From Pau to Bordeaux!

Friday, 3 September, 2010

Bonjour!

Today was our drive from Pau to Bordeaux. We reluctantly left the Pyrenees behind us. They are truly stunning mountains, and we have only begun to explore them as we headed out of Pau toward Bordeaux this morning. R and Emmy navigated a beautiful route, almost entirely devoid of peages or major highways – just lovely back roads. We wound through Orthez (which is the photo of the tower on the bridge) and Dax (an interesting spa town) and then passed through literally thousands of acres of trees in various stages of forestation. We were obviously in an area of tree farms planted for sustainable growth – we were just surprised at how large an area this took up; very flat compared to the mountains we are used to!

Arrived in Bordeaux about 1:30 p.m. and found our hotel, the Majestic, with no problem. Fortunately, I had reserved a parking place – because the hotel only has 5 spaces total! And to tell you the truth, tomorrow morning’s backing out of a very narrow space all the way to the street is going to be quite a challenge! However, we’ll face that when it comes…Our room wasn’t ready yet, so we dropped our luggage and headed out. Weather-wise it was another perfect day; warm but not hot. We made our way to the Grand Theatre, a lovely, white building with huge columns, just a block or so away, and then wended our way through the square. It was at this point that we saw something labeled “Bar a Vin” – wine bar, and headed inside. What an incredible place!! As Bordeaux is the home to many, many wonderful wine houses, this particular Bar had a muriad of tasting, as well as a wine school! We sat in air conditioned comfort and tasted first some white Graves and then R had a Pomerol and a Medoc, and I had a glass of St. Emilion. Everything was TERRIFIC, including the plate of goat cheeses that we enjoyed. The picture of the stained glass Bacchus was on the wall in the wine bar; boy, that was quite a place! After that, we headed back to the hotel and got to our room - #101, on the first floor (second floor U.S.) Lovely large room; terrific bathroom! TV, however, very lacking – which means no Eurosport…R did some bookkeeping, and I took a nap – wine, especially in the afternoon, does that to me!

Up and out around 6 with the idea of taking the slick-looking tram around town. Walked to Quincenes, the main station and transfer point, just a block from the hotel, got our tickets, and got on board. Rode along the quay following the Garonne River to the end of the line, then back and to the cathedral. The Garonne is a very wide river here at Bordeaux, but VERY, very brown. Not sure if all those beautiful, clear mountain streams have something to do with it, but wow, not a very attractive river to look at!

Went through the cathedral, and then set about finding a place for dinner. Passed one of the largest bookstores we had ever seen – called Mollot – it went for an entire block! Actually passed their classical music section, and went in and found the music we’d enjoyed in Aigues-Mortes by Pacho de Lucia. (Do NOT get Robert started about trying to find a line to pay for it – it was the most unorganized arrangement I’d seen in years! Rather than having one line and then as a cashier was free, the next person going forward, it was more like a rugby scrum with people bunching up everywhere!) I was lobbying for Italian food – as a change – and we found a very nice place on Rue de St. Remy. R started with a salad of avocado with something like Thousand Island dressing, and I had a tomato salad with balsamic vinegar – both excellent! For mains, R had lasagna, and I had tagliatelle with sauce bolognaise. Enjoyed it very much! From there, we walked down to the river, and finally a block or two back to the hotel. The good news is: TFI is broadcasting the France vs. Belorussia game in qualifying for the Rueopean Cup in 2012…score is 0-0 at the half! Hopefully France will fare better than South Africa’s World Cup, where they had a complete and total meltdown!

With that, will close for the night!
Take care; lots of love!
m
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