Day 2 Part 2: Previewing the course, buying souvenir wines, and French food in the evening – 2014 Medoc Marathon Diary No.3

For a while now, I’m going to be writing in a diary style in my so-called blog posts.

We will be setting up a separate fixed page (as in WordPress) to develop detailed summary information about the Medoc Marathon. Please wait a little longer.

事前準備に関しては、こちらにまとめています。

Date: September 12, 2014

This is a continuation from No.1.

After the registration in Pauillac, we went to preview the course. I had done some preparation beforehand, such as drinking the wines of the participating châteaux, but it was nice to actually see the course in person.

Click here to see the prep work in advance.

As it was the day before the race, I thought the course would be closed to some extent, but as for the public roads, I was able to drive there normally.

まず最初に訪れるシャトーは、スタートから6km地点のところにある「Château MONTROSE」。

Go north on the D2E4 road and turn left 6 km before the road, the vineyards of Montrose spread out on both sides.

This is how we were able to drive along the road to the chateau. In fact, we will drive the same road again tomorrow, this time with our own legs. By the way, we couldn’t enter the inside of the chateau. It would be better to enter tomorrow.

After that, starting from Montrose, the course layout is to visit a chateau every few kilometers after this.

Seeing the course in person like this makes me even more excited for tomorrow.

I had studied a bit about the course and the chateau beforehand, so I was able to preview the course generally smoothly, although I did make a few wrong turns.

In addition, since the course is also in the vineyard, we could not see it at this preliminary inspection stage.

But I think I could feel the atmosphere when I walked by.

Our task in Pauillac is now complete. We head south again to return to Bordeaux.

On the way, I bought a souvenir wine at a wine shop in Margaux village. Here is the shop.

I had read about it in one of my wine books, so I decided to stop by. Fortunately, the road from the suburbs of Bordeaux to Pauillac is a straight road. The village of Margaux is on the way, and this shop was located on the road, so it was easy to find.

It is a very nice wine shop with a wide selection of wines, and on the second floor (first floor locally), there were magnum bottles of first class chateaux.

Wow, a magnum bottle of Margaux…. The price is amazing.

僕は当初4本程度買う予定でしたが、お店の人に「6本以上だと日本への送料無料、しかもすべての品目の免税手続きをヤマト運輸がしてくれるので（1本あたり）2割くらいお得な料金になるよ！」とそそのかされて、結構買ってしまいました。

購入したのは、お店のひとに強く勧められた「Château Clerc Milon 1995」、これを特にお世話になっている人のために3本購入。

続いては、メドック地区の「Château Lagrange 2004」、これはマグナムボトルでお得だったので。

Initially, we tried to do just this, but with two more bottles to go, the shopkeeper recommended a selection of wines from the Margaux region.

So that’s a total of 6 bottles for a total of 450 euros including shipping.

Of course it’s not cheap, but if it’s about 65,000 Japanese yen including a magnum bottle, it’s a good price.

If there is such a system, I hope I can order it from Japan through the internet or something. I’ll check it out later.

After a satisfying shopping experience, we moved on again towards Bordeaux. We arrived at around 7 o’clock in the evening. Here, we say goodbye to the members who accompanied us today and return to the hotel.

That evening, we had dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Hatsuten Master who just arrived in Bordeaux that day. After making all the preparations for tomorrow, we met them at the lobby of the hotel where they were staying.

Since our hotels were close to each other, we chose a restaurant within a few minutes walk from both hotels.

ちなみにこちらのレストランはトリップアドバイザーの「LaFourchette」から予約。

We thought we would have a light meal since it was the day before, but we ended up having the full course.

The starter was ravioli and the main course was lamb, I think. I’m sorry I don’t remember as usual even though I chose it myself…

The taste was not bad. I thought I wanted a little more impact because I’ve been eating a lot of country-style dishes (there are a lot of heavy ones in the country around here).

However, it might have been a good thing that it was rather easy in the end. After all, the next day is the marathon.

I even drank some wine even though it was the day before. Hahaha… We chose the second wine of « Château PÉDESCLAUX », the 5th class wine of Medoc.

It may have been a little young. It was gorgeous, but I would have liked it to be a bit more full-bodied. But the label is lovely.

The Hatten Master and his wife both work in the food and beverage industry, so they have a wealth of knowledge and topics regarding alcohol, wine, and food, and we had a great time learning from them.

After dinner, we returned to the hotel, took a shower and went to bed before 23:00.

明日はいよいよ本番。朝起きれますように。