The Road to Bordeaux




Rhys and I continued our bromantic adventure from San Sebastien by setting off early to Bordeaux, with the plan to drive all the coastal roads, stopping off where we desired. We crossed the border into France carrying a baguette, which is illegal at worst and sacrilege at best. Luckily no-one pulled us over to check our bread or documents.

The first stop was Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a cute town close to the border with a lovely pier, beach, and old town. It was an impromptu stop and twas very nice.

I love these trees!




Next was Biarritz where we parked up in an underground car park, unsure of what to expect, and walked out to one of the best views of the trip (see cover photo of this page!). This town turned out to be one of our fave places. It had a stunning bit of coastline full of iconic bridges and jutted out little islands.



 


We continued our trip up the beaches to Soorb-Hossegor (a little disappointing) and then Mimizan Plage (also not great). The coastline was marvellous but these places added nothing unique to this whistle-stop tour.




We arrived into Bordeaux in the evening and had a Spanish siesta before taking the tram from our hotel to the centre. I'd never seen this before but a man got onto the carriage with one of those Back to the Future hoverboard things but with wheels. You know, one of those segways, without the handles. I was impressed by this… And then a second man got on with one. I didn't know what to think. I thought they might have some kind of futuristic jousting battle with baguettes as swords, but it didn't happen.

What I didn't like was buying and validating the tram tickets. I always try and do this because of the fear and anxiety of getting caught if there is an inspector. If I ever forgo a ticket, I sit there nervously, watching every passenger, praying they aren't an inspector. It's never happened to me, although I had some close calls in Manchester as a poor student. After the parking ticket in San Sebastien, I was on high alert and in full compliance mode. Anyway we mostly managed to buy and validate tickets despite my issues using the machines…

So we arrived in Bordeaux and were blown away by its nighttime beauty. The magical orange glow of Bordeaux's beautiful stone buildings is something to behold. We wandered around with our traggard minds and couldn’t believe what we saw. The Monument aux Girondins was a highlight.



We saw lots more that night and really fell in love with the city. We also stopped for our first, well deserved French meal. I found a great place and we had a hilarious waiter. He had to be the most typical Frenchman of all time. He scoffed when we asked for our beef to be medium and then said "shit" over our wine questions. The restaurant also played the entirety of Led Zep's first album, which is in my top 10 albums so I loved this experience. Rhys didn't appreciate my singing as much and also drank the sediment of the wine by mistake. I hate it when that happens, but it was funny when it happened to him.

A bottle of wine merrier, we explored the town some more before stopping off for a midnight crepe. What a great way to end the day! Join us next time as the roadventure continues.



 

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