Easily the prettiest of the Bordeaux châteaux, Château Margaux is an eighteenth-century villa in extensive, sculpture-dotted gardens close to the west bank of the Gironde, some 20km north of Bordeaux. Its wine, a classified Premier Grand Cru and world-famous in the 1940s and 1950s, went through a rough patch in the two succeeding decades but improved in the 1980s after the estate was bought by a Greek family. The Château (by appointment only Mon–Fri 10am–noon & 2–4pm; closed Aug and during harvest; tel 05.57.88.83.83, www.chateau-margaux.com; free) is not included in any Tours, and it's best to book at least two weeks in advance.In the small village of MARGAUX itself, there's an unusually friendly Maison du Vin (daily: July & Aug 9am–7pm; Sept–June 9am–noon & 2–6pm; tel 05.57.88.70.82, [email protected]) that can book accommodation and advise on visits to the appellation's châteaux. At the other end of the village, the enterprising cellar La Cave d'Ulysse provides free tastings from a variety of Margaux châteaux, giving you a chance to try and buy some very good wines. Margaux has a somewhat expensive but very comfortable hotel, Le Pavillon de Margaux (tel 05.57.88.77.54, fax 05.57.88.77.73; €70–85), with a fine restaurant (menus from €13.57; closed Tues & Wed). Otherwise, try the chambre d'hôte Domaine de Carrat (tel & fax 05.56.58.24.80; €55–70; closed Christmas & New Year) at Castelnau-de-Médoc, 10km to the west. Besides the hotel, you can eat at Margaux's Auberge de Savoie (tel 05.57.88.31.76; closed Sun, Mon evening out of season & last two weeks Feb), next to the Maison du Vin, with good traditional food on menus from €12.96. The seventeenth-century Fort Médoc, off the D2 road between Margaux and St-Julien by the banks of the estuary, is a good place to tuck into a few purchases between châteaux. It was designed by the prolific military architect Vauban to defend the Gironde estuary against the British. The remains of the fort are scant but scrambleable, and in summer its Toytown aspect has a leafy charm, marred only by the view of a nuclear power station across the river to the north of Blaye. Since 1990, the annual Fort Médocjazz festival, with big-name international acts, has been held here in mid-July (tel 05.56.58.91.30 for details). A couple of kilometres south, LAMARQUE is a very pretty village, full of flowers and with a sweet church. It's a pleasant place to stop for lunch, with a very agreeable restaurant, L'Escale (menus from €9.15; closed Wed & evenings off season), down by the port. From here at least four ferries (one way: passengers €2.74, cycles €1.37, cars €11.13) cross the Gironde daily to Blaye, another place fortified by Vauban, and an important, though less well-known, Bordeaux wine-growing centre.
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