Bordeaux, France

Day Thirteen| Wednesday 15th August 2018
City: Bordeaux, France
Accommodation: Ibis Bordeaux Centre Gare Saint Jean Euratlantique
Weather: 31
Photo: View of buildings along Quai des Chartrons, along the River Garonne

We had an early start today, getting up at 5:20am because we had our journey to Bordeaux. Originally our departure was 7:48am, but it was updated to 7:12am. I had been made aware of this about a month ago, and made the alteration in my spreadsheet where I’ve been tracking our itinerary, but the e-tickets in the trains phone application had not updated, and having forgot about the new time, we were still basing our journey on the old time. Thankfully last night before bed, we received a reminder email, phew!

We didn’t have breakfast at the hotel, as we did not have time. We walked the couple of minutes to the Odeon metro station and caught the metro to Gare Montparnasse, which is the train terminal for trains heading around the country. It wasn’t long after our arrival that we were on the train, carriage 18, upstairs in seats 102 and 103. We picked up a small snack at the vending machine on the way in.

The distance for from Paris to Bordeaux is almost 600km, and our journey by train took 2hrs 8min, as we travelled at 300km per hour. There was a monitor near the doors of the train informing us of the current speed. Anthony had a bit of an overreaction when he got on the train and could not find his headphones, but was relieved when I found them in my backpack, I guess that’s the problem of having the same bags. I would have been annoyed too at not having anything to watch or listen to for the journey, but his over reaction was one to look back on. The words “don’t talk to me about it” was uttered during his frustration when he could not find them.

Upon arriving at Bordeaux, the exit process was easy, we just walked out like any suburban train station. Our hotel is conveniently directly across the road from the station, which is great, as we have an early train departure this Friday, at around 6:30am. It also has a tram line on that road which will take us into the city. It’s a nice hotel, sound proof to the outside, with basic amenities, but modern and clean. We don’t have things like a kettle with tea and coffee sachets, second pillow each, a hand towel, facial tissues, ironing board and a couple of other items, but we have everything we need for two nights.

We arrived at the hotel at 9:30am, and the room was not ready as check-in is 12pm here. We dropped off our bags at reception to avoid carrying them around. We were keen for breakfast, and the woman at the hotel reception suggested the cafe next door, Taverne Du Midi. They had a breakfast deal for €6, where you get an orange juice, small muffin, croissant, and a tub of yoghurt. We both got this as well as a hot chocolate and coffee. We enjoyed it here, the place is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so we considered going back for a dinner.

For today, I had planned for us to do a food walking tour. I wanted to book online last month, but the website would not allow purchases coming from Australia. The only other option was to book on the day at the starting point. It’s a self guided tour, where you get a book of tickets, and you walk to a selected number of places and exchange the ticket for food samples, and in some instances, the store owner will have a brief chat and the food and or their store. The ticket book also has the map and info on some of the sites.

So, we left the hotel and used Google Maps to direct us to the shop to purchase our ticket book. Google Maps however decided to give us the quickest route, not the most scenic route. Our walk brought us down the most dodgey areas of Bordeaux, where you honestly felt like people have been stabbed here, or drug deals are a common occurance. There were even condom machines on the exterior of the pharmacy, but Anthony noticed them on other buildings too. Thankfully we got through that without having to use our travel insurance, and arrived at the destination. However, the shop was closed with no notice on the window as to why. I checked online and there was no information there either, we were there at 10:45, and the shop opens from 9:30am. I was really annoyed, as so far our first outing in Bordeaux was not scenic or eventful. We decided to walk towards the River Garonne, and head back to the hotel to plan out the afternoon. The walk was really nice, albeit getting very warm, as it hit 31 degrees today. We took a few photos along this route.

Once back at the hotel, we mapped out a plan for the day, and for tomorrow. Tomorrow’s plans were already sorted, but not set in stone, so we opted to change them. Our new plan for today was to hire a bike and ride around the city. For tomorrow, we have booked a wine thing where you get to do tasting and mix your own wine. Anthony found and organised it, so I don’t know the full detail, but I am keen to do it.  That’ll be at 10:30am for two hours, and in the afternoon we’ll do a 1hr river cruise.

Bordeaux is very well designed for bikes, and there are many bike paths and wide bike lanes. The car traffic is slow and not terribly busy either. There is a bike station next to the hotel, where you can hire one for the day for only €7, plus a €200 deposit. You can pay using your credit card, so that was what we did. We rode for 13km around the River Garrone, and over to the former docks which is being rejuvinated with new apartment complexes, restaraunts and cafes.

The ride was good fun, we kept to a slow pace, and there were so many other cyclists and pedestrians out today. We didn’t take many photos during the ride, as we plan to take more tomorrow.

Once back at the hotel, after docking the bikes at the station, I went over the road to the train station, as there are various food outlets here. I picked us up a sandwich and drink combo, and then went to a bakery and bought a slice of a baked custart tart each, so delicious! I haven’t been taking many photos of my food, I usually do when I travel, but keep forgetting this time around.

Straight after eating, I fell asleep for almost an hour, I was tired from the early start and the day of walking and cycling. We’ve walked 10km in addition to the bike ride. After a quick shower and feeling refreshed, we headed down to a bar on the other side of the hotel and had a beer each while sorting out our plans for Barcelona this coming weekend.

For dinner, we decided to go back to the place which we went to for breakfast, and the meals are reasonably priced. We both went for the spaghetti carbonara, after having such a nice one in Paris. This one was served with the egg yolk and parmesan cheese in their own little bowl on the side of the plate, so you could mix this in yourself. The meal was delicious, we’ve been very lucky with our food purchases while travelling.

It’s now 8:40pm, and Anthony is already asleep, he’s tired from the early start, and not being able to have a morning coffee until 4hrs of getting up didn’t help either. He’s also getting quite red from the sun, even though he’s using sunscreen. We have a wedding to go to in Melbourne two weeks after we return, we’ll be the most tanned people there.