The French triangle day 2: the vineyard and the city

I had a reasonable amount of sleep last night, and felt somewhat rested this morning. As it's Saturday morning, tradition dictates that whenever I'm in France, I need to watch some music videos on M6. Today, though, I thought the show wasn't as good as another channel on TV.

I went downstairs to join the Caprice team for breakfast. Hairy Legs had finally woken up from his 14-hour slumber and was enjoying the eggs the kitchen had fried up for him. I give them a pass to focus on the viennoiserie, along with some yogurt and fresh orange juice.

It's been so long since my last trip to France that I had forgotten to dip my pain au chocolat into my chocolat chaud until I saw Hairy Legs do it. This simple act is so, so satisfying. I need to make a bigger cup of coffee when I'm at home so that I can do this.

I felt like a fairy tale princess trapped in a tower, especially when I've got windows like these... so I decided to take a walk around the grounds of the château.

The château looked beautiful in the morning, while the skies were still blue. I could see my room from the outside.

[360° video] It's been YEARS since I last walked around a real vineyard, so I relished the opportunity. It's November and the harvest has been long finished, so what's left on the vines are the unwanted grapes waiting to become fertilizer.

[360° photo] Seeing that I have a little time today, I decided that I wanted to revisit Bordeaux city, as I only got a very quick look with the MNSC boys back in 2009 while the ladies went shopping at Hermès. My first stop was Place de la Bourse with its fountain.

It's lunch time, so I stopped at Brasserie Bordelaise for some lunch. I've gotten mixed reviews from people... The French say it's a go-to classic place, while DaRC put it on his "avoid" list along with quite a few restaurants which received macarons from the Rubberman. For various reasons I decided to come here against my friend's warning, because I was looking for one particular thing.

I started with some paté de foie de porc on some bread. This was pretty decent.

Cassolette de ris de veau, sauce madère et champignons sauvages - OK... so I realized later, upon re-checking the menu after the dish arrived, that I had been dyslexic. I had wanted to have cassoulet, but I didn't realize the menu read cassolette! AAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!!!! No wonder it didn't look anything like what I had expected to get.

The dish came with two side dishes, so I took the opportunity to get some veggies in by getting légumes de saison rôtis. This was a pretty big side dish!

Can't pass up an opprtunity to have frites!

This wasn't a very satisfactory meal, so I continued with some sightseeing. Cathédrale Saint-André de Bordeaux is one of three churches in Bordeaux that's part of the camino de Santiago, which has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was, unfortunately, closed due to ongoing renovations.

I had to make do with visiting the Tour Pey Berland right next to it and chose to climb the 233 steps up the very narrow stairwell to the observation platform.

This gave me a pretty good view of the city, including the cathedral next door.

I thought about hitting the Basilique Saint-Michel nearby, another of the three prominent churches, but the weather was pretty crap and I figured I'd rather head back to Yquem earlier and rest up for the big night. After all, BABY, THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME FOR!