Amanda’s Red Guide : 09/18/2006

Disclaimer: Amanda's Red Guide is based on Amanda's taste only. Occasionally she takes input from her travel companions, but more often than not, her opinion dominates her reviews.Unfortunately, she didn't write down the exact names of her dishes due to various constraints.

Lunch :

TGV ham sandwich. You can easily beat it by packing your own.

Conclusion: Not Recommended.

Dinner:

Le Clos du Roy
12, rue de la Petite Fontaine, 33330 Saint-Émilion
05 57 74 41 55

The best meal so far of this trip! Fois gras now officially became my daily dietary. My entrée (“appetizer” in the States) was pigeon, which tasted and looked like duck and went well with the wine. My main dish was fine, but I was a little burned of by the dish, because it initially smelled like chicken liver and I’m not a big fan of that (I know, I know, but to my little head, chicken liver has nothing to do with foie gras). Thank goodness that it tasted fine. My dessert (pear, vanilla ice cream & others) was tasty!

1995 Château de Ferrand — beautiful nose, light on palette, almost mature enough to be drunk by itself.

Conclusion: Highly Recommended.

Chambre d’Hôte (B&B):

Château de l’Escarderie
2, rue Goffre – 33240 St. Germain-la-Rivière
05 57 84 46 28

This petit château is surrounded by forest and vineyard (belonging to their neighbor). There are 4 rooms total. The cozy Fransac room we stayed at was a corner room with plenty of lights. It has a little terrace connected to the next room and a good size shower room. Both host and hostess were friendly, although we seemed to see only one at a time (host in the afternoon, and hostess in the morning). The standard continental breakfast is included.

Conclusion: Recommended.

Saint-Émilion

After meeting Loïc at Gare de Monparnass, taking TGV down to Bordeaux, picking up our rental car, dropping our luggage at chamber d’hôte Château de l’Escarderie at St. Germain0la-Rivière, we set out for the charming and picturesque town, Saint-Émilion.

Besides being world famous for its wine, Saint-Émilion itself is well worth a visit.

[Hint: Click on photos to see more detailed info.]

TGV Passenger, v1

Loïc met us at Gare de Montparnasse and took the TGV down to Bordeaux, starting our Dordogne trip. While David and Loïc happily chatted away, I was looking for something interesting but not too hard to draw, since TGV shook quite a bit and made it impossible to do detailed work.

I found my target: a French business man sitting diagonally and across the aisle from me. I was bad at being discreet; this monsieur caught my sights many times and he must have wondered what the hell I was doing. However, he was too busy reading his document and couldn’t be bothered enough by me.

The retired monsieur sitting across the tray table from me thought that I was drawing him; in fact, so did David and Loïc. As I showed it to them, he stopped working on his Sudoku puzzles and extended his head and sneaked a glance at it. I couldn’t read if he was disappointed that he wasn’t my model though.

Pétit-Dejeuner à l’Hôtel St-Pétersbourg, v3

The most elaborate one.