Medoc: And So Much More

Monday to Friday, May 13 to 17

Yes, we certainly saw wine country while in the Medoc. But we discovered so much more than vineyards and wine chateaus. Much of it caught us by surprise.

On Tuesday, we drove north to the end of the road on the southern side of the huge Gironde estuary. Our first stop was the town of Soulac-sur-Mer. I had read about it in one of Mimi Thorisson’s books (“A Kitchen in France: A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse” and “French Country Cooking: Meals and Moments from a Village in the Vineyards”) and thought it sounded like it would be an interesting visit. (In fact, it was reading these two books that piqued my interest in visiting the Medoc.)

What I hadn’t picked up on was that the town is an old seaside resort. I knew it was at the far end of this area and near the mouth of the estuary, but it hadn’t really registered that it’s on the Atlantic Ocean, with a vast and pristine sandy beach. This beach is actually part of the many miles of sand and dunes on this Cote d’Argent (Silver Coast) stretch of France’s Atlantic Coast, part of which we saw while in Cap Ferret earlier on this trip .

There’s lots of history of the shifting sands, the change of coastline and ports. There is a very old church in Soulac-sur-Mer that was almost completely engulfed by sand in the 1700’s and reclaimed in the 19th century. It is one of the sites on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela.

Since we were visiting so early in the season, there was hardly a person on the beach. There was a large lifeguard station, but it was all boarded up. There was a snack bar on the beach, but there were only a few brave souls out and about. It was beautiful and sunny, but the wind was blowing so hard it was difficult to maintain a stable stance for taking pictures. And the grit in our eyes and teeth and shoes and socks was evidence of sand on the move. There are also people whose job it is to sweep the sand off the sidewalks of the town. A rather never-ending job it would seem. The whole time we were there, a large earthmover was at work grading the sand on the beach. Not too clear what the ultimate goal was, but it too looked like an installment in some perpetual struggle against natural forces.

Soulac is filled with brick houses from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Most are named houses and have lots of tile details.

I have for some time known of a large lighthouse that is in the Atlantic at the mouth of the Gironde. One can take boat excursions out to it, weather permitting. I didn’t realize we’d be able to see it from Soulac. That was frosting on the cake. Cordouan lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in France. Formerly a part of the Pointe de Grave, it is now 7km off the coast. Construction began in 1584 and was completed in 1611. It is known as the “king of lighthouses” and “Versailles of the sea.” It is being considered for designation as a UNESCO site. So glad we got to see it.

From Soulac, we drove on to the literal end of the road at Pointe de Graves. From here, you can catch a car ferry to Royan on the northern shore at the mouth of the estuary. On this windy day, that looked like a bumpy ride.

Other points of interest on the Pointe de Grave were the lighthouse, a monument to American soldiers in WWI and German bunkers from WWII.

On Wednesday, the weather was supposed to stay nice (in the face of predicted rains coming our way), so we decided we would take a scenic driving route along the Gironde. We got to see a number of the ubiquitous fishing platforms of this area. We had seen them on the Gironde and the Garonne River as we sailed here in 2012, but it was fun to see them again, this time from land. They are all privately owned and can differ greatly, ranging from solid and new to funky.

This was the day we visited Chateau Loudenne (see earlier Medoc post), then drove further north to see a lighthouse. Along our route, we went through Port-de-By, which had a lock and a canal going out to the Gironde, and Port-de-Richard, which had another approach to the estuary.

On the way back to our hotel in Margaux, we stopped off in St-Estephe to see a church. Most we’d seen in the area had been locked up, but this one was open. And what a treat it was. Construction started in 1764, on the foundation of a Romanesque church.

On Thursday, we explored UNESCO World Heritage site, Fort-Medoc, built by Vauban in 1689 to rebuff the English as they tried to sail through the Gironde to get to Bordeaux, 98km inland from the sea. It is a star fort, but instead of being rimmed with walls, it is surrounded by a moat and essentially a dike. Rather unusual.

On Friday, we headed toward the Atlantic once more—this time to see a large freshwater lake with dunes sheltering it from the sea. We had had no notion of a big lake in the area, but could see it on the map. So, in the spirit of discovering a few nooks and crannies of the Medoc, out west we went.

Again, being early in the season, we had the place pretty much to ourselves. It is clearly a resort/vacation community, but most things were pretty shuttered. We walked along the lake and enjoyed the watery vistas and fresh air.

So, you can see we found lots more in the Medoc than vineyards. In fact, we spent the bulk of our time sightseeing not tasting. The area was rich in history and unexpected things and sites to discover. We had purposely given ourselves a fairly long stay here, in the hopes we could relax into it, so to speak. Think we checked that box.