Bordeaux and beyond .

This time we saw the flamingos as we neared Narbonne and I had the camera ready - not a very good shot as it is out of the train window but it is better than no photo at all!



The trains ran and our only problem was they we couldn’t complete the middle section as planned so we had a 4 hour break in Narbonne. Fortunately there was a bar/restaurant at the station so we had a very slow drink and lunch and sat at their tables until it was time to board. Bordeaux was a very interesting city. It has an extensive tram network with trams running every few minutes and we purchased a day ticket at a very reasonable price. After we finished sight seeing for the day and our feet were tired we decided to spend time riding the trams to fill in the gaps. Our mid afternoon had been disrupted by a protest march which caused these trams to stop and it was a bit irritating as the marchers were going around the centre of the city and we were somewhat encircled. Quite safe really as there were lots of police with guns!!!!!.

The Garonne River (crossed by The Pont de Pierre) runs through the centre of the city and provides a good and safe harbour. It is a city of solid stone construction with some parts of the buildings dating back 1000 years. Shops by the dozen and many multicultural businesses line the streets – I saw some lovely boots….but……they are still there. Exploring the architecture took us a long time as usual.

Gross Cloche Eglise St Eloi




Pont de Pierre



The Cathedral


The food in the restaurants was excellent and we dined in the Frog and Rostbif. Here we learned that we were only the second couple of Australians our waitress had encountered in Bordeaux – it seems that we are off the Aussie tourist trail. We were very entertained by the fact that they thought we were English and that we were served a bottle of Hardy’s white wine. As we were leaving, purely by chance, I Come From a Land Down Under started to play on the sound system. We had a good laugh with our Scottish waitress.


That red shoe is made from chocolate - what a shop!





This was our first experience of the Campanile chain of hotels – a good price and very pleasant service. This chain has added a jug to its rooms – very revolutionary but a nice touch.

Autumn colours have come to the countryside. As I write we are heading though very beautiful and neat rural areas on our way to Paris.