Listrac to Bordeaux

Friday 29th October Listrac-Medoc to Bordeaux We stayed in a frightfully posh and rather beautiful house, owned by an interior designer we think. Our bedroom was called ‘ballerina’ and filled with all sorts of ballet shoes, clothes, murals, and endless drapes which continuously got in the way. They were also full of very large bugs which got upset when we tried to draw the curtains so Alec spent a lot of the night swatting them. However, it was very comfy. It was thick fog and cold again when we set off so the first hour was rather quiet and autumnal on our way to Margaux. We never saw the chateaux as it was closed up and too foggy but stopped in a warm café for a choc croissant and coffee (a new and rather delicious bad habit when we are lacking energy or have had a bit of a stingy breakfast). On we went and by 12.30 the sun came through and it was really easy biking, if a bit dull once we had left the Medoc area. More pines and industrial suburbia into Bordeaux. There is now an amazing bike route all the way into the city from the coast 50 miles away to the West, so we joined that and it took us all the way in to the city centre – through the docks and the red light district. It is great as the route is traffic free and takes you mainly past not through the worst industrial areas, under the new bridge and then to the centre. We were pleased with ourselves for navigating all the way to the hotel in the old part of the city, without getting lost and before it got dark. This weekend had been planned as a maintenance w/e so Vivi promptly booked herself in for a beauty session and because we were only in a 3* hotel and laundry doesn’t get done in 3* at the weekend I was dispatched with a month’s worth of washing to find a launderette. Now this was a first; however undaunted I set off and was relieved to find the machine instructions in English – but not for the soap dispenser and my French is just good enough to be able to read that using ‘liquid soap’ was strictly forbidden. Well the soap machine failed to deliver so what could I do. Filled two machines with our liquid soap, set them off and ran for it. I met Vivi in the Virgin Mega Store where we searched for maps to get us to Perpignan, went and had a beer then I felt just brave enough to go and visit my washing. Phew, all was OK and I managed to bundle it all into one tumble dryer and returned to my beer. (As you can see from the various photos Alec has put on the blog, this trip is not about looking good and vanity has no part. However, I really did want a haircut and was v relieved to get an appointment, after so long. I was pretty nervous as a lot of the locals seem to go the same hairdresser as their husbands and short back and sides suffice, which I wasn’t very keen on. However, the lovely friendly girl didn’t do anything too dramatic and I am back to my usual, if rather shorter, frizz. I only had a little twinge of conscience that Alec might not be having such a relaxing morning!) After that we wandered all over the old part of Bordeaux, the cathedral, the old bridge across the river, the Port de Bourgoyne (an arch like our Marble), and three touriste offices. Each office de tourisme has information for its own area which is about a 25 mile radius - some are more willing to share this information than others. As Bordeaux has at least 3 it seemed sensible to visit them all as you never know when and where you might by accident come across a really helpful and friendly advisor! It is a stunning city and when it was all built in the 1800s, it must have seemed rather like Dubai, all new with remarkable architecture and no expense spared. Being Halloween or Toussaint as the French call it the centre of town filled up with revelers and football fans as dusk drew in and a very jolly atmosphere prevailed with few drunks and not many skirmishes that we noticed!