Bordeaux touring

I am looking at visiting Bordeaux next spring. Seeking others experience. Do most people take extra flight to Bordeaux or fly to Paris and take the TGV? I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew and am between doing 5 day winery tours Monday-Friday versus only 4 days and taking one off. Thoughts?
Any wine guides that are recommended?

We took the train on our trip to Bordeaux this summer. The layover options in CDG were either an hour or 5 hours, too tight or too long, so we took the train. Ended up being a pretty nice experience and didn’t have to worry about flight delays. There was also a place in the train station to get your covid test if you haven’t received your QR code yet.

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TGV from Paris is about 2 hours. However, can easily take an hour+ to get from CDG to Montparnasse

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Im too looking for some advises. Im going to Brussels on christmas, and i wanna to travel a bit to Paris and Bordeaux. So when I pass all exams I will travel to Europe, guys from https://www.edugeeksclub.com/coursework/ will help me with all writing work from college. Hope everything will be fine.

On our trip last month we flew into BOD from London, where we had stayed for a few nights, and took the TGV to Paris after our stay in Bordeaux. While our experience isn’t entirely analogous, I would probably fly to BOD from Paris vs taking the TGV. I’m assuming you’ll be arriving in Paris in the morning after an overnight trans-Atlantic flight and staying at the airport for a connecting flight seems much simpler than schlepping from the airport across Paris to Montparnasse. If you’re planning on staying in Paris before heading to Bordeaux, the TGV makes more sense.

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The last time we were in Bordeaux, the SNCF was on strike… In other words, this is a head’s up to stock up on patience, muscles, and caffeine if there is a planned SNCF strike should you arrive in CDG. Also, CDG can be time-consuming to manage if your flight has to deplane onto the little busses taking you to the terminal, so it will make a long trip seem even longer if you’re not staying in Paris a few days.

We booked our wine tours with the Bordeaux tourist office.

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Train.

Train

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We’ve done both. The train to BDX is easy - but check both train schedules and flight schedules to minimize layovers.

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You can search the board and you will find many reccs for Henri Challeau.
We used him for a one day tour in St Emillion and Pomerol. He was great and made all the arrangements for visits. We wet to Canon La Gaffeliere, Chateau Gazin, Chateau Coutet and Chateau La
Croizille. He has many other estates he can get you into on both the right bank and left bank.

Henri CHALLEAU
Bordeaux Wine Travel
85 rue des Pelourdes
F-33300 BORDEAUX
Tél: 0033 664 653 852
www.bordeaux-wine-travel.com
contact@bordeaux-wine-travel.com
www.chauffeur-bordeaux.com
www.bordeaux-wine-tours-france.com

We too used Henry Challeau. We toured with him for three days. I made some suggestions about which producers to visit. He made a few changes with good reason. He suggested restaurants for our lunch stops and made the reservations for us. I recently referred some friends to him and they toured with him for two days. Rave reviews from them too. We will use Henri again in 2023 when we are back in Bordeaux. He is worth every Euro.

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I’ve got an upcoming trip to Bordeaux, May 17th, midday, through May 22nd, midday, and I’m looking to book some Chateau visits. I’ve already reached out to Henri Challeau as recommended by the board hive mind, and he’s fully booked, so a few other people are in the contact queue.

A potential issue with my time in Bordeaux is that Ascension Day occurs on the 18th and the Chateau options could be limited (perhaps all weekend, but I don’t know). The only guide to respond to us so far regarding a St. Em/Pomerol day initially suggested a bunch of Chateaux I have no interest in seeing or tasting (not names I’ve heard of with reviews of super oaky extracted wines). Does anyone have experience trying to connect with bigger names on Ascension Day or Ascension Day weekend?

Also, is it best to try inquire to a guide about specific places I’d like to visit or to reach out directly via other contacts (shop/distribution industry folks) and then propose those to the guide?

Atlas Bordeaux was able to get us appointments at Margeaux, Lynch Bages and Pichon Baron the week before En Premeur in April. Just a flat fee to book, we’re doing our own driving, she did a great job. The latter two were probably doable booking on our own, but I was finding the responses overall were iffy due to the proximity to EP.

I booked appointments on my own for Pavie, Troplong Mondot, Beauregard and Smith Haut Lafitte.

If you’re looking to expedite and get some spots you might not be able to otherwise, I’ve enjoyed my experience with Atlas so far.

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