Bordeaux

Bordeaux turned out to be very different from what I expected. It was a very pretty town with wide boulevards, huge squares, plazas and elegant buildings. It felt more refined than Paris in places. Apparently Paris was fashioned in the image of Bordeaux as it was already well-established when Paris was just a 'quasi-medieval' town.

We stayed in the rich area of the town in a budget hotel so ended having to walk quite a bit to get to restaurants and the main shopping strip. In Bordeaux on the banks of the river Gironne is the 'Place de la Bourse' built in the 18th century with two pavilion-like buildings behind a fountain of the three graces. The area in front of the square is dominated by a water feature called the 'water mirror' - a huge flat rectangular area that is sprayed by mist from the ground every 15 minutes or so. The 'water mirror' was a favourite with all the kids and adults alike who walked, slide and played on it for hours. The buildings and the surrounding area was lit up beautifully at night and was nice for an evening stroll. Behind 'Place de la Bourse' was a long pedestrianised walkway lined with shops, cafes and restaurants supposed to be the longest shopping street in Europe. Although I remember hearing the same phrase used to describe the main shopping street in Copenhagen.

We spent much of our time exploring the town by foot and chilling in its gardens and parks. We were there for four nights and found the whole town ghost-like over the weekend especially Sunday. Except for the tourists walking about trying to find something to do there were no locals about and hardly anything open. While there we did find a great supermarket near us with everything you could ask for and more. It had an entire aisle dedicated to cheese and two whole aisles full of wine (one for red and other for white, of course). The wine selection was so huge and cheap we ended having a bottle of wine with salmon & cheese baguettes for dinner for a couple of nights. Oh and when we went to get a baguette (french stick) from the bakery in the supermarket we had a choice from about 10 different types.. the French do love their food and wine!

While walking around town we came across an English pub and since the 3rd Ashes test was on I asked the girl behind the counter if she wouldnt mind putting on the cricket for us. After being shocked by the request (because no one had ever asked for the cricket) she obliged. So we spent a couple of hours watching cricket and sipping beer & cider - spending a very English afternoon in a French town.