established. Around 2h.
At the end of the afternoon, taxi transfer until St Martin de Lerm, in the
“Entre-Deux-Mers” vineyard.
Dinner and night in the “Bacchus” guesthouses, in the old cattle sheds of a
smallholding of the XVIIe century, renovated and arranged in bedrooms within
a cordial framework of old stones and wood.
At the edge of the swimming pool, you enjoy the charm, the sight, the
relaxation and the pleasures of South-west.
The host table will accommodate you the evening, to discover a regional
kitchen and wines of the soil.
Day 4 : The Entre-deux-Mers area
The Entre-Deux-Mers area, between the Dordogne and the Garonne rivers, is a
triangle of ground, water and stones which surprises by its cultural
variety.
You will cross a part of this vineyard which profits from an exceptional
geographical site on the slopes dominating the valley of the Garonne.
In the morning, your circuit will pass along the Domaine de Bouillerot
(Bordeaux, Red Bordeaux supérieur, Côtes of Bordeaux Blanc and St-Macaire,
sweetened white wines and red wines). If you want, you will be welcomed by
the producer for the visit and a tasting.
Wine field since 1874 and vine growers since 3 generations, this owner
perpetuates the tradition of the area in a constant preoccupation of the
quality.
At the end of the afternoon, you will arrive at your place down the Garonne
Valley and will be accommodated in an entirely restored old house, with a
3000m² shadowed and flowered park, in the heart of the cute village in the
edge of the Garonne.
Dinner in your guesthouse.
Day 5 : From Caudrot to St Macaire
You will walk in a landscape of greenery, along the vines and estuary of the
Gironde. Castles, fishermen huts of the area offer astonishing sights. You
will be able to make a halt in the small port and its locks marking the
departure of famous “Canal du Midi”, linking the Atlantic Ocean to the
Mediterranean Sea.
The footpath lead you directly to one of the door of the medieval city of St
Macaire, site protected by the historic buildings since 1965.
You will take time to visit by your own this village. Dinner and night in
hotel*** in full heart of the city.
Day 6 : Loop from St Macaire to Sainte Croix du Mont
Above Saint-Macaire, the hills open splendid scenic views. One guesses there
the dark spots of the tobacco drying sheds. In this landscape of hills and
small valleys, the vines succeed the meadows and the thickets of leafy
trees. One discovers many mills and castles there, opening very broad sights
on changing reliefs.
This circuit will carry out you to the “Domaine de Malagar”, residence of
the writer François Mauriac, whom you will be able to visit and to the tomb
of the famous painter Toulouse Lautrec.
You will be able to visit the Château Laurette (Sweet white wine producer)
or the Château Loubens before reaching the village of Sainte Croix du
Mont, perched on a slope, offering a spectacular view on the Garonne Valley
and remarkable for its wines and caves, whose walls are covered with
fossilized oyster benches and where cellars and even a vault were arranged.
Do not forget the church as well.
At the end of the afternoon, return to the hotel at St Macaire and transfer
in the taxi until Sauternes.
Accommodation in a wine producer castle Great Classified Vintage of
Sauternes. Very beautiful chartreuse of the 17th century located at the
heart of the wine property.
Visit and tasting in the property.
Dinner in a restaurant in the Sauternes village at 5 minutes from the
Château.
Day 7 : The Famous Sauternes vineyards area
Located on left bank of the Garonne, in fact the high-class wines of
Sauternes are offered to the discovery. Throughout your course, you will
walk along well-known wine producer like Château La Tour Blanche and château
Rayne Vigneau and will be able to appreciate the small local inheritance
(churches, mills, laundrettes...) but also a varied natural inheritance:
landscapes of vine, forest and the Ciron river, wild small river formerly
used for the transport of wood.
You will walk in an exceptional vineyard by its single soil which results
from a know-how, two century old, who gave quality and prestige to the wines
of Sauternes and Barsac.
Once accommodated, you will finish the day by an “aperitif tasting” in the
Château Gravas. Like other high-class wines of Sauternes, the fame of the
Château Gravas date of the time of Richard Coeur de Lion (XII century).
Lodging and dinner in the castle which knew how to preserve the elegance of
the XVIIIème century and the Néo-Renaissance charm of XIXème with its vast
rooms having view on the vines or the park.
Please do not hesitate to relax inside the Jacuzzi. After one week hiking,
it is a real pleasure.
Day 8: End
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Walking
inside the Bordeaux vineyards
