Hello all. I am slowly returning to a state of normality after a boozy few days entertaining my bro and his two best mates, Gary Brown and Andrew Little. Dave had nick-named the trip Educating Gary as Gary hadn’t been to this part of France before, or indeed to anywhere quite so rural. The name tickled me so I am stealing it for this entry, although “Wined to Death” or “A Near-fatal Trip to Bordeaux” would be equally appropriate… Andrew is getting married next year (Dave is the best man) and their original plan for this trip was to hire a large van and fill it up with some high-quality cheap French wine for the wedding. Over time however, this metamorphosed into just hopping on the Eurostar and doing some exploratory sampling. Lots of sampling, as it turned out.
I don’t think anything of note occurred before their arrival, so I’ll get right on to their trip. They arrived late afternoon on Wednesday, so I had the car for the day to get them from Angoulême. I did a shop in the morning and then got dinner cooked so it was ready and waiting for us. We got home around 8pm, collecting Matt from work en route. The boys had apparently spent their entire trip from London in the bar carriage, so were nicely oiled upon arrival, but this didn’t stop them from tucking into a few more bevvies after a quick tour of Port 80. After cocktails, we had dinner (cassoulet), washed down with copious amounts of red wine. Matt obviously had to work the next day, so he made it to bed at a fairly sensible hour, with the rest of us putting in another hour or so of wine time before all crashing.
The next day, Dave & I were up with Matt and went with him to Nontron to arrange a hire car. We sorted this with no issues (although I was expressly forbidden from driving it as my licence is so new) and drove it back home via the supermarket and bakery. We got back to find that GB was functioning fine, but Lit was not at his best, to put it mildly. While on topic, I have to say that in all my life, I don’t think I have ever met a more crude, offensive and generally disgusting man as Lit, so it is a good job he is so hilarious with it really. Never mind “Educating Gary” – over the last few days, I have learned an awful lot, most of which I wish I hadn’t. Lit is normally most boisterous but that morning was a very subdued version of himself. This was actually somewhat convenient as it meant we had a good couple hours of peace and quiet in the car on the way to our first stop, Duras. Dave did the drive down, which went fine for all exept Lit who really wasn’t coping so well being in a car (we had to pull over at one point for a “Tactical” as he called it – an efficient but voluminous chunder).
First stop was lunch in the town of Duras itself. We got there at a little after 1.30, so were refused a table by the restaurant I had in mind (this possibly had nothing to do with the time of day, thinking about it) but found a wee bar/café round the corner that did the job – porc for me and steak for the boys, washed down with a beer. Regrettably, this did a lot to revive Andrew, who was very soon back on form. So much for the reprieve. From there, we hit vinyard #1 – Domaine de Berticot. Matt and I went there in 2010 and did very well, but their selection wasn’t as good this time, and their prices had gone up. We sampled a few fairly decent wines and Lit purchased a few bottles, but the place wasn’t really working for us, so with me taking over the wheel, we pressed on to Castillon.
Dave’s sat nav got itself into a bit of a state trying to find the vinyard I had in mind, but we we stopped and asked directions from a woman of dubious sanity who ran a nearby vinyard and she steered us right. Our destination was Clos Masières, producers of Matt & I’s favourite red, so I was really looking forward to a revisit – and it did not disappoint. Not only were his ’08 and ’09s both of the usual excellent standard, but the price had even gone down a tad – and when he realised I was a regular customer, he did us a discount too! I bought half a case of ’09 and Lit went for a half case of each. By now, the boys had sampled a fair few glasses worth and were all quite lively whereas I was doing my best to be restrained and sober for the return trip. We were more or less shopped out by this point – and as the hire car had an engine that would have had trouble powering a hair-dryer, we decided not to fill the boot any more and set off for home, where the drink continued to flow.
Matt was home around 8 that night – he put in a lot of hours this week to try and go some way to meet the impossible deadline set by his boss. Once he was back, we russled up some dinner (sausage and lemon pasta) and set about sampling our purchases. Matt left us to it at around midnight, and GB wasn’t too much later, sensibly enough. For the rest of us, the phrase “one more for the road” kept coming out – though it referred to one bottle, not glass. The final “one more for the road” was, I think, sometime around 3am, by which point, it was just Dave and me left standing, setting the world to rights. It goes without saying that it was a rough start for us both the next day.
That morning, I nipped down to the bakery for croissants, and when these failed to hit the spot, made some eggy bread. This helped somewhat, but we were all of us a bit delicate. We had a day of touristy stuff lined up, with the first stop being the nearby Grotte de Villars, which everyone enjoyed despite the hangovers. The guide was excellent and as it was just the 4 of us on the tour, she did the whole thing in English which was nice of her. After that, it was back to Port 80 for lunch (the obligatory sandwhich) and a few beers to blow out the cobwebs. Next, I took them on to Brantôme for a walk through the streets (and yes, a beer or 2 as well). After an hour or so, we decided to press on to Nontron in order to return the hire car and meet Matt. As soon as we returned the car, it started to rain heavily, so the boys didnt get to see much of the town. Instead, we installed ourselves in a bar that served Stella. I realised I’d forgotten my phone so couldnt arrange a time to meet Matt, so I left the boys to it and walked up to his office to tell him what we were up to. He reminded me I was supposed to sort out his prescription that day, so I took the car home, dealt with that, picked up Matt and then we went and got the boys, who had been amusing themselves with Stella the whole time.
We had a table booked at Les Saveurs in Brantôme that evening as the boys wanted to take us out for a meal, which was very nice of them. We all had typically fantastic meals – scallops followed by a duo of beef and veal sweetmeats for Matt, foie gras followed by duck breast for me, Lit and Dave, and foie gras with rabbit followed by beef for Gary. There was then a cheese course, during which Dave started to go a bit downhill. I too was just starting to feel a bit broken, but clearly he had it worse. He wobbled out for some air then came back looking a little better, though he had no memory of the cheese course we’d had just minutes ago. Dessert was next – crème brulée for GB and Matt, and a sort of apple tart for me, Lit and Dave. By now, I was struggling quite badly and was as eager as Dave to get out of the restaurant. Fortunately, the fresh air went some way to reviving me and I was more or less able to drive home, having gone very easy on the wine (for a change).
It was the boys’ last night, and no-one had much of a drinking hat on, bar Matt of course (it was Friday night after all) but I think we made it to about 1 before all going to bed. Their train was at 11:30 so we were up fairly early to get them there on time. They all vowed to stay sober on the train, but I believe that lasted only as far as Lille. For us, we had arranged to meet up with Lee & Richard in Angoulême that afternoon. They had a friend over visiting – Glenda, who we met last year, so we had a bite to eat in town while we waited for them and then sat in the sun and enjoyed the people watching and had a nice catch up. Funnily enough though, neither Matt or I felt much like drinking, so after an hour or so, we came back home to chill. Since then, Matt’s been working most of the weekend, trying to make more headway on the site he is building, and I finished painting our exterior walls. Otherwise, it is back to la tranquilité at Port 80, for now anyway. Au revoir.