Brilliant Bordeaux

I've wanted to visit Bordeaux and its surrounds for many years now, especially once I heard more about it from my friend Lorène. She sent me some amazing postcards over the years. 

Arriving at Bordeaux we were welcomed by a random lady sitting at a bus stop. That felt kind of nice! Then we were greeted by our friendly Airbnb host, Marc. He made us a coffee and gave us some excellent tips for seeing the city. His apartment had some nice views over the city and a great hammock on the balcony. Coffee and hammocks...what a place! After only one night Marc was off to Nice for a short holiday so we ended up having his whole apartment to ourselves.

Bordeaux is an interesting town. We used the city bike scheme to get around initially but it ended up freezing money on our credit cards for a few days which was annoying. (It seems like most cities don't quite have these schemes quite right, for tourists at least.) Anyway, it was a pleasure to walk through the streets of Bordeaux and along the Garonne river. You can tell a lot of work has been done (and was being done) in restoration of buildings and public facilities. The city is apparently the largest urban World Heritage Site and is recognised for the unity of its architectural heritage.

Rue Vital Carles and Cathédrale Saint-André de Bordeaux

Bordeaux town

Monument aux Girondins

Amazing sculpture "Sanna" by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa.
Really jumps out at you in the right light

A lovely garden of Bordeaux

Am I the only one who sees a dragon face on this?

Turtle: a popular meeting point

One of my favourite parts of Bordeaux was walking and picnicking along the quay. The Miroir d'Eau de Bordeaux (Water Mirror) is a huge reflecting pool in front of Place de la Bourse. It produces fog every fifteen minutes. It was so much fun watching people of all ages splashing about and a nice relief on a hot day. I found it a rather artistic use of water and light and would love to see it in different seasons.

Garden along the esplanade near Place de la Bourse

 Children playing in front of Place de la Bourse 

Me (just a bigger child) enjoying Miroir d'Eau de Bordeaux!

The Hermione, a replica of the French frigate which transported General Lafayette to America, arrived in Bordeaux on the Garonne river whilst we were there

The things you do in London

Another highlight was catching up with my friend Lorène and introducing her to my new fiancé! We had a picnic lunch in a nice garden and it was great to find out what she was up to with her translating business and more about her life in Bordeaux. She gave us some tips for Saint-Émilion, a place she is very passionate about. It was funny because we had a conversation about how sometimes taking too many photos means you can miss a moment because you are behind the camera, but then later I was sad because we didn't manage to take a photo of us;it is usually nice when someone lives across the other side of the world! Instead here is one I love from London in 2010:

WHAT ABOUT THE WINE? (I hear you ask.) 

Just a small local selection!

Château d’Agassac vineyards

Bordeaux is after all the world's wine industry capital. We had a lovely private tour of two château (Château d’Agassac and Château Paloumey) in the famous Médoc region followed by a picnic amongst the vineyards. Rob, knowing full well what he was doing, asked our tour guide about whether there were any good breweries in the area. The look on the guide's face was absolutely priceless!

The most interesting thing about d’Agassac, a 16th century château  was that a Dutch expert had come to the area to advise on drainage of the site. Paloumey also had a long history but the vineyard was abandoned for around 50 years with the new owner building a tennis court instead! Of course we also learnt a bit about the French appellation system and tried a few drops. Both vineyards were beautiful and a lovely place to spend the day.

Inside Château d’Agassac

Château d’Agassac

Lunch at Château Paloumey