France 2025 - Day 5 / Bordeaux

Steps today: 11 769 / 7.75 km

You can tell by my step count today that it was a washout! Heavy, soaking, sideways rain. 

Like yesterday, no point starting early, so we started the day around 9AM with breakfast in one of the restos by the hotel

Tucked under the umbrellas, we walked along this cute street with the colourful bollards lining the street.

And then sought shelter for an hour or so in a café

Not only did the rain pick up after this, but the wind was crazy! many many many inside-out umbrella moments.  Forget getting the camera out to take pictures.

I thought maybe an hour or two at the Fine Arts Museum might be a good activity...  but it was just 3 rooms and took only 30 minutes.

The details in this sculpture really impressed me! (despite the missing fingers) They are sheets of music.

Time for lunch! I love Neapolitan style pizza, so this was perfect! But it really kicked my ass... OINK

The rain was getting increasingly strong and being outside stopped being fun. We went to another café and tried to drag it out as long as we could, but by about 2:30PM it was just miserable so we went back to the room to dry off.

Thank God for all the restaurants right outside the hotel door!  After drying out in the room for a while, we didn't even need umbrellas to duck out and eat.  We had starters at one place, then switched next door for another course.  

Again, that odd lighting in one of the restaurants - still no idea why.

It was an early night, we were DONE with rainy sight seeing for the day (week, month, year...  life!)

France 2025 - Day 4 / Bordeaux

Steps today: 18 454 / 12.17 km

Bordeaux in the rain - Blech! But honestly, if it's just drizzle, we really don't mind. As long as we are not stuck under our umbrellas and can still look up, it's fine. If you have to hunker down to avoid sideways rain, dodge puddles and get wet - it's another story.  Thankfully, it wasn't so bad today.

We took our time in the morning, pointless to get out early so we started the day around 9AM. It was not cold, so despite the rain we had breakfast on one of the terrasses outside the hotel

Next was a drizzly / then rainy walk to the busy part of town and another long coffee / drink stop looking out over the wet square.  (Inside this time!)

Church visits are a good way to stay dry too!

Around 11:30, we spotted a "L'Entrecôte" restaurant. Not the same chain as the one we did in Paris, but this chain is the same concept; we went to the one in Lyon back in 2015.  Just like the other chain, line-ups here are de rigueur, they so since it wasn't cold or raining sideways and we had nothing else to do - we lined up.

Exactly the same menu as "Relais", but we thought Relais' meat was leaner.  Still: delicious.

We even struck up a conversation with some locals at the next table who were nice enough to share their wine with me! We bought a 1/2 bottle which was not enough, and they ordered a full which was too much. Perfect.

After lunch, there was a break in the rain! YIPEEEE!!  it even made us wonder if we could un-cancel our trip to Saint Émilion for a minute...  but it didn't last.  Still, it gave us some umbrella free moments in the day which is always a plus.  We wandered up and down the main drag - and we were not the only ones with the same idea! 

Check out all the people down the street!  Looks like a river of people rolling in.

Time for a drink stop!

A bit more strolling in the on and off rain....

And our final drink stop just before 5PM.  The waiter here tried the old "screw the tourist / forget the change" trick on us, but we didn't let him off the hook.  I followed him back inside where he feigned innocence and gave my 10 Euros.  He even turned to a colleague and said: no wonder I make so much in tips. Jackass.

It was about a 30 minute walk back to the hotel, where we planned supper in one of the places by the hotel.  I pigged out!

We were done a little after 8PM. Thankfully despite the rain, we had a very nice day!

France 2025 - Day 3 / Bordeaux

Steps today: 21 936 / 14.46 km

Off to new adventures today - Bordeaux!  We arrived just after 10:30AM and were pleased to see the room was ready for us when we arrived.  It's so nice to be able to unpack and freshen up before starting our sight seeing...  and knowing we won't have to do it later at the end of a long day when all you want to do is collapse.

The hotel was right across the street from the train station, and there were a few lively terrasses right outside the door.  This was a picture I took early in the morning on the day we left.  It's barely a street to cross, just a tram and if the trains or trams made any noise at night, we never heard it.

Lots of resto options right outside the door! Perfect if all you want to do is roll home after supper.

My principle complaint was the bathroom door in the room.  It was not a proper door that shuts, but rather just a swinging glass shower door.  ZERO privacy!  Great way to stay constipated on vacation.

We started with a walk by the Église Sainte Croix, old and seemingly abandoned... 

Then the Église Saint Michel

A lovely walk from there to the river front

Then a PERFECT snack-lunch with a beautiful view of the Porte Cailhau

It was getting hot by the time we were done. The day started off at 7ºC and it was now 23ºC in full sun...  and we were not dressed for it! Makes for great pictures with a nice beautiful blue sky, but I was melting.

By 2:30, I was dying for shade but there was not a sliver of it anywhere!!!  I was desperate for a cool drink and almost jumped for joy when we finally found a shady spot to have a drink.... with a view of the Cathedral too! (Frank had ice cream)

Around 3:30, some precious precious precious clouds rolled in... ahhhh...  sweet relief!

Then a little stroll through the Public Gardens when the sun came out again. Everything was SO GREEN!

Next we headed out to see this city's Statue of Liberty, but then the clouds parted and we were trapped!

What to do? Frank even considered an Uber back to the hotel we were so hot! We eventually made it to a tram station and took it back to the busy part of town where we stopped for a cool drink in the first place we found. I was so desperate, I didn't even care that the place wasn't cute, that the drink didn't taste quite right and that it came in "the wrong type of glass"

The clouds were really rolling in by now, which saved us. It cooled down considerably, and we got back to feeling comfortable. We were refreshed enough after that to take a long meandering walk back to the hotel to have supper in one of the places in front of the hotel.

We made it back to the hotel for supper by 6:30.  My food pictures are weirdly tinted...  yet it wasn't unusually dark in the restaurant. Ah well.

The clouds that rolled in at the end of the day were harbingers of doom. Solid rain was in the forecast for the next 2 days, and we were only there for 2 more days. We cancelled our day-trip plans to visit Saint Émilion; disappointing, but that's the way it goes on vacation sometime!