Dali and Gaudi Show Opens in Les Baux

The Carrières de Lumières (Quarries of Light) is a magical space in a vast cave-like quarry at the base of the hilltop village of Les Baux de Provence. There in the cool darkness, 100 video projectors and 30 speakers generate the choreographed movement of 2,000 images over an area of more than 75,000 square feet, onto walls as high as 45 feet and onto the floor. The sound-and-light show changes once a year and is one of the most-popular, most-visited sites in Provence.  Since its opening in 2012, the Carrières de Lumières has attracted close to 4 million visitors.

The program features an artist or group of artists, usually--but not always--with a connection to Provence. Last year’s show, Van Gogh: Starry Night, retraced the intense life of the tormented Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890), who during the last ten years of his life, painted more than 2,000 canvasses. The show ran from March 1, 2019 to January 5, 2020 and attracted 760,000 visitors.

The same show was also on view at the Atelier des Lumieres in Paris, the sister venue to the Carrières de Lumières,  which opened in 2018. The Paris venue currently has Monet, Renoir...Chagall: Journeys Around the Mediterranean, on view until January 3, 2021.

There’s also digital art venue called the Bunker de Lumières  in South Korea (who knew?). You can learn about that one here. They’re running the Van Gogh show until October 25, 2020.

A fourth venue called Bassins de Lumieres will open on April 17 month in Bordeaux, with shows featuring Gustav Klimpt and Paul Klee. The €10 million project, ongoing since 2018, comprises four basins in an old submarine base, one of five major structures built by German forces during the World War II. (The others were located at Brest, Lorient, Saint-Nazaire and La Rochelle.) The massive bunker is considered an essential part of Bordeaux’s cultural and historic landscape. For the history of the base and lots more info, click here.

Like the Carrières de Lumières in Les Baux, the Paris, South Korea and Bordeaux venues are operated by Culturespaces, which manages many of France’s leading monuments, museums and art centers.

And now after a two-month closure, the  Carrières de Lumières in Les Baux launched its new show on Friday March 5. Called Dali: The Endless Enigma, it encompasses more than 60 years in the career of the Catalan master. From his initial Impressionist- and Cubist-inspired works to his mystical works with religious themes and his surrealistic period, it also incorporates elements of his work in the theater, photography and cinema. Saw it and loved it!

The show is set to the music of Pink Floyd, with tracks from The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, “plunging visitors into a soaring, peaceful and troubling world.” I’ve always felt that the sundtrack plays a huge part in the enjoyment of the Carrières shows.  In this particular case, the show’s producers say that setting the exhibit to the music of this legendary band “will take visitors on a timeless journey that awakes the subconscious and buried thoughts in which the Dali oeuvre remains a mystery and an endless enigma.” The Dali show runs until January 3, 2021. 

As in years past, the main program is followed by a shorter one. This year it’s Gaudi: The Architect of the Imaginary, paying tribute to the limitless creativity and modernist buildings of architect Antonio Gaudí, a great source of inspiration for Dalí. To the sound of Gershwin, the Parc Güell, the Casa Batlló, the Casa Milà and the Sagrada Família will come alive “reflecting the spiritual illumination of the artist, who succeeded in giving the abstract artistic form.” For a video of the Gaudi show, click here. 

The Dali and Gaudi show runs until January 3, 2021. 

If you’ve never been to the Carrières de Lumières, you wander at leisure around the vast, dark, cool indoor space. The stone floors are somewhat uneven so if you’re unsteady, you might bring a cane. There are stone benches for those who want them and you can stay as long as you like. The show plays on a continuous loop and lasts just under an hour. As you exit, there’s a small but interesting shop selling books and other items pertaining to the history of Provence, Les Baux and the Carrieres. A cafe is open from 10:30 to 5:30 daily. 

The Carrières de Lumières are located in the Val d’Enfer, a stone's throw from the hilltop village of Les Baux. The quarries here first produced white limestone, used in the construction of the village and its château. In 1821, aluminum ore bauxite was discovered here by geologist Pierre Berthier, who named it after the village. In 1935, economic competition from modern materials led to the quarries' closure. Dramatic and otherworldly looking, the area has inspired artists of all sorts; it provided the setting for Dante’s Divine Comedy and Gounod created his opera Mireille here. Later, Cocteau came to film The Testament of Orpheus in these very quarries. The Carrières du Val d’Enfer have been awarded Natural Monument status in France. 

Formerly known as the Cathedrale des Images, this particular quarry was closed in 2011 and re-opened (after a €2 million re-do) as the Carrières de Lumières the following year. For a look at all the shows since then, click here.

The Carrières de Lumières is open seven days a week. Hours are as follows: 

March : 9:30 am - 6 pm. 
April, May, June, Sept and Oct: 9:30 am - 7 pm.
July & Aug: 9 am - 7:30 pm

Nov, Dec, Jan : 10 am - 6 pm

Last entry is always one hour before closing.

As in years past, you can just show up at the Carrières and pay your admission fee then. But to avoid long lines in season, they suggest you buy tickets online here.  You can also buy them ahead at the Carrières ticket office or at all FNAC stores. Adult tickets to the Carrières are €13, seniors (65 and up) are €12; reduced rate for students is €11, and kids under 7 are free. There are also family rates and combined-visit prices (for the Carrières, the Chateau des Baux and the Musée Yves Brayer) on the website, along with background, directions and much more. 

Carrières de Lumières 

Route de Maillane  

13520 Les Baux de Provence 

Tel: +33 4 90 54 47 37

carrieres-lumieres.com

Photos: (1, 2) Poster and video clip for the Dali show. (3, 4) Two stills from the show. (5)  The old bauxite quarry in daylight; the geologist who first discovered aluminum ore here named it after the village.  (6) One section of the vast space is lit beautifully for private parties and other events. I took this photo at the launch party on Thursday night. (7) One of my favorite photos of the village of Les Baux, taken by Philippe Clairo. (8, 9) At the Atelier des Lumières in Paris, the show "Monet, Renoir...Chagall," opened February 28. (10) A fourth venue --in Bordeaux--will open on April 17 in a World War II submarine basin. The main show at the Bassins de Lumières will feature the works of Gustav Klimt, followed by a shorter one about Paul Klee. 

2014 Bordeaux Wine Fest Celebrates L.A.

The ninth edition of the bi-annual Bordeaux Wine Festival (or Fete le Vin) takes place this week, from Thursday, June 26 to Sunday, June 29. More than 500,000 people—and 800 to 1000 winemakers--are expected to attend and tickets are still available.

The festival launched in 1998 and alternates years with the Bordeaux River Festival.

Featuring wines from the 80 appellations of Bordeaux and the Aquitaine, the Fete le Vin is considered one of the world's premier wine tourism events. Most of the action takes place on the quays of the Garonne River, in the historic heart of the city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The economic impact for the city is estimated at 20€ million.

Bordeaux has a total vineyard area of over 120,000 hectares, making it the largest wine growing area in France. Grapevines were  introduced here by the Romans,  probably in the mid-1st century,  and wine production has been continuous in the region ever since.

This year's festival highlights the 50th anniversary of the twinning of Bordeaux and its sister city in the US, Los Angeles. Yep, Los Angeles is the guest of honor!

For me that's especially exciting as one of my greatest old chef pals, John Sedlar, is coming to cook. John is a widely known expert in Latin American and Modern Southwest cuisines, whose latest restaurant Rivera, has been a smash hit in LA for the six years it’s been open.

This fall, he’ll launch Eloisa in Santa Fe, named for his beloved grandmother Eloisa Martinez Rivera, who--along with his mother and aunts--taught John to cook at home in Abiquiú, New Mexico. John's aunt Jerry was Georgia O'Keeffe's personal chef in Abiquiú for 15 years.

John is the only American chef invited to cook at Bordeaux. And boy, will he cook: he'll be presiding over an extraordinary buffet of events throughout the weekend.  These include: a welcome reception hosted by the consul general of the US in Bordeaux, the honorable Thomas Wolf;  one course of a seated luncheon in the Bordeaux City Hall for 150 guests; a “revisiting the hamburger” cooking demo with chef Christophe Giradot (he’s making  ahi tuna burgers with Korean kimchi); Los Angeles-inspired hors d’oeuvres and cocktails for execs of Air France; a cooking demo highlighting the products of Aquitaine; four consecutive nights of a pop-up restaurant in collaboration with chef Francois Adamski of the Michelin-starred restaurant Le Gabriele (he’s serving Baja ceviche and squab mole); and the main course of a gala dinner for 350 guests at the Palais de la Bourse. He’ll also present a “deconstructed tequila tasting.”

To help, John is bringing two of his chefs, one media assistant and one agronomist..."because we had three aeroponic towers shipped in advance to grow my Meso-American micro herbs,” he explains. “We're collaborating with the Ecole Horticulture in Bordeaux and then gifting the aeroponic towers to the school."

John also shipped other supplies ahead--his distinctive plates, taco fry baskets—and  he’s traveling to Bordeaux this week with chile pastes, tortillas, corn husks and other ingredients from which he’ll whip up plate after plate of his signature cuisine.

All told, a contingent of more than 50 people are flying in from LA to celebrate the event.

The heart of the festival will be a 2 km-long "wine road" where visitors with a Tasting Pass can discover countless wines and vintages. To chat up winegrowers and merchants, they'll head for the ten Appellation Pavilions and Vintage Pavilions.

As in years past, lots of activities and special events planned are planned. There will be special Wine Festival menus in restaurants, the showing of art by 200 artists, some of them from California, a cinema devoted to classic Hollywood films and the Jardin des Arts, where street artists will be customizing giant bottles.

The Bordeaux Wine School will offer several introductory training courses every day. The 1855 Passport lets visitors to take part in Master Classes on great classified growths in the prestigious salons of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

In conjunction, the Bordeaux Wine Festival will host the Bordeaux Music Festival, featuring four concerts in four days (tickets 30€)  plus a sound and light show entitled "Rendez-vous à Bordeaux" and fireworks every evening on the quays.

And last but not least, those who purchase the festival's Vineyard Pass are invited to visit and taste in exquisite châteaux. Different theme tours will depart everyday from the festival.

Ticket options include:

*Tasting Pass (15€ if purchased beforehand, 20€ at the event): 13 tickets + glass + glass holder + " transport ticket + advantages

*Vineyard pass (60 to 145€)

*1855 Passport (65-150€)

For all the info, click here (bordeaux-fete-le-vin.com). To see a video from last year’s Fete, click here. For general Bordeaux info, you can call +33(0)5 56 00 66 00  or go to bordeaux-tourisme.com.

Photos: (1) A festival shout out on a gorgeous old facade. (2) Los Angeles-based chef John Sedlar is the only American invited to cook--and he'll be cooking up a storm. (3) Most of the action takes place on the quays of the Garonne River, in the historic heart of the city. (4) There are also gala meals in gorgeous salons. (5, 6) The festival at dusk...and lit up by nightly fireworks. (7) This year's logo.

Mama's Coming to Bordeaux

Sometimes you feel like a château, sometimes you don't! Mama Shelter will open in Bordeaux October 15th, bringing its quirky charms to the heart of Wine Country. They're already open in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Istanbul. The Bordeaux hotel, located right in the city center (10 minutes from the St. Jean rail station and 30 minutes from the airport), has 97 rooms, free WiFi, free in-room movies and a restaurant conceived and overseen by Alain Senderens (the former chef of Lucas Carton in Paris who famously "gave back" his three Michelin stars) and his culinary cohort, chef Jérôme Banctel. Just like at the other Mama Shelters, the hotel was designed by Philippe Starck, who is also a partner. To celebrate the opening, the company is offering 1000 rooms starting at 49€ (for stays between October 15 and December 17) and another 99 rooms for 99€ (same dates). All info is on the Mama Shelter site here.

Mama Shelter Bordeaux

19, rue Poquelin Moliere

33000 Bordeaux

T +33 0(5) 57 30 45 45

F +33 (0)5 57 30 45 46 

Reservations: mamashelter.com

Wine Trips to France & Other Ways to Learn

The French Wine Society (FWS) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit, founded in 2005 and dedicated to French wine education. They offer self-paced learning online....and webinar certificate programs...and classes in various US cities...and more.  This year, they're also offering a number of splendid week-long Wine Immersion Study Trips in France. These are new trips, providing an intensive, professional-level educational program, coupled with certification through the FWS’s industry-endorsed Masters-Level programs. 

The trips are led by well-known experts who reside in the visited regions, such as Dewey Markham Jr. (Bordeaux), Matthew Stubbs (Languedoc-Roussillon), Kelly McAuliffe (Rhône Valley) and Jean-Pierre Renard (Burgundy).

The trips include extensive high-caliber tastings at some of the best estates. They're nearly all-inclusive, including the FWS Master-Level Course, ''full comfort'' hotels, gourmet meals with great wines (bien sur!), all winery tours and tastings and ground transportation. Prices range from $3,495 to $3,895 per person, double occupancy, and each trip is limited to just 18 guests. (Single rates are available or you can ask to be paired up with another single traveler.)

The 2013 schedule included seven trips, three of which have already sold out. Trips still available are: 

Languedoc-Roussillon - June 2-7, 2013 (4 spots left)
Bordeaux  - September 1-7, 2013
Rhône Valley - Oct. 13-19, 2013
Bourgogne - Oct. 20-26, 2013
 

To learn more about the trips, click here. 

And what if you can't run off to France and drink wine for a week? Then check out the wide range of local learning opportunities the FWS offers in various US cities. For more info, click here.

Then, there are self-guided learning opportunities (study at your own pace) and online webinar based classes, such as the Provence Master Level online Study and Certificate Course which begins January 28. For general info on these programs, click here. For specific info on the Provence class, click here.

FWS director Julien Camus tells me he's happy to answer any questions you might have. Contact him: jcamus@frenchwinesociety.org or call 1-202-640-5466.

Like this story? Subscribe to Provence Post here.

If You Love French Chefs...

Miami will get a big taste of France this week as the South Beach Wine & Food Festival celebrates its 10^th Anniversary (Feb 24 to 27) and a slew of French chefs show up to strut their culinary stuff.

For one long weekend each February, sixty to eighty of world’s most-popular chefs drop what they’re doing to transform southern Miami Beach into the world’s largest and liveliest kitchen, providing four days of nonstop food-and-wine-drenched decadence for those lucky enough to land a ticket.

An equal number of winemakers will be on hand, pouring the crème de la crème of both old and newer vintages.

If you’re curious about current food-and-wine trends, want to see what top chefs are putting on their plates today, looking for a great party or just hungry to get away from nasty winter weather, there’s no better place to be in late February.

Or maybe you want to support the next generation of culinarians, wine experts and hoteliers-in-training? This is a pretty pleasant way to do it as every penny of festival profits benefits culinary and wine education at Florida International University. To date $11 million has been raised.

The festival also allows FIU students to work side-by-side with top chefs and wine experts, getting valuable experience which leads to great jobs. Many return as volunteers after graduation.

Maybe you’re a young chef, job-hunting or looking to move up. Maybe you’ve got a cookbook in you just waiting to bust out—if you could only meet an agent to get the ball rolling. Maybe you dream of being on TV, like Bobby, Rachael, Emeril, Paula and Jamie, all of whom will be at SoBe. Indeed for four days straight, celebrity chefs are everywhere on South Beach: cooking, eating, helping out their friends, eyeing the competition, swimming, sunning and schmoozing up a storm.

SoBe long ago eclipsed other events of its type in terms of A-list attendance, industry relevance, food and wine quality and fun factor. “Anyone who’s important is there, having the time of their life,” Wolfgang Puck says.

I’ve been to a million food-and-wine events. Not only is SoBe the largest and most successful, it’s far and away the most fun. "When it comes to SoBe, I can't find anything to complain about," Tony Bourdain told me. "And I complain about everything."

The festival is an enormous undertaking that requires 18 months of planning to pull off. This year, 50,000 people will attend at least one of 50 different events, ranging from sandy-feet casual to supremely refined.

And this year as in years past, the French flag will be flying high.

Alain Ducasse, who earned his first Michelin three-star review in 1990 at age 33, will be honored at a glittering Saturday night Tribute Dinner—and seven of his favorite chefs will do the cooking. Six hundred people paid $500 each to attend the sold-out event.

Born on a farm in Southwestern France, Ducasse was 12 when he famously proclaimed “Grand-mere, these beans are overcooked!” and 16 when he began his culinary career. He’s considered a master of Provencal cooking, which he has elevated through his cooking schools, cookbooks, restaurants, food products and more. Today Ducasse has more than 20 restaurants in eight countries, including three Michelin three-stars: Monaco, Paris and London.

Ducasse was one of the SoBe festival’s earliest supporters and festival founder/director Lee Schrager credits him with helping to nudge the then-tiny event into the national spotlight. It was Ducasse’s participation, Schrager says, that encouraged other big-name chefs to sign on, to agree to leave their busy kitchens behind and come down to cook for a great cause.  

Following SoBe tradition, Mr. Ducasse chose the chefs who will cook his Tribute Dinner. (If I were a chef and Alain asked me to cook his Tribute Dinner, I’d be pretty proud, eh?) The chefs he chose? Laurent Gras (soon to open a restaurant in NYC), Alex Stratta (Stratta at the Wynn, Las Vegas), Charlie Trotter (Charlie Trotter's, Chicago), Frédéric Robert (former exec pastry chef, Wynn Las Vegas) and Frédéric Delaire (exec chef, Loews Miami Beach Hotel).

Doing the hors d’oeuvres for the reception are three chefs currently working for Ducasse: Phillipe Bertineau (Benoit Bistro, NYC), Didier Elena (Adour Alain Ducasse at the St Regis, NYC) and Sebastien Rondier (Mix on the Beach, Vieques, Puerto Rico).

Jean Paul Veziano, a top baker who once worked with Ducasse, is coming from Antibes to do the breads. And Marc Ehrler, who hails from Antibes but now lives in Houston, is bringing buckets of luxurious butters—truffle, yuzu, brown, sea salt—from National Dairy Brands, where he’s now the corporate chef.

French actress and model Carole Bouquet will be the evening’s emcee. Bouquet has appeared in more than 40 films--she’s best known to Americans as Bond girl Melina Havelock in the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only--and was the face of Chanel in the 1990s. Bouquet is also a winemaker: she has a home in Pantelleria, a small island between Sicily and Tunisia, where she produces a sweet white wine called Sangue d’Oro. 

The 790-room Loews Miami Beach Hotel is both the venue for the Ducasse Tribute Dinner and the host hotel for the festival. Overseeing the hotel’s vast kitchens is French chef Frédéric Delaire, a native of Agen. I rang Delaire up just now to ask him how his festival prep was going and found him triple-checking his market list for the week ahead. For the Ducasse dinner alone he’s ordered 60 whole turbot (about $6,000 wholesale), three pounds of Perigord truffles ($3,000) and 400 lamb loins ($6,400) plus scores of other luxe ingredients.

But the chefs producing the Ducasse Tribute Dinner are hardly the only ambassadors of French cuisine who will be out and about at SoBe this year. Since it launched in 2001, the festival has always had a strong French accent, thanks to elite chefs such as Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Eric Ripert and Claude Troisgros, who have become mainstays on the talent roster.

Other well-known French chefs who have participated over the years include Michel Roux, Jean-Marie Auboine, Jean-Francois Bruel, Jean-Philippe Delmas, Tony Esnault, Pierre Hermé, Hubert Keller, Pascal Oudin, François Payard, Marc Poidevin, Michel Richard and Guy Savoy.

All sorts of heavyweights in French gastronomy, such as Jean-Luc Naret (former director of the Michelin Guide) and Ariane Daguin (of D’Artagnan) have also been involved.

Scores of top French winemakers come to SoBe to pour and the wines are always superb. Festival host Southern Wine & Spirits is the largest importer/distributor in the country and there’s no one in the wine-world they don’t know. The Wine Spectator is a major sponsor which lends both expertise and cachet. 

This year, another sold-out dinner, this one called The Brilliance of France, will be held at the legendary Biltmore Hotel. The menu follows the “imperial route” taken every summer by Napoleon’s Spanish-born wife, the Empress Eugenie de Montijo, and will feature dishes from three of her favorite gastronomic destinations: Biarritz, Bordeaux and Eugenie-les-Bains. Chefs for the evening are Pascal Nibaudeau (who has one Michelin star at Le Pressoir d’Argent in the Regent Grand Hotel Bordeaux), Biltmore executive chef Philippe Ruiz (a Frenchman who has worked in numerous Michelin-starred kitchens) and yet another Michelin-starred chef: Jean-Marie Gautier from Le Villa Eugenie in the Hotel du Palais in Biarritz. (Alain Ducasse was married at the Hotel du Palais, by the way, and Gautier prepared the dinner.)  

The wines for the Brilliance of France dinner include Champagne Pommery,  Château Suduiraut’s 'S’ de Suduiraut Bordeaux Blanc 2007, Château Petit-Village Pomerol 2007, Château Pichon-Longueville Baron Grand Cru Classé (Pauillac) 2003 and Château Suduiraut Grand Cru Classé Sauternes 2001.

At yet another elegant event called Best of the Best, in the ballroom of the Fountainebleau,  40-plus superstar chefs will each be cooking and serving a signature dish. Every dish will be paired with a wine, rated 90 points or higher by Wine Spectator. I quickly scanned of the list and saw Nicolas Feuillatte, Pol Roger, Pommery, Krug, Mumm, Hugel et Fils, Laurent-Perrier, Duboeuf, Latour, Leflaive, Jolivet, Jaboulet…many top French domaines.

If Champagne is your thing…one of the festival’s most popular events is a glorious beach barbecue called the BubbleQ. Twenty-five or so chefs will be grilling at stations around an enormous open-air tent and event manager Michael Moran is chilling 2,400 bottles of Perrier-Jouët for the four-hour party.

This year, Emeril Lagasse and Martha Stewart are co-hosting a dessert party called Let Them Eat Cake. Eleven top pastry chefs will fly in to create elegant, over-the-top desserts, served up with Moët. Jacques Torres is in charge of the piece de resistance: a 10-foot-tall birthday cake composed of…well let’s just say a lot of chocolate. It’s coming down from New York in a Fed Ex special-care truck. And knowing Jacques, it will be extravagant, dramatic and insanely delicious, the perfect way to wish Bonne Anniversaire to this spirited and very-special celebration.

Tickets to a few SoBe events are still available. For more info, visit the SoBe website here. 

To read about The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, November 2010), with 100 food and drink recipes from festival chefs, go here.

To buy the cookbook, go here. To enter to win a copy, go here.

Bid on tons of great items in the SoBe online auction here.


Photo of Alain Ducasse by Mikael Vojinovic.

From a Star Chef: Where to Go in Bordeaux

When I'm about to travel, I check in with industry friends to get advice. When it comes to food, for example, who better than a local chef to recommend the best markets, bistros, wine bars and restaurants in town? Often, these are places I'd never find on my own. So planning a little jaunt to Bordeaux (where the 2009 vintages are being called some of the best in the region's history),  I rang up chef Pascal Nibaudeau, exec chef of the five-star Regent Grand Hotel Bordeaux. His restaurant, the Pressoir d'Argent, has 16/20 in the Gault Millau Guide and earned a shiny new Michelin star this year. (About the star, Pascal says: "It's been a great challenge to build a fish restaurant in a district that's famous for its red wine!") Here, Pascal serves up some of his favorite local spots. 

RESTAURANTS

I love Le Café du Port because of the wonderful view over the Garonne River and the famous Stone Bridge. Most of all, the kitchen is real. You'll experience not pretentious but effective service (tel 05 56 77 81 18). 

One Michelin-starred restaurant I would definitely recommend is Le Saint James at Bouliac. The chef is very friendly and the food is remarkable! The restaurant has a splendid view over Bordeaux (tel 05 57 97 06 00). 

To finish with an unusual place, I really enjoy going to a  high-quality Chinese restaurant called Au Bonheur du Palais in the heart of the city (tel 05 56 94 38 63).

SHOPS

I like Eurasie, which is the second largest Asian culinary shop in France. You can find very fresh products at a very approachable price. He're you'll find the specific products needed for a gourmet restaurant or home cook, such as Tempura Flour, Kafir lemon, Peking Duck, etc. (tel 05 56 50 24 65).

MARKET 

Bassens is my favorite because it has products from all over the world (olives, spices, candied fruits...) People come from all over the city to shop there. And there's a very nice fishmonger who comes from where I come from: Les Charentes! Sunday mornings only, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

PLACE TO TASTE WINE

I suggest you visit the Centre Interprofessionel des Vins de Bordeaux (tel 05 56 00 22 66), situated in the heart of the city, where you can enjoy some very nice wine tastings from a wide range of vineyards and wineries.

I also like La Winery (tel 05 56 39 04 90), located in the Medoc. It's about 30 minutes away from Bordeaux city center and close to many vineyards. Unique in Europe, La Winery invites visitors to explore their own palates and find corresponding wines that will suit them.

FOR MORE INFO

For more info on Pascal, the restaurant Le Pressoir d'Argent or the Regent Grand Hotel Bordeaux, click here or call 05 57 30 44 44. Le Pressoir d'Argent is currently offering a two-course lunch menu for 34€.  The hotel offers a number of wine and food lovers' packages including wine-estate tours, chateaux tastings, special meals and private receptions, taking advantage of its intimate connections with the best vineyards in Bordeaux.  

Photos: The Regent Grand Hotel Bordeaux (perched just opposite the Opera National) and its Michelin-starred chef Pascal Nibaudeau.