Medoc
12 March 2007
The Médoc peninsula, formed by the Atlantic to the west and the Gironde Estuary to the northeast, is famous for its wines and their namesake castles, such as Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Mouton Rothschild, and 30 others.
If you love wine and castles this is one of the regions to visit. Perhaps it helps us to understand why Louis XIV during a visit to this region in 1660 on his return from his marriage to La Infanta in Saint-Jean-de-Luz (see earlier post) decided that it needed more protection. By building a fort here to control access to this part of the estuary and thus to the rivers around Bordeaux, the region would benefit as would the protection of the city of Bordeaux.
Things move slowly and it was not until 1685 that Vauban visited the site and designed Fort Médoc to “padlock” the river and protect Bordeaux. Louis XIV in 1686 gave the necessary orders to begin construction the following year.
Based on Vauban’s plans the fort stood on the Gironde and with a system of locks was able to control the level of water in the surrounding moat. Three casements faced the Gironde and the shot from them controlled access to the river.
Today only one side of the encasing wall remains along with part of the bakery, all of the magazine, chapel and principal residence.
The Château-de-Lamargue is both a winery and for 7 seven generations the residence of the same family. Tours of the winery and of the castle are available.
The town of Lamargue has an interesting Mairie (town hall) seen here from inside the gates to the castle.
The town church has an unusual steeple.
The same part of southern Médoc, the village of Ludon, has a château “converted” into a hotel.
Adjacent to it is a very well preserved early medieval church.
and formal gardens leading down to the Gironde.
The vineyards at Château Lafite Rothschild show the mix of sand and pebbles in the fertile earth well suited to the reds.
The Lafite castle probably wouldn’t make the cut for a Disney fairytale. But we’d take it in a pinch, if we were really forced to by lack of finances.
We were reminded of Belgian visitors telling us when we took them to the grandeur of Desolation Sound on a sunny British Columbia summer day– “we don’t know where to look, there are so many mountains and so much beauty”.
In the Médoc there were so many castles that we didn’t know where to look.
Having surfeited on castles we stopped for the night in Soulac-sur-Mer (literally translated as “Under Lake on Ocean”). The highlights of this seaside town for us were that Marie-Claire had a cut and style while Roger emptied the “facilities”.
The Médoc peninsula, formed by the Atlantic to the west and the Gironde Estuary to the northeast, is famous for its wines and their namesake castles, such as Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Mouton Rothschild, and 30 others.
If you love wine and castles this is one of the regions to visit. Perhaps it helps us to understand why Louis XIV during a visit to this region in 1660 on his return from his marriage to La Infanta in Saint-Jean-de-Luz (see earlier post) decided that it needed more protection. By building a fort here to control access to this part of the estuary and thus to the rivers around Bordeaux, the region would benefit as would the protection of the city of Bordeaux.
Things move slowly and it was not until 1685 that Vauban visited the site and designed Fort Médoc to “padlock” the river and protect Bordeaux. Louis XIV in 1686 gave the necessary orders to begin construction the following year.
Based on Vauban’s plans the fort stood on the Gironde and with a system of locks was able to control the level of water in the surrounding moat. Three casements faced the Gironde and the shot from them controlled access to the river.
Today only one side of the encasing wall remains along with part of the bakery, all of the magazine, chapel and principal residence.The Château-de-Lamargue is both a winery and for 7 seven generations the residence of the same family. Tours of the winery and of the castle are available.
The town of Lamargue has an interesting Mairie (town hall) seen here from inside the gates to the castle.The town church has an unusual steeple.
The same part of southern Médoc, the village of Ludon, has a château “converted” into a hotel.
Adjacent to it is a very well preserved early medieval church.
The Château Beychevelle could have been used in a Walt Disney movie with its towers,
and formal gardens leading down to the Gironde.
The vineyards at Château Lafite Rothschild show the mix of sand and pebbles in the fertile earth well suited to the reds.
The Lafite castle probably wouldn’t make the cut for a Disney fairytale. But we’d take it in a pinch, if we were really forced to by lack of finances.
We were reminded of Belgian visitors telling us when we took them to the grandeur of Desolation Sound on a sunny British Columbia summer day– “we don’t know where to look, there are so many mountains and so much beauty”.
In the Médoc there were so many castles that we didn’t know where to look.
Having surfeited on castles we stopped for the night in Soulac-sur-Mer (literally translated as “Under Lake on Ocean”). The highlights of this seaside town for us were that Marie-Claire had a cut and style while Roger emptied the “facilities”.
posted by Retired and on the Move | 8:21 AM
<< Home