After leaving London we then headed to France for my brothers wedding in the Bordeaux. And for me it’s the first time I’ve ever been to this region. This is my recount of our short time including the lovely village of Saint-Émilion, Bordeaux, and the scenic Château de Lisse east of Bordeaux.

Getting There

It was actually a pretty seamless journey from downtown London to Bordeaux. There is regular train service from downtown London to Gatwick airport and EasyJet flies from London to Bordeaux in around 2 hours. There were plenty of airport and plane strikes to worry about and luckily none of that was a problem for us. However I do recommend EasyJet as they are way better than other budget airlines with helping people if they get stuck. We paid for seats on EasyJet which comes with the extra carry-on baggage and was totally worth it.

Saint-Émilion

We rented a car from the Bordeaux Airport and then drove over to the village of Saint-Émilion about an hour away. The village is actually a UNESCO world heritage site and for me was one of the highlights of the Bordeaux region.

Driving there was easy because I had downloaded offline Google Maps turned on however parking in the village isn’t easy. This is a popular tourist destination and we arrived around noon when the village was packed. We walked from nearly the outside of the city limits to get into the city but overall it probably wasn’t much longer than 10 minutes.

The village itself isn’t huge. We walked it probably within 2 hours and that’s going pretty slow. However we really loved having lunch, the local wine and relaxing. So much about traveling in Europe can be stressful but sitting down to have a long lunch with wine is such a good idea to me. Saint-Émilion had plenty of outdoor seating and we sat at this restaurant in the center of the city.

Wine Tasting

I met up with some of my family and friends to go wine tasting just a 10 minute drive from Saint-Émilion. We went to this place called Château La Dominique and they had a great wine tasting tour as well as tasting wine at the end of the tour. France surprisingly doesn’t do wine tasting like we do in the States but this one was still fun and a great way to try the local wine.

Cave Dinner

We went back to Saint-Émilion to meet up with our family for a dinner at a restaurant in a cave. It was truly a unique experience that only Saint-Émilion can offer.

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a cute city that unfortunately we didn’t have much time to see. We drove late from Saint-Émilion after our dinner and then ran into problems driving in the city. Let’s just say we did not have the most pleasant time driving in Bordeaux as the main road was blocked off. We had to find our way through the maze that is Bordeaux downtown, at night, with the help of Google Maps to get to our hotel. We eventually did but it was a struggle.

Fireworks

For some reason, Bordeaux was hosting a firework show right on the Garonne River. We got there right when it started and I got a great panoramic video of the Place de la Bourse. This is the center of Bordeaux and sits near Le Miroir d’eau.

Breakfast

Because we had such a late night we had to get up and find breakfast. That’s the one thing about France, it’s actually pretty hard to find a good breakfast. The French love just a coffee and croissant and no real food. So we walked the city center for a good 30 minutes before finding a place to sit down. It was also raining so really not the best time to explore Bordeaux. In fact after breakfast we had to leave anyways straight for my brothers wedding venue an hour and half away.

Château de Lisse

From Bordeaux we traveled southeast to get to Château de Lisse, near the city of Nérac. It’s a beautiful castle that overlooks a beautiful part of south central France. My brother and his husband decided to get married here and they invited about 30 guests to stay in the Château. Roman and I had a beautiful large room that overlooked the grounds.

Wine and more wine

One of the great things about France is the abundance of great, cheap wine. And this Château de Lisse had plenty of wine to choose from. In fact, we had wine from the moment we got there and never really stopped until we left. And as the wine flowed we were free to pretty much relax, play games, eat and chat.

The Château Grounds

The Château is actually pretty expansive and covered a large are to explore. Most of the ground stayed near the castle and enjoyed the pool or took a walk outside. We also had great weather which was nice to have during a wedding.

I won’t get into the wedding too much here but the wedding went off without a hitch and it was fantastic, so congrats to my brother and brother-in-law if your reading this. We drank wine, danced and had a great time.

Auberge de Larressingle

So finding a place to dine with 30 people is actually kind of hard in France as it should be in most places. But our group was able to find a place about 25 minutes away from the Château in a beautiful city with one restaurant. The meal ended up being just alright but we got to spend time as a group and explore the little village.

Review

France is a beautiful country and I’m always happy to return. This time the circumstances were a bit more formal and for my brothers wedding so we may have not traveled to this region if it wasn’t for that. However we saw plenty of beautiful things and I do think the Bordeaux region is a region of France to consider more exploring. Overall it was a quick time in France but perhaps are most chilled time in Europe since we didn’t actually travel that much during.