Because we are Bordelais(Bordeaux Football club song)A day in enchanting Bordeaux,France

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We started the day off with a Skype call home to daughter Erin,hubby Brent and an opportunity to see grandson Brayden before he went to bed for the night.

We have been sleeping in well past the time we wake at home which must mean we are well into holiday mode. By chance we woke 1 minute before the alarm was set to go off to wake us at the pre-arranged time for the call.

Skype is a wonderful facility to keep in touch from so far away and we wonder how we got by on previous travels. Although we can recall a trip to India in 1997 when our communication home was by FAX (who remembers that form of communication)!

With the catch-up over after 45 minutes we started to get ourselves ready for a day in Bordeaux and some sightseeing.

And then the news broke of an attack on the public at Brussels airport and shortly after an underground station in the city. It seems that airports and trains are a soft target for these insane terrorists.

But enough is enough their deadly deeds will not deter us from our love of life and travelling to places we have only ever read about before and love to enjoy when we get to them.

The shower here is a wondrous apparatus and it was almost too much pleasure to want to get out and get dressed for the day! Enough about that other than to say we shall have to hunt one out back home when it is time to update our bathroom.

With the great golden orb rising in the eastern sky we had breakfast on our small terrace enjoying the increasing warmth of the sun as it rose in the sky.

We had toyed with the idea of taking the bus into the city and leaving the car at home but decided the path to any one of a number of car parks in the centre of the city from where we could get to the tourist office and pick up an English tour guide for a self conducted walking tour of the historic sites in the city seemed pretty straightforward according to Mr Google.

With that knowledge we set off for the city just over 10km away.

On the way we had another chance to ditch the car at a park ‘n ride and take a flash looking light rail tram into the city now about 5km away.

With the thought that the car gives a bit more freedom we carried on and were soon in the suburbs mixing with the locals who included the ever present Frenchman on his bicycle and baguette on the cycle carrier and an opposing bus that didn’t look to be slowing down.

That was the first test of the wing mirrors for the day and we won out! And the man continued riding his bicycle with baguette still attached.

We had two car parks in mind but ended up in the Victor Hugo car park which wasn’t one on the list. At least the name will be familiar if we get lost when it’s time to come home and we can’t find the building.

Parking was relatively easy except for the ignorant driver behind us tooting at one stage to hurry us up as we climbed ever upwards to the top and open deck where the last parks available were. We think that our red number plate stands out amongst the locals and we are fair game for some hurry up at times.

Down in the lift and we found ourselves in a maze of narrow streets and regretting we didn’t bring the map from the apartment that Wilhelm offered. We thought we could find the tourist office quickly and get the walking tour map to take us on a self guided tour easily.

Not to be as we wandered along and after taking a look at the local marketplace which was only half open we found ourselves in a large square where locals, most of whom appeared to be of Muslim descent, were having what can only be described as a huge ‘Trade Me’ market.

We took a seat and watched the scene not thinking about this morning’s Brussels incidents and who the perpetrators probably were. This was just life for these people in a western city that has become their home for one reason or another.

Gretchen had noted that the square ran downhill and with the thought that it probably meant that the land eventually would meet the river, which we were looking for, we set off again.

This time we found what we had been looking for, the Garonne River, with its wide boulevard with light rail running and an even wider promenade next to the river.

We had seen a sign to the tourist office but these do not always take you exactly where you want to be, remember Rouen!

So what better to do than ask a policeman. He was very helpful with only a little English but a phrase he must have used many times as he pointed along the boulevard, ‘five minutes that way’. Perfect!

We passed the Place de la Bourse which is hard not to stand back and admire the statue and the regular curved shape buildings that form the scene.

With a map in hand we set off and took in a half dozen sites on the trail that took us around the old city which is also where the commercial heart is too, a little unlike many other old towns which are often just a tourist attraction while the commercial heart is elsewhere.

The Notre Dame Church was tucked around a corner and we could have walked right by if we had not been looking for the building.

The church which is of Baroque style did not stand out like many of the others we have been yet inside there was a grand looking organ which we are sure would pump out the sound.

Next door was the Mably Court which was a monastery in earlier days.

Further on we came across the Bistro Regent and with crepes on the menu we took a lunch break of crepes and another French delicacy we wanted to try and tick off the bucket list. Gretchen opted for the simple lemon crepe while I went for one with Chantilly cream and ice cream in generous amounts drizzled with hazelnut and salted caramel sause.Yum!

While we watched the world pass by so did 3 soldiers armed with semi automatic guns and 2 policemen walk in a wedge shape formation through the small square packed with people in the cafes having lunch. A sign perhaps of increased security since the Brussels attacks this morning.

We were finding the map easy to follow and next in line for a photograph was the Dijeaux Gate, one of the original entrances to the city when it was walled.

It was here we found a small watch shop and another opportunity to get the battery in my watch changed.

I hadn’t had a ticking watch since being in the sky above Australia. And although I hadn’t missed having time on my wrist I think Gretchen was getting tired of me asking her the time.

The woman that served us was elderly, probably 80 years of age, and said her son would be back in 10 minutes and could we call back and he would have the change of battery done.

It is interesting at times when what you see is not what you expected. In this case ‘the son’ looked as old as the woman who had served us and we thought we might have gone to the wrong watch shop as we were expecting someone looking a lot younger!

We were half way on the walking tour and next was the large and very impressive Rohan Palace which has had several uses since its construction in 1783 including a palace and royal residence and today the City Hall.

There were two stern looking policemen at the entrance to the expansive courtyard in front of the building and they didn’t look welcoming so we didn’t try and enter for a better look and a photo. Perhaps this was down to an increase in security following this morning’s terrorist attacks in Brussels.

A short distance away and we encountered our second trio of armed soldiers patrolling through the square in which Cathedral St-Andre was located. They were moving slowly, semi-automatic guns in their arms and ready for action. They were spread out about 10 metres apart and one of them kept turning around checking behind himself frequently.

As they moved off out of the square we entered the cathedral, the construction of which started in 1096 and like most buildings of this type had been added to in various stages over the years. It had a cavernous interior with a large clock on one wall. There were small bells next to the clock and as it was approaching 3pm we decided to wait for the hour to arrive and with the camera at the ready hopefully get the chiming on video, if the bells actually rang.

Time ticked by and it appeared as though the big hand had past the top of the clock and we thought that there would be no ringing of the bells and subsequently put the video camera back in its bag and stood up to leave the cathedral. And then the clock stuck 3 and the bells rang but too late to video it!

We admired the separate bell tower next to the church as we bought our walking tour to an end as we spotted the sign directing us to the Victor Hugo car park and we had already seen the highlights of the walk earlier when we had been searching for the tourist office.

Waving our flimsy paper ticket in front of the machine we paid €7.80 for the time we had been parked and made our way to the car. Not trusting the process of paying for the car park completely we took the offer of a receipt from the machine just in case the automatic gate didn’t work when we got the car down from the roof of the car park.

However, disaster struck as the door of the lift that we were taking to the roof top created a huge draft and sucked the receipt out of my hand. Gretchen stuck her leg out (dangerous move!)to try and keep the door open but to no avail. Gretchen wasn’t injured in her action, thank goodness. But the receipt was lost!

We thought, what the heck, someone will believe us that we had paid if the ticket didn’t work when we waved it at the exit machine.

It did work and we were out and on our way home after an interesting and enjoyable day out in an enchanting city that was very easy to walk around with a lot of interesting sights to take in.

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Comments

[KJ]

Faxes do still exist...
Like our working VCR and still recording (missed TV shows) video tapes our fax is still operational and functional. Think maybe we could be a museum of " old school technologies"? could start a museum of " old school technology" one day?