I could tell you about my idyllic respite in the historic city of Bordeaux and the many exciting places that I visited, some of which I had been looking forward to seeing for weeks. Alas none of that actually happened so instead I shall recall for you how my sojourn actually went down.
Let us start at the very beginning, it is ,after all, a very good place to start. I arrived at Birmingham airport at 5.30am for an early half seven flight only to find that my flight had been delayed and would not be leaving until 9.15. Off to a good start then.
Fast forward a few hours and I finally arrived in Bordeaux only to be flummoxed by the next step of the journey. The Coeur De City hotel, where I was staying had helpfully provided me with instructions on how to get to the hotel from the airport. The problem was that I am a numpty and cannot read maps. Nevertheless I hopped on to the +1 bus towards Garre St Jean and hoped for the best.
The celebratory pat on the back for getting off at the right bus stop was, it seems, too early as I proceeded to walk in the completely opposite direction to the one which I had expected. Cue the heavens opening.
Before my trip my mother had asked me whether I was taking my umbrella with me or even a coat. I replied that I would not be including these in my luggage, even if it did rain during my visit to France it would be warm and its not like it’s English rain, I’ll dry off in no time. Yeah about that…
Now picture this, here I was helplessly wondering the streets of Bordeaux with both camera and suitcase in hand. Gone was the need to find out where the hell I was and I instead I quickly tried to find refuge in a restaurant, cafe, well anything would have done really.
It turns out that I make bad decisions when I panic and instead of sticking to the main streets where there was sure to be somewhere to shelter I kept taking a wrong turn and ending up in the middle of nowhere. Also did I mention that I’m pretty sure that I caught pneumonia by this point.
Luckily, for me, probably not them, the restaurant Il Meneghino provided me with well needed solace from the elements and a delightful asparagus veloutee which was just what the doctor ordered.
My planned itinerary for the day had included visiting the Musee de Aquitaine and the Grosse Cloche (bell tower) and I happened to stumble across these on my rather soggy stumbling yet I was a bit too flustered by this point to appreciate them. Maybe I’ll just have to come back one day.
Whilst I was eating my soup I was able to gain WIFI access and formulate a plan of how to get back (or rather how to to get there in the first place) to the hotel. This was easier said than done as it turned out that the entrance to the Coeur de City is tucked away and resulted in me wondering around the square where it was situated for a good ten minutes.
Before you, dear reader, take a sigh of relief that my ordeal was over I can tell you that it really wasn’t, in fact it gets better. So far we have established that I was pretty sure that I had developed pneumonia so the plan was to get rid off my wet clothes, have a shower and change into warm ones.
Upon opening my suitcase however I realised that this plan wasn't going to work as the clothes which had fallen to the bottom of my case whilst I was wandering around the streets were really quite wet and my new orange top was stained with what I can only imagine was mud.
After a a really great morning (and early afternoon) of the first day of my holiday I was sure that my luck was about to change. With dry(ish) clothes on my back, journal in hand and camera around my neck I set off with a steely determination to see what the city of Bordeaux had to offer.
The historic city, with medieval roots features some stunning architecture and hidden gems including the ruins of a roman colosseum that had been hidden in the cities ramparts for over 1500 years.
The M+O glacier was another spot on my checklist that I was really rather gutted to be missing out on as it was heralded as one of the best ice cream stops in the city. Fear not gelato fans as Amiago saved the day with a flower arrangement (yes really, don’t you know that's how all the cool kids are eating their ice cream these days) of noisette and pistache.
On returning to the hotel I realised to my horror that despite the fact that I had just purchased a new travel toothbrush for the trip, I had (obviously because I can’t do anything right) left said toothbrush at home and was now toothbrushless.
Just a little prelude as to why I started the next day in search of a pharmacy or supermarket. Alas as it was Sunday no pharmacies were open and I got lost lost looking for the supermarket, even though I had acquired a map by this time. The Sunday morning stroll wasn’t totally useless however as I stumbled across the Monument aux Girondins.
The main tourist season in Bordeaux doesn’t really start in earnest until late June/July which meant that at the time of visiting (early June) there was really quite a lot of roadworks.
Next stop Tonneins.
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