The idea came up more than 10 years ago, when Pierre-Jean Romatet, Bordovino’s founder, landed in Bordeaux....
Here is the story:
He comes to work for A big wine trader, but has no clue.
Pierre-Jean finds this strange world quite complicated and daunting: thousands chateaus, wine appellations, A very technical approach... Nothing is done to help wine-lovers understand what’s going on. A shame really. Every day, Pierre-Jean drives through Médoc to work and comes accross groups of tourists standing bewildered in front of closed gates. Really A shame....
Year 2010 ends, Bordovino starts. The idea: offering A nice, relaxed and genuine visit of all the amazing Bordeaux Chateaus to people from around the world who enjoy their wine without being experts.
Continuing on from their success story in Bordeaux, the joyfull team has progressively expanded its concept named A la Francaise to other regions of France: Loire Valley, Champagne and more recently Burgundy and Provence.
More info about A la Francaise, network of local agencies: www.alafrancaise.fr/en/
- Experience French art de vivre. For us a wine tour is much more than wine. It’s about landscapes, people, stories, architecture, anecdotes, good things to eat... and good stuff to drink!
- Experience small groups. Our vans are suited for 8 passengers + the driver, who is driving by the way. 8 maximum is a better chance to get to know each other.
- Experience big Chateaus. You will visit the most famous Great Growths of Bordeaux, but also amazing small family-run estates, with charming and genuine atmosphere.
- Experience sharing A great time with your guide. They speak fluent English (with a big French accent!). They are passionate, always eager to know more, ans they like sharing. They are in love with wine and with the region. Why are they part of the A la Francaise's team? Because they are nice, easy-going and funny!
- Experience laughing. A minimum of 4 big laughs guaranteed per tour. Our jokes have an average of 62.3% success rate, Pierre-Jean’s are even getting 100% (but he is the one writing the story...)
- Experience the best future memories of your entire trip. This is the only reason why we work so hard ans make sure you will get the best possible service and experience.
All members of our team have an MBA from Harvard in geopolitics and globalization. If only this was true...
More simply saying, we all share one common goal for A la Francaise: make this nice little company grow and get 100% satisfaction from our customers.
A la Francaise Bordeaux’s flat is located in an 18th-century building in the heart of Bordeaux city center. This is the departure Point for some of our tours, this is also where the tasting workshops take place, and where the office is based. Claire and Morgane works on planning the tours, Anne is all day long on communication and development while Stéphanie’s concern is organizing team building and corporate events and Béné is our Miss Money Penny. But you may also meet her as everyone in the Bordovino A la Francaise team gets to lead our tours on a regular basis. Our thinking is that having a good atmosphere at work does not prevent efficiency, on the contrary. We are all workaholic, but we’ll never say no to a glass of wine with a slice of saucisson.
Most important, A la Francaise Bordeaux staff is a great team of fantastic guides: Rémi, Quentin... They are passion-driven pros, fluent in 2 or 3 languages, always on time and funny in 62.3% of the cases. In short, it took us some time to find them, but now they are with us!
IF you want to be part of the adventure and send us your application, click on the job offers and see if there is anything available.
Last but not least, our A la Francaise team would be nothing without our faithful minivans : Doug, Esteban, Derick, Junior, Willy, Walter. Dear minivans, we would like to tell you that even though we use you 7 days A week, take you out whatever the weather’s like, sratch you and make you suffer, we love you!
