Château Lynch-Bages, Château Cordeillan-Bages, et Restaurant L'Arberet

730AM Recontrer. Tired. Very tired. Last night I couldn't sleep because my roomie wouldn't stop snoring. So I texted Bang-me in the middle of the night to see if I could crash at her place. That only left me with about 2 hours of sleep. And I was hungover. So was Chris and Chef. Good times in Bordeaux. =D



Our first stop was to - SURPRISE!- another wine tasting at Château Lynch-Bages. At 9AM.









Really expensive artwork on the way to the tasting room


I was nauseous all morning, but conveniently, I started to feel better by the time we got to the tasting part of the tour. But I ended up tasting and spitting the wine. I think most people were spitting this morning. Amanda overheard chef saying "what a shame." And Chris was pretty nauseous too. I gave him a couple Pepto which he took with WINE. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Really, there was nothing else to drink.

Château Lynch-Bages
33250 Pauillac
Tel: +33 (0) 5 56 73 24 00

After, we did a bit of shopping.




I bought a couple bottles for the Donnays. It's too bad I have to ship it from Paris when I was already in Bordeaux. They don't ship wine here... isn't that supposed to be standard at most wineries? Tant pis.


Our next stop was Cordeillan-Bages where Chef Thierry Marx's restaurant is. I was originally supposed to do my next stage there, but Brian ended up going. This trip was super special for him.


Chef/MOF Jean-Luc Rocha took us on a tour.


Here is the kitchen where all the molecular magic happens.


Where they store the wine for service


Walking through the hallways


Sweet pool - I wonder if stagiaires get any pool access? hahaha


Château Cordeillan-Bages
Route des Châteaux
33250 Pauillac (Gironde)
France
Tel.: : + 33 (0)5 56 59 24 24

Afterwards, he took us on a tour of the Thierry Marx cooking school which is located in a nearby brasserie.




And here is a random photo of Chris trying on my jacket at the brasserie. Sexy, ain't it?


And then lunchtime at Restaurant L'Arberet. On our way to the restaurant, we took a quick pause at the beach. How f'in gorgeous.




And our meal at L'Aberet - a small family-owned restaurant. They also had a few rooms for lodging. The place really reminded me of Costa Rica. They had a bunch of parrots and animals in the backyard of the restaurant. The decor reminded me of it too.

Amuse bouche - tuna. Ummm.


Ummmm foie gras. Ummmm.


More cabillaud !


Rhum/vanille ice-cream




.Tired.


So funny story - we heard an uproar of laughter from the other table during lunch. Apparently, last night, Chef Stéphane took a photo of Chef Séb passed out on the bed, shirtless, and obviously drunk. He passed his camera around the table and told everyone to hurry and look it at. Chef Sébastien quickly grabbed the camera and deleted the photo. DAMN! Would have been a great photo for this blog. Or Facebook ! AHHAHAHA. (Ok, I am not that mean. C'est pour rire =D)

L'Arberet
Route de Soulac
33930 Vendays-Montalivet
Gironde (Aquitaine)
05 56 41 71 29

Outside the restaurant. Here is everyone that was riding in Monsieur Blayac's car.


Everyone jumped out of the car because Ido ripped a bad one. And it really was that bad. I just walked by and could smell it. It was hilarious though.

Day is not over!