Beautiful Bordeaux

Bonjour!


Thurs Mar 15th

Today, we leave Paris. We packed up our things and took a taxi to the train station. At first I scoffed at Ted's insistence that we go almost an hour ahead of our train, but it turns out he was right. It was a zoo in there, and we had no idea where to go. When we bought our tickets online at home, it said we needed to find a kiosk to get our train tickets printed. This was in addition to the rail pass that they had UPS-d me already.

Every kiosk that we tried didn't work. There were people everywhere and time was ticking by. We had left the hotel without eating, and for me, that equals an irritable, anxious, stressed individual who kinda wanted to kick people. Don't worry, Ted had me under control. He found where we were supposed to go, got me some food and we got on the train with no problems. It wasn't the first time I was extremely grateful that he could speak French.

The train ride was pleasant, actually. I'm glad we did trains instead of renting a car. Especially when we saw the plethora of extra-narrow one-way streets in Bordeaux. Anyways, when we got off the train, a blast of summer hit us and I almost got sunburned waiting at the taxi stand. We relaxed at the hotel for a bit, and then headed out to find some eats. Found an Italian place in the middle of a square, and happily ate outside. Rich, rich pasta and cheesy bruschetta. We couldn't even finish it.

Back to our hotel for an early night's sleep, or so I thought. Turns out our hotel (which we really, really like) was located right in the middle of all the action. At the time of booking that seemed to be ideal, but all the drunkards outside our window kept me up until easily 3am. Seriously, who is drumming and screaming at 3am??


Friday March 16th

Lazy start today, which I relished. We just wanted to walk around town and see beautiful Bordeaux. And beautiful it is! I am so pleasantly surprised by this city. It's definitely got a "downtown" kind of feel, but you are surrounded by old buildings and cobblestone streets and history. It's not as impersonal as Paris. I think I even like it better. It was cooler today, which was nice.

Something that we've noticed that is common in France is bicycles for rent. They have little stations, and you just go pay to unlock a bike, and then ride it around and return it to any bike station. Very cool.

Also, café life is HUGE in France. Almost all restaurants have outdoor seating and everybody sits facing the street. My Top 10 Paris book described it as a sport, called "posing," that is mostly popular with young people. :P

After opting for a picnic lunch, Ted and I happened upon an art gallery as we wandered around town. All local, independent artists. It was really cool stuff, and I even got the name and email address for one of the artists in case he was selling anything online.

We also found our way to the Tourist Info office, and booked ourselves a morning city tour and a half-day afternoon wine tour to the Medoc region, for tomorrow. :)

We then headed to the Jean Moulin Centre where there was a free showing. It was particularly heavy: an account of the Holocaust and the French Resistance during WWII. There was hundreds of real photographs, depicting all sortsa horrors. Tried not to dwell on it too long, and focused on feeling very lucky for all I have in my life!

The main strip here is Rue Saint Catherine, which is right beside our hotel. It runs for about 2km, and stores line each side all the way. Super trendy shops everywhere. Reminds me of Robson Street, except it's all pedestrian access only (which I love), and it's got the old feel to it (which I also love). Towards one end of the street, the clientele gets a little rougher. And there are beggars, most with cats or dogs. Lots of gypsies around too.

Ted and I have noticed that we do not see overweight people very much at all. Wonder why?

Quiet night in, ordered pizza from room service and relaxed. Did I mention that we had our room changed? It doesn't face the busy street anymore and is wayyy quieter. Trés bien!


Saturday March 17th

Breakfast at the hotel. Then our city bus tour! Unfortunately although there were about 50 people on our tour, only a few of us spoke English so I felt that we got the short end of the stick. The guide would say like 200 words in French, and then "translate" it into about 50 words of English. I think we missed out on some details. Ted says that she translated everything perfectly, but I'm skeptical.

We got to see a lot of Bordeaux's architecture, which dates back several hundred years, including areas of the city that were only for foreigners. We also saw a Nazi submarine base that was made out of concrete and apparently a few different countries tried to unsuccessfully bomb it, so they kept it and turned it into a modern art gallery. Go figure.

Once the city tour was done, we got a couple of baguette sandwiches and sat on the steps to the Grand Theatre to eat. We also tried something that is called a Canelé, which looks like a small muffin but is basically a Creme Brûlée in muffin form. Good, if you like that sort of thing. It is a specialty in Bordeaux!

Then we were off again on our half-day wine tour. Our guide spoke much more English this time because it was about 50/50 now. Ted didn't like her from the start and I think it's safe to say that many people didn't like her by the end. She was a little kooky. After her 3 glasses of wine, she took us all captive on the way back to town, ranting about the decline of French wine culture. Blaming young people (because they don't drink wine, they prefer rum & coke, which is "just dangerous"), blaming the English, blaming Northern Europeans... Oh and she's never been drunk (yeah right, how about right now, lady?), and you don't become an alcoholic from drinking wine, etc. etc. The Americans in the back were heckling her loudly and rudely (they were drunk too). Ted and I were Switzerland.

Despite the return-trip entertainment, we quite enjoyed the wine tour. One place in particular was fantastic and we learned quite a lot as well as had some great tastings. Wouldn't it be great to live here!

Back at the hotel we had a bit of a break before dinner. Ted picked us a nice place called L'Ombriere and I managed to order my first real salad on the whole trip. I've really been missing vegetables over here. It seems that every restaurant has the same menu items, and none of them are veggie-based. Lots of ham, cheese, snails, gizzards, pâté, duck, seafood... I wonder if there are any French vegetarians? Ted ordered a rib-eye steak that was so large it was as big as his head and attracted attention from the other customers. He gave it a good go, too, but we also had dessert coming to us. Bona fide French mousse au chocolat for me, and gateau de chocolat for Ted. Yum.

Back to the hotel. It's starting to rain. Uh oh.

Cheers! Hope all is well at home.
E!