Sunday, March 29, 2009

My new favorite city

This weekend we packed up the dogs and drove over to Bordeaux.  It's a 3 1/2 hour drive from our house, through rolling hills and vineyards.  Bruce has an old schoolmate who has lived over there for about 10 years and he hasn't seen him in 25 years!   We left Friday morning and came back Saturday night.


We didn't have anyone to watch the chickens or the cat, so being gone for 2 full days was all we could do.  The poor chickens were shut in their coop for 2 days and Maillot had to live outside for a night (in fact 2 nights because she ran out the door at 10:00 pm the night before and didn't come back until we woke up at 7am the next morning).  We stayed at the Hotel Majestic (and they take dogs), it was a wonderful hotel and I recommend it to anyone visiting Bordeaux.  




We had a mix of rain and sun but it wasn't too bad, because the city is just lovely.  It's in fact my new favorite city.  I had hoped to meet Perigrinations but timing wasn't good as she was heading out of town right when we arrived.  So next time, hopefully.

I am very quick to judge and the minute I saw Bordeaux I knew that I loved it.  The architecture reminds me of Paris.  The city is clean thanks to a new Marie, many of the building are being cleaned up.  Seems that they are limestone and soak up all pollution and most of the buildings were black, now they are beautiful and clean.  Sure makes a big difference.

We met Bruce's friend B at our hotel and headed out to lunch.  B is married to N and he has 2 sons from a previous marriage.  It was great to finally meet him.  We had a lovely lunch and then headed back to the hotel to walk the dogs and relax a bit.

We then met up with B and his wife and kids for steak.  We don't each much red meat here, don't find it very good, but this restaurant had amazing steak and we had a great time.
On Saturday we woke up early and took a 3 hour walk around the city with the dogs.  It rained some and all of us were a bit wet, but we had fun anyway.  When it rains it's a good excuse to stop and have a café.






We walked all through the Jardin Public which was so beautiful.

After walking around the city for 3 hours we decided to grab a quick lunch and then had back to the hotel.  Check-out was 11 but they let us keep the car in the garage until 12:30.  We decided to take a drive east to St. Emilion, one of the famous bordeaux growing regions in France.  






The wine here is much more expensive than the wines of the Midi-Pyrenees (of course...it's bordeaux).  So we couldn't buy 12 bottles like we did in Gaillac, we ended up buying 6 and it cost more than the 12!  We'll crack these open when our guests arrive in a couple weeks and in July.   

I can't wait to go back to Bordeaux.  We'd like to take our "village" bikes and ride around as they have bike paths everywhere.  It's a lovely city and I highly recommend you visiting it if you can.  We had a great time.  

9 comments:

M said...

Interesting.

My friend visited Bordeaux last year and said to me that I must visit, as it is very much like Paris with room to breathe, and smiling faces. She felt it would suit me, she said.

I'm glad that Bruce got finally catch up with his friend after 25 years!

La Framéricaine said...

Superb photos of fantastic public art and both of you, my dear! You are doing yourselves proud with your travels around France. I can hardly wait to hear about the trip to Belgium.

Amitiés,

Lesley said...

So glad you loved the city. Next time, we'll definitely get together and the sun will shine!

Our Juicy Life said...

Michelle - I agree with your friend. I have been to Paris a few times and loved it but Bordeaux is like a mini-paris and I really loved it. You should visit if you can.

LF - yes we are having fun traveling around. Great to see the different areas, departments, villages, cities etc...I'm looking forward to Belgium too, we'll take loads of pictures.

Lesley - I'm sorry we missed you but we will be back. We loved your city!!!! Actually it wasn't too bad, the sun did show its face while we were there.

1A said...

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing the photos.

Randal Graves said...

Yet another city to add to the list if I ever get over there. Come on, post some shots of an ugly, American-styled town, there's gotta be at least one around!

Rebecca Ramsey said...

Okay. Now I'm missing Bordeaux too.
What a fun trip! You and your sweet dogs are looking so happy!

Mark said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mark said...

Glad you have discovered Bordeaux We lived there for about 3 years and absolutely loved it, maybe it was because we didn't have any kids back then. Lol. Our flat backed on to the Jardin public and was the first time we had lived togather as a married couple. We still have many friends around the Saint Emilion area (many were my pupils) and will be visiting them some time in June. We can't wait!