Bordeaux & French Basque Country - Discover France: Experience the Best of France - page 545

Pretty place Gambetta Offline map Google map , a central open area ringed by
shaded benches, also has its share of history - during the Reign of Terror that fol-
lowed the Revolution, a guillotine placed here severed the heads of 300 alleged
counter-revolutionaries.
Tours
The tourist office runs a packed program of bilingual city tours, including a
wheelchair-accessible two-hour morning walking tour (adult/child €8/7, plus op-
tional wine tasting €3.50; 10am, plus 3pm mid-Jul-mid-Aug) ; a night-time walk-
ing tour (adult/child €15/10) takes in Bordeaux' floodlit buildings and monuments.
Contact the tourist office for details of dozens of other tour options, including gour-
met and wine tours as well as river cruises in the warmer months.
On the Wine Trail
Thirsty? The 1000-sq-km winegrowing area around the city of Bordeaux is, along with
Burgundy, France's most important producer of top-quality wines.
The Bordeaux region is divided into 57 appellations (production areas whose soil and
microclimate impart distinctive characteristics to the wine produced there) that are
grouped into seven familles (families), and then subdivided into a hierarchy of designa-
tions (eg premier grand cru classé, the most prestigious) that often vary from appellation
to appellation . The majority of the Bordeaux region's reds, rosés, sweet and dry whites
and sparkling wines have earned the right to include the abbreviation AOC (Appellation
d'Origine Contrôlée) on their labels, indicating that the contents have been grown, fer-
mented and aged according to strict regulations that govern such viticultural matters as
the number of vines permitted per hectare and acceptable pruning methods.
Bordeaux has over 5000 châteaux (also known as domaines, crus or clos ), referring
not to palatial residences but rather to the properties where grapes are raised, picked, fer-
mented and then matured as wine. The smaller châteaux sometimes accept walk-in visit-
ors, but at many places, especially the better-known ones, you have to make advance re-
servations. Many close during the vendange (grape harvest) in October.
Whet your palate with the tourist office's informal introduction to wine and cheese
courses (adult €24), held every Thursday at 4.30pm, where you sip three different wines
straight from the cellar and sup on cheese.