St. Jean de Luz, Bordeaux

We checked out of Hotel La Marisa in the morning since we were heading to Bordeaux that afternoon.  Hotel La Marisa was the perfect place to stay in Saint-Jean-de-Luz.  It was cozy, comfortable, right next to the beach, and in a central location.

For lunch, we headed back to Rue Republique where we had seen some seafood restaurants.  Quinn had the ttoro, a seafood bouillbase (amazing!), and I had the scallops.

We walked over to the train station to catch our train to Bordeaux.  We arrived into Bordeaux, rented a car from Europcar, and started our mission to find Beau Sejour in Naujan et Postiac, a small countryside town just 35 kilometers east of Bordeaux.  We weren't able to find directions to the bed and breakfast before we left Saint-Jean-de-Luz in the morning but we had directions to the town itself.  Quinn was driving, and I was navigating.  When Quinn asked me for the directions, I told him that the directions were "turn right, turn left, then go straight."  There were no street signs and few landmarks.  Once we reached Naujan et Postiac, we tried finding the place by turning down each street and looking for signs.  It was quite an adventure but we didn't mind driving around since the surroundings were absolutely beautiful.  On one of the wrong turns, someone came out of their house  and so we asked for directions.  It ends up that we were just right across the street from where we needed to be!

Maureen, one of our hosts greeted us at the gate upon our arrival.  She showed us through the house, and to our large, spacious room just off the terrace.  We settled in and then we were off to Saint-Emilion for dinner.

We drove through the green countryside vineyards towards Saint-Emilion and entered the small town on foot.  At Le Clos du Roy, we were offered an aperitif of champagne and ordered the Chef's "surprise" menu.
Our menu for the evening:
Peanut curry quenelle with breadsticks
Tomato tabasco mousse with spinach
Foie gras 2 ways
White fish with naan, a reduced fond de veau sauce
Pigeon 2 ways with eggplant and feta
Bleu cheese 2 ways
Strawberry sorbet with a macaroon filled with fresh strawberries and chiboust cream
More macaroons with caneles

 There were both good and bad parts of the meal.  I was excited about the fact that we tried pigeon but put off by some of the unacceptably horrible dishes (the macaroons were rock solid!) and the rude service.  Our sommelier kept trying to push 150 euro bottles of wine for bottles we knew were only in the 20 euro range at the store.  We opted for a 2001 Saint-Emilion Grand Cru at a more reasonable price.  To top it off, when we got our bill, we found that the waitress had undercharged us by 104 euros.  We pointed out the discrepancy, but in turn, we were overcharged due to a miscommunication when we had ordered.  We were apalled by her rudeness and inexcusable attitude, but in the end, we felt that we had done the right thing even though she did not afford us the same courtesy.

We returned to BeauSejour and found that our neighbors were having a drink outside.  The three guys were South Africa and were in town for the VinExpo in Bordeaux.  We joined them for some SoCo and OJ on the terrace and chit chatted through the night.