La Belle Endormie

Wednesday morning, Ali and I boarded the same train as the day before, but continued past la Rochelle to a city I've been dying to visit since my arrival: Bordeaux.  It's a port city that sits along the Garonne river in the Aquitaine region; much of its history revolves around trade and commerce, and today it's well known for the wines produced in its surrounding vineyards.

La Grosse Horloge

Bordeaux is a city for leisurely wanderers (and runners - they were setting up for a marathon along the quai that week).  During my first walk of the town, I found two of the five églises (churches) that would serve as my navigation points: St. Croix and St. Michel, the basilica.  The churches have very unique shapes and, like most Bordelais architecture, are made of light-colored stone.  My personal favorite landmark was the Grosse Horloge (literally, fat clock), a gateway to centre-ville near our apartment.

La Porte Cailhau

I'm always captivated by narrow, winding streets, and Bordeaux has some of the best I've seen.  Evening strolls are especially beautiful; yellow lights illuminate café fronts where small tables sprawl out into the street, every seat filled.  The atmosphere is lively and warm but also calm.  After zigzagging through centre-ville, we went through the Porte Cailhau, or the "thing that looks like the Disney World castle" (as our airbnb host put it) and walked along the river to the Place de la Bourse, probably the most famous spot in Bordeaux.  Usually, there's a reflective pool in front of the buildings, but it was shut down temporarily because of the marathon.

  

Place de la Bourse, sans and avec reflective pool 

I have a handful of friends, both American and French, who have Bordeaux connections, so I collected must-do lists from each of them.  One of my favorites was a chic coffee and tea shop called VerdeNero; their drinks are true art in presentation and taste.  We had the added entertainment of watching an on-foot post-robbery chase out of the Decathlon store nearby as well as a fiercely independent dog (belonging to the owner of another small store next door) who was trained to look both ways and cross the street all on its own.

After all that excitement, it was time to climb up something tall; we chose the Tour Pey Berland next to the Cathédrale Sainte-André.  The Tour is the cathedral's bell tower which was actually built completely separated from the church (but still in the same square) to protect the church from the vibrations of the bells.  The view is spectacular; it's especially fun to find all the landmarks and monuments from the top (the Grosse Horloge doesn't look quite so grosse).

 

 Tour Pey Berland and its view of Bordeaux

In the afternoon, we visited the Musée Aquitaine to get an overview of the region's history.  The area is key in Neanderthal research, which was my favorite part of the museum; there was also a period of Roman influence that isn't so obvious in the architecture when you first walk the city.  Some of the commerce and merchant history is similar to that of Nantes.  All in all, the museum was very well done.

That evening, we visited Wine More Time on a recommendation.  Apparently vineyards surrounding the city run the risk of being overpriced for the quality since Bordeaux is a huge tourist destination; a few people suggested tasting wines instead at wine bars in the city as an alternative.  Our experience was great; the proprietaire explained the wines, regions, and years very well, and we paired them with a charcuterie for dinner.  My favorite wine was a red from St. Emilion, a small town you can visit easily by train.

Our last aventure bordelaise was a restaurant find near the Église St. Pierre in the church square full of restaurants and cafés with outdoor seating.  La Petite Maison de Pierre is an unassuming spot tucked into a corner right next to the church.  The owner was welcoming and offered us a menu of all that was fresh from the market that morning!

When I returned to Bordeaux at the end of the trip, I also explored the old merchant neighborhood called Chartrons and attempted to visit Librairie Mollat, the largest independent bookstore in France, built at Montesquieu's final home (Montesquieu is the baron who influenced the U.S. Constitution with his idea of the separation of powers in government)...but Sunday thwarted me once again: the librairie was closed.