We woke up this morning and left Amy sleeping and walked down to the Office D'Tourisme. There was only about 5 minutes until our tour started and we were getting a little worried because we couldn't find anyone who had tickets for the same tour as us... It was pretty busy inside too, so after lining up and stressing a little about missing our tour, the lady at the desk pointed us in the right direction and found our tour guide for us! It's ok though, cos we weren't the only ones! There were a couple from Indonesia there who were in the same boat as us! So our guide came out and introduced herself then took the four of us around the corner to where there was a van and four other people. Small group! We got a mini introduction to the wine regions of the Bordeaux area from our guide, then we drove through Bordeaux with a bit of commentary from her as well, then drove out for a while to our first stop, which was in the Saint-Émilion region, Château Soutard. It was quite a pretty château, but not like your picturesque ones with the spires and castle looking stuff, just a nice old building among the grape vines. We learnt a little bit about how they classify the wines in the Saint-Émilion region, and at this château they have the classification of Grand Cru Classé, which is third from the top (if I remember right!). We got a guided tour of the château and learnt about how the wine is made. We walked past the big vats, some stainless steel and some (much prettier) wooden ones, then we walked down through the cellars with the rows and rows of stacked barrels, then got a pretty cool see-through lift down another level past the bottled wines cellar and went through to the best room of all... The tasting room! We got a try of I think it was three different vintages, which were all pretty tasty ('tasty'.. I'm such a wine critic!) then headed back up to the gift shop. We went out and got some pictures with the vines themselves, then got back in the van. We drove into the village of Saint-Émilion, which is this gorgeous medieval village, and got a bit of a tour of the village from our guide, showing us the main sights, and the best view over the town, as well as giving us some info on the best attractions to see and restaurants to eat at and info about a tour we could do. After that we had about two and a half hours to explore whatever we wanted. We walked around for a bit to find something for lunch, and ended up at a place that the guide had recommended for good local traditional food, called L'Envers Du Décor. We got a meal and a glass of red there, and were served by a pretty rude waiter. And by 'meal' I mean a plate of veggies for me, and too-rare lamb chops for Darren. But it was fine, I could do with a few more veggies! We got our bill, which came out with some little desserts, a cannelé (that dessert thing from the Bordeaux region), and an almond macaroon (local to Saint-Émilion) each. The macaroon wasn't like the Parisian ones that everyone knows, but looks more like a biscuit, and had a strong vanilla-ish flavor to it. Yummy! And the cannelé was much better than the one we'd had in Bordeaux, real crispy on the outside and sweet and creamy on the inside. Mmmmmmmmmmm...... After lunch we went over to the tourist information centre, where we looked, unsuccessfully, for a sticker, and bought a ticket for the underground tour of Saint-Émilion. On the tour, we went underground to where Émilion had lived in a cave for years, had a look at the inside of the old chapel that was there, which had some pretty cool paintings that were found under a heap of soot, then we went down into the catacombs, where we could see where all the graves had been. In one of them you could still see a skeleton which was a bit spooky! The whole underground area used to be a quarry and apparently there's around 200km of underground tunnels in the area! It was pretty cool down there! After the tour we went and met up with the others in one of the many wine shops in the village, where we had a bit of a tasting session. We got to try about 8 different wines and got a little info about them all and the differences between them. At the end the guy asked everyone which one they liked best, which Darren and I had the same two favorites, and then we were told the prices! We were told we have expensive tastes, as we had picked the two most expensive bottles out of the ones we tried!! Oops! So after that, we went back out to the van and got driven to our next and final destination, Château de Sales. This vineyard was a family owned business and had been for generations, and it was quite a pretty place as well. We got shown around the grounds and the gardens, and had a bit of a joke with the lady showing us around, when we thought she said we'd have a dance in the gardens, rather than a glance! We got shown the vats and the cellars then went through to the tasting room! They only have two types of wine at this château and we got to try them both. One of them was called Château Chantalouette, which means songbird. I liked the sound of that, and the taste, so we got ourselves a 2003 vintage to take home! After that we got back in the van and made our way back to Bordeaux. We said goodbye and exchanged emails with the Indonesian couple, then jumped on a tram to get back to the hotel, because we couldn't be bothered walking! We stopped by a pharmacy on the way, as Darren had a very sore throat, where a very old frail looking lady of probably around 75-80 served us, and we eventually understood each other after a bit of miming and pointing etc! Pretty funny. We went back to the hotel room and met up with Amy who was getting ready, and Darren had a quick snooze while the anti-inflammatory's kicked in, then we all walked into the city and went to an Indian place we'd been eyeing off the past couple of days, called Maharaja. We ordered our food, and had a chat with the couple on the table next to us, and when our food came out, it was the absolute best thing ever! I had a palak paneer, and I don't know if it was how it was cooked or the use of the French cheese in it, but it was the best palak paneer I've ever ever had! (Even better than my 'best-palak-paneer-ever from Edinburgh!) It was amazing! Everyone was totally blissing over the food, and we created another convert to Indian food in Amy! We were chatting to the waiters, who told us the chef is actually Pakistani and they were both Sri Lankan, and they showed us around the place, and showed us their downstairs section and even their wine cellar! They even gave us a free espresso each! Such nice people! We were so impressed that we planned to come back on Saturday night, for our final night dinner! We said goodbye then walked down the street and started to head to the mirror pool, as it had this really cool fog coming out of it, and looked awesome, but before we could cross the road it had stopped! Damn! We sat on the side of the road for a bit waiting to see if it would happen again, and watched a limo stop in the middle of the road so a bunch of guys could get their photo taken! After that, we went for a bit of a walk in the direction we hadn't been yet, to walk off our Indian food babies a bit, walked past the police on their rollerblades (hilarious) and came across this big square filled with people Latin dancing to a DJ! It was so cool! Everyone was just doing their own thing, and some people were amazing and some were just having a bit if fun. There was an old man dancing with a girl in a wheelchair which was very cute! Darren had a little dance with Amy, then me, then after watching a little longer, we started the walk back towards the hotel. The mirror pool was fogging again when we got there, which was awesome, so we walked through there and got some photos, then kept walking. We stopped along the way at this crazy public toilet thing, which was self cleaning. It was kind of a gimmick though, because you had to wait so long for it to clean and be ready for the next person, which was very frustrating when three people needed to pee! A bit after that we came across another little section of grass full of people Latin dancing, but this time there was a live band too! We got a beer each from the little stall there, where they had a really great system of using reusable cups. You paid €3 for your beer and when you return the cup you get one euro back. After our beer we watched the band a bit longer and had a little dance, then walked back to the hotel for a little wifi time before bed.