I had my first "degustation."
It's after midnight, so our trip to Saint Émilion took place yesterday. We arrived there and took a tour of an underground church built by monks centuries ago. It was a really different experience being down there in a place so old and with so much history. It gets very cold underground. Alas, picture-taking was not allowed in there so too bad because it was pretty cool.
After visiting some more random spots - including a little grotto which contained Saint Émilion's bed (a slab of rock on the ground), bathtub (a hole in the ground), and his meditation seat (which, legend has it, has the power to give women fertility... Yeah, I don't know) - we headed over to a wine-making factory and had a tour of the wine-making process. That was followed by a small sampling, but I don't know the name of the one I drank.
I uploaded the very few pictures from this trip into their own set [here].
A couple days ago, Lacey took me to Auchan which is very similar to Target. As much as I love how France has so many little shops (Pharmacie, Papeterie, etc.), it was great to finally find something where everything was in one store. I bought some notebooks for class as well as a [fountain pen]. I feel very elegant writing with it, until I see my chicken scratch-like handwriting.
One thing I really love about Bordeaux is how close everything is to each other and how much walking I'm willing to do. The distance from here to Leader Price (the supermarket) is the same as the distance from home to Hows Supermarket back in Pasadena. Yet there, it seems almost ridiculous to walk to the market and have to carry bags home on foot. The great thing is it's only a 20 minute walk from here to the centre-ville which is really convenient. Today after the excursion, I found out another one of the Californians lives really close and it was so easy to head over there for dinner and walk back here afterwards. I think I'm really going to miss being able to head out on foot, look around and enjoy the scenery, and take things slowly like this.
After the bus dropped us off at the centre-ville after the excursion, I took a picture of the [Grand Théatre] which is at the north end of the main street. It's gorgeous at night and I'm going to need to go back with the camera again to take a proper shot. Also, on the way back home, I took [this picture] while walking through Gambetta (the area right off the main center) because the street was so pretty. Sometimes it's still kind of hard for me to believe that I live here.
I'm off to Paris (again) on Monday around 11ish and will be returning Friday night. I plan to be as much of a tourist as possible while I'm there.