A fabulous day out!

Waddesdon Manor had emailed me the other day with details of a Wine Tasting in the grounds over the weekend, and it seemed too good an opportunity to miss! I went ahead and booked entrance to the house and gardens, and what made it even better is that Sophie went free as she's now a National Trust member, thanks to Laura's birthday gift! The Wine Tasting was booked for 3pm and the house visit for 1pm, giving us plenty of time for a little lie-in and a picnic in the car before we went in!

The route we took last time seemed very long, so we went down the A43 until we came to signs for Bicester, and then we took a winding country road skirting the town, ending up on the A41 towards Aylesbury. It was a good road and we passed Graven Hill again, where we'd visited last week!

It took about an hour and a quarter and was an enjoyable journey. Once in the car park we ate our lovely picnic and then took the shuttle bus to the house, along with lots of other people. Our first views were stupendous, as always and we walked slowly towards the house noticing people picnicking on the front lawns.

Sophie suggested a cold drink so we queued up and then sat on a bench overlooking the manor.

The last time we came was January, so it was lovely to see the Spring flowers and all the trees in leaf.

At 1pm we went inside and were told it was a self-guided tour but there were plenty of staff around to answer questions. Never in my life have I seen such opulence in a house! It is huge and took us a good hour and a half to look around, as there is so much to see and marvel at.

It was explained that Waddesdon was never intended to be a family home, its main purpose was to showcase the Rothschild treasures and to be a venue for lavish parties. The majority of the works of art pre-date the house by about 100 years and many, many objects come from France. One room was entirely panelled in marble! Can you imagine the cost now?

It must have been wonderful to be invited as a house guest, and the parties went on for a long time, we discovered! Before going upstairs we visited the vast cellars which must have been stuffed full of the Rothschild's wine back in the heyday of the house!

Wine label with famous signatures - note Diana's at the top

Sophie with a label from 1996, her birth year

Not sure if these were full of actual wine! I suspect not!

From the cellars, we climbed the stairs to the upper floors and had a good nosey in the bedrooms and bathrooms. We came upon a family where the mum was sobbing on her husband's shoulder... we have no idea why, and then she said, "I've got to get out of this house," so something must have bothered her! A lot of the rooms were quite dark, as the drapes had been drawn and there were mesh blinds at the windows to keep the sunlight out, so some areas were quite gloomy.

There were lovely views from the many windows

One wing was for men only where there was a smoking room and a games room complete with a huge snooker table. It must have been a real hedonistic time spending the weekend at the house!

Our last visit was up to the Treasury where various "treasures" were on display. These items were all behind glass and it was like being back at the British Museum!

The time was getting on so we made our way out and had a good look in the lovely shop. The wine tasting was taking place on the parterre overlooking the formal grounds and we sat at a bench for a little while until it was 3pm.

We'd paid £10 each for the wine tasting and we were able to try eight wines. I only had a couple of sips as I was driving and Sophie enjoyed the rest of my samples! First up was an English sparkling wine from nearby which had the strangest aroma. It tasted good but was a little acidic. We then sampled a Chilean Chardonnay (quite acidic again) followed by a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, which I liked! I had told the man doing the tasting that I wasn't keen on the grape grown in new Zealand as it often tasted of cats' pee, but it was delicious!

We had two more whites - a white Rioja, and then a Riesling from New Zealand, which was on the sweet side. It would have been great with a slice of cake! The three reds we weren't keen on, two of which were from Bordeaux and were still very tannic. Another man joined us for the tasting, and agreed with what we said, especially when Sophie said she loved Aldi wines!

The wine tasting was absolutely lovely and we thoroughly enjoyed standing on the gravelled parterre and talking about one of our favourite subjects! What a wonderful way to spend an hour! We just had time to call into the shop before leaving and we noticed that the wines we drank weren't cheap so it was very good value!

We took the shuttle bus back to the car park and then re-traced our route to Bicester. I decided to take the M40 home and we called into a Tesco before the motorway to use their facilities. Back in Northampton we called into Aldi and bought a bottle of their New Zealand Pinot Noir to go with the pasta dish for dinner.

It had been a lovely day and we're looking forward to going back to Waddesdon again, perhaps at Christmas. We sat and watched 90 Day Fiance before dinner, which was very easy to prepare!