All You Need To Know About Day Tripping to St. Emilion Without A Tour Guide!

08/09/201608/09/2016wareontheglobe 10 Comments

I will start off by disclosing that this is a companion piece to my recent post My Day in St. Émilion Without A Tour Company! You will see some of the same pictures and read some of the same facts, but this post is meant to provide a more detailed guide to exploring and planning St. Émilion without a tour guide! As I have mentioned before, St. Émilion is an absolutely stunning medieval French town located 40 minutes outside of Bordeaux. St. Émilion is known for two things: its robust red wines and its well preserved, medieval old town. As you can imagine, both of those draw big crowds and St. Émilion is hugely popular with tourists, especially the upscale crowd! Think lots of swanky hotels, numerous Michelin starred restaurants, and some of the best red wines that can be found…

St. Emilion vines.

St. Emilion, France. Simply gorgeous.

The cutest buildings in St. Emilion!

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My Day In St. Emilion Without a Tour Company!

01/09/201601/09/2016wareontheglobe 5 Comments

As you may know from reading my Wine Cruising to Sauternes post, there are, to many tourists surprise, no vineyards or wine châteaux in the city of Bordeaux! All of the châteaux that make the famous “Bordeaux wine” are located in designated areas around Bordeaux. St. Émilion is one of those areas and in my opinion, is the easiest and best Bordeaux wine region to visit on your own (i.e. without joining a tour) from Bordeaux!

St. Emilion vineyards

St. Émilion is world renowned for its full-bodied red wines. But St. Émilion is also an extremely well preserved medieval town that is complete with a unique system underground passageways, wine cellars and even an underground church! As you can imagine, St. Émilion is a very popular day trip from Bordeaux and all of the tour companies offer day trips to St. Émilion from Bordeaux, starting €80,00/person and going up from there. However, St. Émilion is easily accessible from Bordeaux by train on your own, so that is what we did. St. Émilion was my favorite day trip out of Bordeaux and a “must do” for anyone in the area!

Medieval St. Emilion

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Restaurant Review: Le Restaurant Bar Andre. Fresh Seafood in La Rochelle, France.

19/08/201618/08/2016wareontheglobe Leave a comment

Le Restaurant Bar Andre is most certainly the most famous restaurant in La Rochelle, France (if you are unfamiliar with La Rochelle, read about it here). Restaurant Andre is located right in the heart of La Rochelle, in its Vieux Port just below La Rochelle’s iconic towers. Restaurant Andre has been open since 1947 and now occupies a web of dining rooms, each with a slightly different sea theme. Restaurant Andre is an excellent place to try some of La Rochelle’s fresh seafood and a place to check off your La Rochelle bucket list!

La Rochelle’s famous towers!

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La Cite du Vin: The Most Magical Wine Museum in Bordeaux!

16/08/201616/08/2016wareontheglobe 1 Comment

La Cité du Vin opened on June 1, 2016 and I visited a few short weeks thereafter after drooling over Bordeaux’s “wine amusement park” on Condé Nast Traveler! Not quite an amusement park in the traditional sense, La Cité du Vin is a wine museum dedicated to the history of wine and the wine cultures of the world. And it was plain amazing!! Per la Cité du Vin’s own website, the wine museum’s mission is to “promote and share the cultural, universal and living heritage that is wine with the broadest possible audience,” with a focus on emotions, sensations and imagination, and the museum certain did a good job of that! We allotted about 3 hours for the museum and lunch and could have spent so much longer (and everything wasn’t even open yet since the museum had just opened)! Plan accordingly!

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Restaurant Review: La Tupina – The Most Delicious Restaurant In Bordeaux That I Almost Skipped!

12/08/2016wareontheglobe 2 Comments

Before visiting Bordeaux, I googled lots of “where to eat in Bordeaux”/“best restaurant in Bordeaux,” etc. blogs and read numerous Bordeaux restaurant reviews, and let me tell you, there are a lot of fabulous restaurants in and around Bordeaux, including a number of Michelin starred restaurants! Choosing the right Bordeaux restaurant can be quite overwhelming, and can take up a good bit of your time.

Many options – this one is not La Tupina!

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