Two days in Bordeaux
July 25th we took the train from Castillon-la-Bataille to the Gare Saint Jean in Bordeaux.
The train station in Castillon-la-Bataille is small but it works well on the SNCF rail system.
Here’s what the train station looks like from the outside. I am also including a city map and a poster for the spectacle.
After arriving in Bordeaux, we took a taxi cab to our hotel to avoid some of the difficulties with public transportation due to maintenance on tram lines. That seemed like a good expenditure to get to our hotel in a timely manner and not having to shlep our suitcases too far and too long.
We stayed at Hotel Vatel and had a nice quiet room that to access we had to walk through the restaurant and find a private stairway to our room. The restaurant is currently only serving breakfast, so we didn’t disturb anyone’s dinner by going in and out of the hotel.
After settling into our room we left to walk around a little in the city before going to our favorite restaurant Chez DuPont. This was our third visit to that restaurant and we were not disappointed.
Here are some photos taken near the Place de Quinconces. The massive statue was dismantled during World War II to avoid the Nazis from melting down the metal and using it in the war. The plaque gives a brief history.
Scott noticed that the horses in the fountain seemed to have nasal congestion. Most only had one nostril that sprayed water. I took a short video to demonstrate that malady.
On our way to the restaurant we happened to pass by the German embassy. Since our son is going to graduate school in Germany, we took a couple of pictures of that governmental building (or at least the plaques on the doors).
Our dinner was as wonderful as it had been in the past. Scott ordered the duck confit and I had the Segovia couchon noir (black pig). We basically switched meals from the last time we visited. The meals were fabulous.
On Saturday, July 26th we bought a city pass for Bordeaux for 3 days. I thought that since they had a downloadable smart phone application that I could just purchase it online and show a QR code at the various places. Nope. It’s not that 21st century savvy. I purchased it, but I still had to physically visit the Tourist Office to get a physical card.
It turns out that it was fine, because the agent talked us about different tours that were available with that card and scheduled them for us. One thing I really liked besides entry to various museums was the unlimited access to public transit. That alone helped make it well worth the money.
We started with a visit to the Musee des Beaux-Arts. Here are a few pictures both outside and inside.
We then made our way to the Musee d’Aquitaine which has prehistoric artifacts,
Roman artifacts,
and artifacts from the Medieval period as well. Here is a reproduction of the tomb of Ailenor d’Aquitaine AKA Eleanor of Aquitaine and a maquette from the 17th century.
We had a quick lunch by buying some sandwiches at a Paul’s shop before we went on the river tour on the Garonne River. The name of the ship “Burdigala” is what the city of Bordeaux was called during the time of the Romans. The last picture is a sunken Nazi ship that is still submerged in the Garonne River. One of the numerous souvenirs of the Nazi occupation of this grand city during World War II.
After this river tour ended we took the tram and then a bus to get to the Bassins de Lumières so we could see the showing of “The Little Prince” that day. It is something I will post about separately as I have lots of thoughts on that site and of the show.
For dinner we stopped at the Les Halles de Bacalan across the street from the Cite du Vin. The food was not as nice as Chez DuPont, nor anything like we had at the Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse. The place in Bordeaux was lively, but the food we had was disappointing.
