The Group Tour: Friend or Foe?

We visited Bordeaux last weekend, which is a really beautiful city on the coast in the south west of France. because we do not have a car and we have not yet worked up the courage to rent one in France, we found ourselves in a bit of a pickle. The vineyards, where the grapes are harvested to create the famed Bordeaux wines are, obviously, not located in the city center. We had read about the vast fields, small charming villages and gorgeous chateaux (castles) that comprise the wine country in the surrounding vicinity. Without a car and not wanting to spend an exorbitant (and, at the moment, imaginary) sum of money on a private tour, we opted for a group tour via bus.

A word on group tours: I hate them.

A second word on group tours: My husband feels less affinity for them than do I.

Yet, in our particular case, such a course of action seemed to be the only viable way to accomplish our mission of seeing wine country.

Our tour was called "Bordeaux: Secrets of Great Wines." A small digression: you may remember that last month we took a cooking class called "Chef's Secrets," and I would just like to clear up the fact that we are not people who are soley interested in broadening our cultural horizons through the acquisition of "secrets"; these two events are merely a coincidence (for those of you who believe in the word, anyway). Back to Bordeaux: it was a full day affair, this secret-revealing tour, and was delivered in both French and English.

It actually proved to be an exemplary French lesson for me, so I really feel the value was top-notch.

In the morning we visited one of the original wine merchant's homes, and learned the history and evolution of the Bordeaux wine industry. We then kicked things off with a couple of tastings in this home at 11 am. It was possibly the earliest that I have ever imbibed alcohol, unless you count the "champagne"/apple juice concoction I drank with my roomates the morning we finished our final undergraduate college classes. That was a bad idea, by the way.

As far as the continutation of the tour, in the late morning we were given a walking history lesson on Bordeaux, which was amazingly informative. After the walk, we had lunch ensemble at a wine and cheese cave in the city center. The cheese had its own room. It was sort of like a greenhouse, but for cheese. The smell was rather potent in that little frommage hot-house, and the array of cheeses was impressive. There were probably 75 varieties of cheese from which we could sample. The only trouble with the arrangement was that it was impossible to remember the names of all the cheeses so there is little chance of being able to locate them again. The lunch also included a hot goat cheese "soup" as a starter, roasted duck in red wine and crispy potatoes as the main course, followed by the cheese exponanza. We wrapped things up with an apple cake and the requisite cafe.

One word on lunch: Yummers.

After lunch/Cheese-Gorge 2010, we boarded the bus and visited the Medoc region of Bordeaux wine country. The scenery was incredible. Breathtaking, actually. All the vines were changing colors and the vast fields awash in different hues led up to impressive chateaux. We must have seeen 15 castles on the drive. We had two more tastings, one at an "old school" vineyard which seemed fresh out of a fairy-tale, yet boasted surprisingly up-to-date technology. In fact, they developed their own grape sortring machine and are the only vineyard in the region to have such an apparatus. We also visited a super modern-type vineyard, and sampled wine straight from an oak barrell that has yet to be bottled for consumers.

All the wine was aged in French Oak barrels, by the way. They were very clear about American Oak being sub par. Those French, they never miss an opportunity to flaunt their superiority over us miscreant Americans.

All in all, it was a lovely day.

However, group tours remain low on my list. I recognize that they often provide information and accessibility that would be otherwise unavailable, and I am always wholly impressed when a guide is passionate and engaging, as ours on this excursion truly was. So, educationally, tours have their high points. It is the whole being-sandwiched-amidst-a-group-of-people-wearing-cameras-around-their-necks-and-looking-for-lasting-friendships-while-laughing-at-the-guide's-corny-jokes that turns me off. I used to think I disliked them due to my own social anxiety. Then I transitioned from that stance and wondered if my distaste stemmed from the fact that I can be overly judgemental and somewhat anti-social.

But I think it is a little simpler than that: I just don't like forced fun and/or forced intimacy. Fake, smiley, small chat with strangers? Ugh, who needs it.

How very French of me, n'est-ce pas?