Kiwi Roaming

We had mixed first impressions of Bordeaux which is the 5th largest city in France. The tram from the airport into the city is awesome, easy to navigate and a great form of transport. Unfortunately our walk from the station to the hotel involved passing by streets of unhoused folks, loads of dog shite on the footpath and men urinating against walls – we are back in France!!!

Once checked into the Mecure we took a very short walk into the old city and it was lovely, clean, with pedestrian only streets with high end shops and interesting wee squares. The buildings are very clean and this tourist part of the city very well maintained.

The next day our plan was to walk to the Wine museum but it rained – Wellington like horizontal rain – so we bought a 24 hour ticket for the public transport system and took the tram. Their public transport is really impressive and cheap, our tickets gave us access to the tram, buses, ferries, bikes and trains.

I should mention we were in Bordeaux for 2 nights, which meant 2 breakfasts. The first in a trendy cafe on the outskirts of the old city for lovely granola and fresh juices. The second was in a brunch restaurant where people book for 2 hours and have a 3 course brunch, we just had one course which came with both a hot and a cold drink and was very very yum.

La Cité du Vin – the wine museum in Bordeaux is a 2km walk from the old town along the river. It’s shaped like a decanter with an 8 story “neck” piece and 3 storied bowl. We opted to buy an exhibition ticket and a 360 degree wine experience ticket which gave us 30% off both combined. The exhibition was interesting but pretty corny at times. The exhibition ticket comes with either 1 or 2 glasses of wine (you pay more for the 2 obviously).

The 360 degree wine experience was excellent. It went for over an hour and Tom the sommelier who delivered the experience was British (we bought an English speaking session) and we learned heaps about Bordeaux wines. The 360 degree part is you sit in a room where the videos are projected on every surface around you. The wine talk included 4 x tastings (savignon blanc, merlot, a cab sav / merlot blend and a sticky) of a very decent size which we thoroughly enjoyed. We then went up to the 8th floor for our other glass of wine (we opted for a local bubbly) before heading across the road to a massive food court complex for much needed late lunch.

Later that evening we headed into the old town to look for dinner, it started to rain on us again but we found the streets full of people and the whole restaurant district which was absolutely humming. After walking around for far too long we settled on a yummy bowls of chicken, rice and lentils.

2 days in Bordeaux enabled us to walk around the highlights, enjoy the trams and learn heaps about the local wine industry plus enjoy tastings. It was warm but raining and for the most part would have been more pleasant with an umbrella – other than when we were near the river where it was very windy. Staying in a business hotel wasn’t so much fun but it was functional especially as it is really expensive here. We are back here later in the week for another night so will do a little more wandering and see other highlights – hopefully without the rain!