Eat Drink Run Woman

I’m FINALLY getting around to posting about our adventures in Bordeaux. Given Paris was really about the food (other than the two runs, our primary exercise was walking from cafe to bistro to farmer’s market), you can read about that portion of the trip at Ovens to Betsy (definitely check out the name of the first restaurant we ate at upon arrival).

Not wanting to leave things to chance, I signed up for the Marathon du Medoc through Marathon Tours as we were not only guaranteed entry into the race, we’d also be getting tickets to the Mille-Pâtes (1,000 noodle) carbo-loading dinner and the 9K recovery walk the day after. Although not an inexpensive way to go, the package also included five nights’ stay at a hotel, breakfast each day, wine tastings and lunch at a couple of chateaux, a welcome dinner and a celebratory gala. Considering our last “real” vacation was our honeymoon to Thailand seven years ago, we decided to live it up. Turns out it was a very wise decision as the International Rugby World Cup is currently being held in France, and many of the hotels in both Bordeaux and Paris were sold out.

Right from the start I knew this would not be your typical tour group (my darling’s version of Hell would be getting stuck on either a tour bus to Branson, Missouri or on any cruise ship). Most of the 100 people in our group were running the marathon, and the majority didn’t think of themselves as “tour people.” I was amazed at their stories: for one 69-year-old gentleman Medoc was to be his 39th marathon; he ran his first at age 40! Another woman was pursuing her quest to run on all seven continents (Medoc would be her fourth and she’s signed up for the 2008 Antarctica marathon). The oldest in the group was 83 (it took a while before his doctor gave him the go-ahead. Although he was capable of finishing the full marathon, he decided to duck out at the halfway mark since he wouldn’t make our group’s cut-off time of seven hours).

But the person who truly astounded me was a tiny woman in her 60s (perhaps even 70s). All during the trip I thought she was there to cheer someone else on; I never suspected she’d be running it. But as they were handing out awards during the gala, I found out that Medoc was her 115th marathon! Simply incredible. (She won the award for the slowest person in our group).

They split us up into two groups for each day’s bus ride: Thom Gilligan, the owner of Marathon Tours, was our guide, while his wife Sharon was on the other bus. As we made the 45-minute trip to the chateaux each day Thom explained the history of Bordeaux wines, peppering the “official” talk with “Bert and I” jokes — extremely dry “Down East” Maine humor (Sharon hails from Maine and Thom loves to tease her).

On Friday we headed to Chateau Lynch-Bages for a tour/tasting, followed by lunch at Chateau Aney where we picked up our bibs and t-shirts. Our afternoon tour was at Chateau Lascombes in Margaux (pictured at left), then we headed to Pauillac for the expo. It was quite small compared to ones in the states and primarily featured booths promoting other races (although a few were selling last-minute costumes).

Because the Mille-Pâtes dinner tends to start and end really late, Marathon Tours decided to host its own carbo-loading dinner at Chateau du Taillan so we could return to our hotel at a more respectable hour. When they say carbo-loading, they really mean it. We started with a pasta salad, then had chicken with a sauce and a side of macaroni for our entrée. Dessert, however, threw me for a loop. It was obviously pasta, but the taste was more like rice pudding. As far as I could tell they mixed fettuccine with a custard, spread it in a loaf pan and let it thicken. It was then sliced and served with a sauce. It actually was quite good!

In case you’re a new reader to Eat Drink Run Woman (welcome!), you can read about the actual marathon here. But here are a couple of pics of what we looked like immediately after:

Can you tell which one of us turned into Barfy McBarfison?

I more than made up for my restraint in tasting the wine during the marathon at the 9K recovery walk. About 5,000 people participate, winding through the vines and chateaux with our official Medoc tasting cups. Once again we were serenaded by several bands. We headed back to Chateau du Taillan for lunch, where we were joined by a tour group from Germany. Now that the hard part was behind us, we let loose.

We thankfully got to sleep in on Monday, but by 9:30 we were piling into the buses once again for another chateau tour/wine tasting, this time at Chateau Haut Sarpe.

(This is the view from the chateau).

Next up was the quaint village of St. Emilion where we had lunch and then wandered along the cobbled streets. One of the local wine shops was offering more wine tastings, and my darling fell in love with the P. du Roy, made by one of the former vintners for Petrus (one of the most expensive wines in the world). I was shocked to see him plunk down more than $1,000 for a case! Not to be outdone, I picked up a bottle of Armagnac for about $100 (did I mention this was NOT an inexpensive trip?!!!).

Our final dinner was the gala at Chateau Bouscaut. Compared to all the other festivities, this was rather subdued (I think we were all in chateau/wine tasting overload). The next day we bid our adieu to our fellow runners, promising to meet up with a few of them at the Hemingway Bar at the Ritz in Paris (with its 28 euro martinis — about $35).

No post would be complete with a gratuitous foot shot:

(Let this be a lesson: blisters + wine + dancing barefoot in the dirt = OWEEE!)