Paulliac & Margaux - Part 1

We depart Fort Medoc for a short cruise to Pauillac. We pass famous chateau along the way including Château Margaux and Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande.

Pauillac is beautiful in the morning sun.

We return to Margaux for a wine tour of Château Dauzac.

The original château was the winery and storage area. With the new winery and visitor center, the château is in the process of being restored and prepared to hold tours and provide B&B services.

Vine treatment machine designed to 'fly' over the vines.

This GPS controlled mower nearly took out a member of our tour.

We tour the winerey.

Barrels, foudres, and clay pots for storage.

Time for tasting. This is a good, yet inexpensive Margaux.

This has been an excellent tour. 

Blaye

Blaye is a city on the east bank of the Gironde River. Shortly after we dock this ship rafts next to us. We thought they would block our view but they are older and shorter.

We are here to tour the fortress. There is too much uneven walking for us. Didier and Jocelyne take the tour. The photographs are compliments of them.

Scenic Diamond docked in Blaye. Our ship in tied to the pier and the smaller French ship is rafted to us.

We depart Blaye for the short cruise across the Gironde estuary to Fort Medoc.

This is where we're cruising.

Scenic Diamond

We board Scenic Diamond at 3pm. Since this was a last-minute idea, our room is quite small. It has a king bed, reasonable storage. Our two large suitcases, roller, and backpack get stored under the bed.

The biggest issue with the room is the cramped working space for CJs computer and Carols inability to get to and from the balcony when he is working at it.

It does have an excellent balcony. A sliding window pane can be closed for protection from the weather or opened for viewing.

There are four decks. The lowest has the gym, spa, salt room, and crew quarters. There are two decks of rooms in the rear 75% of the ship. The front quarter has the lounge and the dining room.

This is the main lobby. On each side is the entry/exit for the ship. Straight ahead is the lounge. The picture is taken from the top of the staircase to all floors below. Access to the top deck is by external stairs on the sides of the ship. One set is off the lobby. Another is at the rear near our room.

The roof deck is for lounging, storage, conning, and the hot tub.