DAY 63-64: BORDEAUX

BORDEAUX, Bourgogne (Burgundy) and Reims in the Champagne region are France's most celebrated grape-growing areas.

Perfect soil and just the right weather conditions combine with centuries of tradition, trial and error, and improved technology and knowledge to create something special for palattes of wine lovers and connoisseurs.

France has no problem selling expensive wines to the world of collectors, investors, celebrities, millionaires/billionaires and those who can afford to splash out on bottles of 15,000 euros and upwards.

Bordeaux wines feature annually among the list of the world's most expensive vintages, and it seems they have long been sort after.

Both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson served as US ministers to France, and Bordeaux wines featured prominently in their collections. The record for the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold ($US160,000) was a Bordeaux wine - a 1789 Lafitte - that reputedly belonged to Jefferson.

Saint Emilion is one of hundreds of wineries in the Bordeaux area today and a tour and wine-tasting takes visitors into the world of good French drops in great detail.

Our tour group arrived just before the harvest, which was expected to start within the next fortnight or so.

Winery guide Benedict Labenne took us down in the lift to the cellar, and to the barrel and vat rooms to better explain the highly technical and precise process before introducing us to the young Les Jardins De Soutard Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2008 and the smoother, nicely balanced Grand Cru Classe 2006 - both 70% merlot and 30% cabernet franc - that have been produced from the mostly limestone soil.

But there is much more to this cosmopolitan city than just its wine.

First and foremost, you must do what the locals do and stroll, rollerblade, skateboard or jog along the promenade beside the Garonne River where we also uncovered Place de la Bourse with its elegant buildings, public sculptures and fountain that are as big as they are quirky, plus a pavement ankle-deep splash pool that makes you look like you're walking on water.

Here, you'll also see the Pont de Pierre - the stone bridge which Napoleon commissioned in 1822 as Bordeaux's first bridge linking the left and right banks over the river.

The beautiful bridge has 17 arches to correspond to the letters in the name Napoleon Bonaparte and each stone pylon has a white medallion in honour of the emperor and the city's coat of arms. 

It remained the only bridge crossing until 1965 when Pont Saint-Jean was completed.

With one of Europe's longest shopping streets, the impressive Grand Theatre De Bordeaux - one of the oldest timber-framed opera houses in Europe, great local delicacies in patisseries and fine dining restaurants, you'll want to stay longer (and have time to minimise the effects of the hangover from all that wine).

Lesson of the day: Red wine is a good cure for sore feet. Well, at least I think so.