Blogs from Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France, Europe

Friday March 30th - After a good 12 hours of traveling and/or sitting in airports, we finally made it to Bordeaux. Customs was non-existent and we luckily got the last tourist map from the airport information desk. With our baggage in tow, we found an English speaking taxi driver (first one in line at the taxi stand) and we found the apartment rental with no problems. Our hosts were very friendly, as far as we could tell - they only spoke French! But they smiled a lot and we got through the tour of the home with lots of pointing, nodding and smiling. We were also amused by the antiquated gender-specific tasks in which they navigated the tour. Brian, here is the electrical panel. Shannon, here is the broom closet. Of course, we just had to ... read more

We arrived by train in Bordeaux after a journey through farmlands and fields with glimpses of rivers. The station, in the south of the city, was some distance from our accommodation, an apartment in the Chatrons area in the north. After persuading a young French girl to translate the direction from our host on the phone we boarded the tram, Line C, bound for the Place Paul Doumer stop. The apartment is a short stroll from the stop. The ease of this journey illustrates one of the best things about Bordeaux; it's so people friendly. This is the easiest city in which to get about. Public transport is brilliant, with three modern tramlines making any journey a breeze. There are a huge number of cyclists and the city is compact enough to walk to any destination ... read more

Our first full day in la Rochelle was spent exploring the historic part of the city, that part around the harbour. We went to the three main medieval towers, the Tower of St Nicholas, the Chain Tower and the Lantern Tower. Each had a different function in the protection of the harbour in days past. The Tower of St Nicholas was constructed in two stages in the 14th Century, the first developed a lean in the soft silt and had to be stabilised before the second was added. The structure is built around an amazing labyrinth of stone spiral staircases. One of these staircases is a "double helix", that is two staircases entwined so that two people could use it, one going up and the other down, and not cross paths. The second tower, the Chain ... read more

BORDEAUX SATURDAY – NOVEMBER 19 Left San Sabastien and headed into the Pyrenees. We are in Basque country, and the signs still read both Spanish and Basque. The architecture has changed, even in the countryside. As the terrain flattened out it became quite wooded. It looks like there are a lot of tree farms in this area. Also spotted some lumber processing plants in some of the towns. As we drove into Bordeaux the traffic got much heavier, and the signs weren't indicating the road we needed to follow. We had to make a quick choice, and made a wrong turn. After stopping at a fuel station and asking for the road number, it was correct. As we drove further, we saw that we were going the wrong way. We turned toward Bordeaux center and ended ... read more

Supreme effort to get moving fast today as concerned that there is only one campsite we could use to visit Bordeaux and experience of last few days shows that the campsites are all really rather full still. By 9.15 we were on our way. We waved to the sea as we left the campsite as that is the last we will see of it until we get back to Calais. Our trip from now will be strictly inland. The sky was grey as we left and several others from the campsite were moving on as they were fed up with the drizzly weather. As one said to me “I don’t come all this way to sit in the van for three days !”. We took the scenic route along the Gironde estuary with a glimpse of ... read more

The last time I backpacked Europe it was low season. This time it is high season. For the most part I can handle it. Especially in the busier cities it is nice to immerse yourself in the sea of tourists, if for no other reason than to feel a sense of security. And I don't mean safety security, I mean cultural security, whereby you don't feel like all the locals are judging you for being a lost, hopeless, staggering idiot most of the time. Amongst tourists, at least you feel like you're in good, and pathetic, company. However, in summertime the train stations are a nightmare. The entire time I was researching the details of my Eurorail pass I kept asking people "What's the catch?" "No catch!" they would say. "Seriously," I'd respond, "I can just ... read more

On the last day of May we cruised into the Bay of Lisbon. However, it appeared like we were cruising into San Francisco Bay. I was looking around for Alcatraz! Actually there are many similarities between Lisbon and San Francisco. Both are beautiful port cities located on large bays entered by passing under identical suspension bridges and built on seven hills. Because they are at approximately the same latitude, their climate and vegetation is similar. The cities are located near famous vineyards and both were virtually destroyed by violent earthquakes. I don’t know if Lisbon has a song comparable to Tony Bennett’s ballad about San Francisco but they do have little cable cars that climb halfway to the stars. We cruised up the Tagus River past the Monument to the Discoveries and under the Ponte 25 ... read more