Ohhh oh oh Fashion (Holiday 12/14)

At one point back in the day Balenciaga was as big a name as Chanel and Givenchy. The only reason he's not as well known now (to me at least) is that when he retired he took his name and stores with him. But the Getarian couturier left a long legacy.

While I know little of the subject it was utterly fascinating walking through the museum to his works, moving through chronologically, and often find him creating pieces that felt a good couple of decades ahead of their time. I always find, with truly creative people, whether it be art or design or music, that I walk out in awe of their ability. And so it was with a man whose name I didn't even know beforehand.

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In the Basque country the local wine is called Txakoli (pronounced 'cha-koe-lee') and it's frankly lovely. We had planned to come home with some cases (after all, post-Brexit, being able to do so isn't guaranteed...). We'd hoped for a tour as well, but a quick call around some, by me and the lovely helpful girl on reception, it appeared we'd missed out by not organising anything earlier. We could still go and buy some, though, so after visiting Gaintz we struck upon Txomin Etxaniz, the largest producer. This is a relative term, when compared to the massive French producers for example, and it's still ver much a family firm.

We struck lucky, arriving at the vineyard just 5 minutes before a tour was starting. They'd earlier, on the phone, said they were sold out, so can only presume someone didn't turn up, and I'm so glad that was the case. There was a really interesting wander around the vines (grown in different ways to the French for the most part, due to the very specific geography and weather); and a tasting from heaven, with great food to accompany the wine (of course, with me driving I had to hand over most of the wine to Mel....).