Friday 15th March
We left Carcassonne around midday to head for Bordeaux.
We started off on our journey and then at some point the train stopped. Long story short, we were sat on the tracks for an hour not moving. All the information over the intercom was in French so we don’t know why, but I could extract “Security” and “4:30” so gathered we weren’t reaching our destination until then. We were right! We still don’t know why we were delayed, but the train was comfortable and we weren’t in a rush!
When we arrived in Bordeaux it was raining, so we dashed out of the station to catch the tram. Unfortunately there were a lot of people also wanting to catch the tram so we were stood in line for the ticket machine, in the rain.
We got our tickets and made our way to the tram stop, while we were standing there, Sam pulled his phone out of his pocket and the ticket fell out. Well, a man bent down, picked it up and then walked off. What. We both look at each other, and then Sam goes running down the street after the man with his backpack on and all to get our ticket back!
He was very fine about it actually and just gave it back!
We then hop on the tram which is extremely busy and we feel like sardines. 40mins later we get off the tram and make the walk to the hotel.
When we go to check in, the reception tries to tell us that we owe them money. We explain that it is already paid for and after showing them emails, it all gets sorted.
We get up to our room which is really really nice, its an amazing hotel that we managed to get for an amazing deal and through it a free night. But by this time, we are both frazzled after what felt like a very long afternoon, so we do the dirty. We get Maccas from round the corner for dinner. We’re not proud of it, but by golly it was good in the moment, and there was no way we were getting back on a tram to the city at this hour.
So after our huge day we sat in bed eating macca's and watching Love Island, just what we needed.
Saturday 16th March
We had a slow morning after our big day yesterday and gave everyone at home a call to catch up with what's happening on that side of the world!
It is once again a Saturday and after realising last weekend that the Yellow Vest protests are occurring even in smaller towns, we figured that Bordeaux being a rather large city had higher chances of protests occurring and in larger numbers, so we decided to just stay out of the city for the day. That was fine, we were staying about 20mins out of the city by tram and it was a beautiful area on a lake, it had very Gold Coast-esque vibes.
We headed out for a walk around part of the lake to find the shopping centre that was meant to be nearby, and it honestly felt as if we'd walked into Harbour Town. We stopped in and treated our selves to lunch out, sitting outside enjoying the sunshine.
We'd seen in a couple of cities that they have electric scooters, like the manual scooters we had as kids, but bigger and electric! They run on the system of OBikes in Aus, they are just parked anywhere, you scan the code on the handle bars and then off you go, and when you're done, just leave it where you like and take a photo of where it is. So, after lunch we found some electric scooters and gave them a whirl! We both signed up and got a 5 euro off voucher to send to the other person and we were away!
It was so much fun! The area around us has excellent bike paths (which is what we're meant to ride on) and we rode our way around the lake! Darting back and forth and just having fun on them.
We then rode our scooters back to the shopping centre to get some groceries for the next couple of days.
Well, what an experience the grocery store was. It was the biggest grocery store that I have ever seen and not just a grocery store but an everything store. It had absolutely everything in one, it looked like a Bunnings! It had isles upon isles of food, no joke an entire isle was of camembert cheese! There was also a fish market within it, a butcher, bakery, clothes department, garden centre, home decor, and a DIY section. It was so overwhelming, and it was so busy! People were rushing around and pushing in front, behind, and past you as if grocery stores were going to close down forever.
After finding our way out of the grocery store (which was harder than you would think, you had to scan your recipe to activate the doors to open!), we found a couple more scooters and scooted our way back to the apartment.
We had a nice meal of crepes for dinner and then spent the rest of the evening looking into where we would go next week!
Sunday 17th March
We started the day off with chocolate croissants for breakfast (we’re in France, we had to), before heading into the city for the day.
We walked down to the tram stop to buy our tickets but the machine was broken so you know what that means, yep, scooter time!
We found a couple of scooters a little further along and hopped on, riding the whole way into the city! It was so much fun! So much better than the tram (more expensive, but so fun!).
We arrived in the city and rode our way along the river front. Bordeaux is absolutely beautiful. We both fell in love with it and could easily spend a longer amount of time here. There was a beautiful wide promenade along the river front that boasted a cute farmers market, and then on the other side across the road were the beautiful, grand buildings, all painted in gorgeous pastel colours. Riding around was such a great way to see it and take it in, the architecture of these buildings was just beautiful.
We rode our way down to the city gate, where we left our scooters and continued our exploration on foot.
The city gate was spectacular and such a cool way to enter the centre of the city.
We then wandered the streets for a bit which are so beautiful and came across another arch.
We made our way round to a cathedral and ended up walking through what felt like very local streets, with a market in the square in front of the cathedral.
We then found ourselves right in the centre where the triumphal arc is located and a beautiful gothic bridge over the river.
From here we found a bench down by the river where we sat and had our picnic lunch of baguette.
After lunch we walked down the river until we came to the big mirror pool, Le Miroir d'eau. Unfortunately what we didn’t realise is that they drain the pool/fountain in winter so we did not get to see it or play with our cameras and the reflections. We were pretty disappointed, but the building, Place de la Bourse, was still absolutely beautiful.
We then meandered back through the streets and stumbled across the main square with the Opera and a fancy hotel which we sat on the steps of the opera in the sun eating the most amazing strawberry and custard tart.
In some more local streets we saw another farmers market and another amazing cathedral.
We wandered around for a bit and saw a little chocolaterie and patisserie that had amazing works of art in chocolate for easter. What they also had was reasonably priced, delicious looking macaroons. So we each chose one and tried our first macaroon!
It was nice, but nothing what we expected! We thought they’d be more meringue like and with a buttercream filling. Not at all, it was more moist and soft, but very nice.
We then caught the tram most of the way back to the accommodation and then couldn’t help ourselves, so scootered the rest of the way!
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