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Vibrant fruits and veggies, cheeses, live chickens and foi gras were the majority of the vendors at the Libourne market. We stopped to grab some food on our way to Cote de Bourg where we will stay the next four days. We stood on the river to eat some of our produce and noticed how brown the water was…hopefully the drinking water in this town doesn’t come from this water source. I would not even dip my big toe in this river.
We arrived in Bourg in less than an hour and started to look for signs to our B&B. We were admiring the landscape full of vines when we saw a large sign stating, Chateau de la Grave (www.chateaudelagrave.com)…we followed the signs past the sleepy village of Bourg and over the hills to our place. The huge 14th century château was authentic and beautiful. It stood tall and massive among the fields and has been in the family of Philippe and Valerie for the past 100 years.
After literally stopping the car in the middle of the street to take a picture of this place, we checked in with Valerie’s father who was very friendly but spoke no English. He showed us our room and immediately brought us to the back building where they had tanks and barrels full of the wine they have been making for so many years. He did a quick tour with us and then opened some wine for tasting. We may not all speak the same language but we can all communicate through wine…describing what we taste in English and hearing his response in French.
We thanked him for the tasting and went back to our room to prepare dinner. Our room was called the “The vineyards” and for good reason…we had panoramic views of their (45 hectares) of vines and a balcony to take it all in. We took our food downstairs to the backyard and sat at a stone table right on the edge of the patio with the horses to our left, the vines in all directions and the pool to our right. We drank our wine and ate our finger foods from the Libourne market. The sun didn’t set until nearly 9PM which gave us plenty of time to enjoy our surroundings…the views, the wine and the food. After dinner, we went back into our room and settled into a movie.
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Published by Giff Kabat
I grew up in Ohio as a kid, so of course I went to college at “THE” Ohio State University. I graduated in 2001 with a major in business finance. A month after graduation, I moved out to California with my college girlfriend (whom I married in 2005)…and started my career in sales (industrial sales for 5 years…then moved into medical laser sales for 4 years).
In 2009 I was 31 years old. I had a great job, a new house, and a beautiful wife. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better…my wife and I found out we were going to have a baby. Everything was going according to plan…and I couldn’t have scripted a better life for myself.
Then in the same year…everything changed. My wife, Brandey, called me when I was on my way to work and told me over the phone, something I never thought could be possible in a million years. My beautiful 30-year old pregnant wife was just told that she had breast cancer. At that moment, everything stopped all at once. I immediately went to her…and learned of our new plan…which began with her needing surgery immediately…and the rest we would find out later.
The day we returned from the hospital after Brandey’s surgery…my father died. He had been battling an aggressive cancer of his own…and although he was the one person I wanted to speak with about Brandey having cancer…I never told him. My sister, Brooke, had just gotten married a few months ago, and although he was weak, he was able to walk his little girl down the aisle of her wedding. On the night before my sister’s wedding, Brandey and I told him that we were pregnant and about to make him a grandfather. It made no sense to tell him that everything had changed for us…so he died in peace knowing everything was “the way it should be” for his only 2 children.
2010 was the worst year of my life. We had lost our baby…and for 12 months I watched my wife fight cancer with multiple surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and drug therapy. It was a difficult year for us…but we made it. When you go through something like this in life, you learn a lot about yourself and the people around you. I was amazed at the strength and courage of my wife…and how many good people there are in this world. I will be forever grateful for the ones who never ceased to amaze me with their kindness during this hard time. Family, friends, and sometimes complete strangers…helped us make it through this. I am, and will always be especially grateful to my mother, who was with my dad at the very end, when I couldn’t be there, and when things were at their worst. She has been so supportive throughout all of this, and without her everything would have been so much harder for me.
It’s 2011 now…and the plan we have for our life this year…is to make it the best year of our lives. Brandey is officially in remission from breast cancer and she has a 95% chance the cancer will never come back. Besides the love that I have for my wife and family, the loves of my life are food, wine, and adventure travel. My wife and I love traveling to new places, seeing natural wonders, and meeting new people from different parts of the world. So for the next 400 days…we’ve decided to travel the world…and celebrate our lives. There are so many things I took for granted in life that I will never take for granted again. My father worked for over 30 years at the same job with the same company…rarely took time off…and died at 64 years old right after his retirement. For me, this trip is a combination of a tribute to him, along with wanting to spend the time of my life with the “love of my life.”
* The only thing I will miss while we are gone is our family and friends (who we hope will meet us somewhere throughout our trip) and especially our 3 little kitties we left with my mom in Ohio to catsit for the next 400 days. I will also miss watching “American Football” over the weekend…but I’ll do my best to check the scores in the middle of the night.
GIFF
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