A pleasant few days in Bordeaux and Tarbes

I have just had the pleasure of another visit to France this year. This time, the main purpose was settling my daughter in so that she could begin her stint as a language assistant in the town of Tarbes, about an hour and a half west of Toulouse. (While there, we had to navigate the fact that the local area was in a bit of a tizz by virtue of being just down the road from Lourdes where His Holiness the Pope was paying a visit).  I had to fly back to London from somewhere, so having already visited Toulouse last year to watch rugby, I decided to tick another top French city off my bucket list in the form of Bordeaux.

While there, I did of course take the opportunity to sample the produce that was on offer, so a few reflections from that.

Wine
Obvious point, but don’t neglect the wine while you are in this part of the world. If you already know your wine, then you know more than me and there is nothing I can tell you. If not, do book a proper tasting.  I can recommend, in Bordeaux, the company who can be found by searching on “I love my 2CV“ (they do vineyard tours in a Citroen).  It is always interesting for a beer geek to hear from someone who really understands how wine is put together and is both willing and able to teach novices such as myself about the distinguishing features of different wines and what makes a good one. I learned about the different soils of the different wine areas of Bordeaux, as well as about the art of mixing up different grapes in different proportions – while some other regions tend to major on single grape varieties, the wine makers of Bordeaux pride themselves on the mix.

Merlot is often in the ascendancy - I tried to put out of my mind the cinematic hit job on Merlot carried out by Paul Giamitti in “Sideways” - but Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc are the other key ingredients.  There is good white as well - the complex stuff from Graves, the easy drinking Entre deux Mers, Sauternes for pudding, the sparkling Cremant which in my opinion beats Champagne pound for pound any day.

I learnt far more doing this than I would have had I just gone into a wine shop and have them push on me whatever it was they were trying to sell at the moment. The Cite du Vin, which is one of Bordeaux’s star tourist attractions, left me a bit indifferent. It has the feel of one of those discovery museums that I have spent many hours in with my offspring, but with the slight drawback that obviously it relates to wine which the kids are not allowed to drink.

Beer in Bordeaux
Turning to beer, if you are seeking out beer in Bordeaux then my recommendation is a simple one - go to Space Factory near the Hotel de Ville.  It is the main outlet for the local brewery Space Musette, and also has an excellent guest list.

I started with an apricot and clementine Gose - which is not an easy one to pull off without going over-fruity, but Space Musette managed it.  Then their cold IPA.  Then a NEIPA from the Alsatian brewery Les Intenables. (There was a fair bit of Alsace beer knocking around including the ubiquitous and really not bad Meteor. I suppose no surprise beer in Alsace is strong given proximity to Germany).  Space Factory also has a comprehensive range of bottles including some proper strong stuff but, having also done the wine tasting, I had hit my limits for the night.

  
Beer in Tarbes
Tarbes is in the category of “if you happen to be there” as a place to go in France - it’s really nice but small and quiet and the “lovely places in France” competition is fierce.

As always, one of the best beers you have ever tasted is the one that you drink when you are really in need of a beer.  After an extremely long train journey which included transporting large suitcases via the Paris Metro, I headed down to Le Bouchon situated just below my AirBnB and enjoyed a blanche from nearby Sarriat brewery (dispensed through a very beautifully designed tap).

I then researched “best beer places in Tarbes” online.  Google offered me “The Shamrock” sports bar in the main square, which I am sure does a perfectly acceptable extremely cold Guinness with football on a big screen.  But more to the point, it told me about L’Echoppe des Gallopins, which has an excellent roster of local beers.

On my first night at L’Echoppe I worked my way through the board of beers on tap.  The highlight was the elderflower infused blonde from Moehau, a few miles south east of Tarbes.  I then sampled the amber from the equally local Walbrew.  For pudding, I went Belgian with the 7% framboise from Kasteel.  All of this was accompanied by an excellent duck breast fillet as the “boucher du jour” and an intense gentleman called Amato and his band singing songs about the joys of life as a pirate (“Our black flag / is proud / and floating”).  A fine evening all round.

I subsequently went back to drink the Walbrew IPA.  My eye was then caught by Rasta Trolls - a 7% blonde with apple and rum flavouring from Brasserie Dubuisson in Wallonia.  Something as bold as that needed to be really good, and I started off enjoying it but eventually found it a bit cloyingly sweet.  

For completeness, I chose from the local supermarket a blanche with the profane branding of “Oh Putain Con” from Brasserie Aussau just up the road in Pau. Very pleasant but it probably would not have made a huge impression on me had it not been for the attitude inherent in the label.

So anyway, my respect for French beer continues to grow. (Albeit from quite a low base.) I hope that these recommendations are useful. And I would definitely encourage you to seek out the local beer talent wherever you are in France.