We love medieval Europe and wine, so spending a few days of our trip in a city like Bordeaux had to be a priority. France is a bit more expensive than Poland and there were no good hotel deals. So, we opted to get an Airbnb in the old town with a washer….always good to wash some clothes after a week or two. We were able to fly from Krakow for a few hundred dollars on KLM. A tram from Bordeaux runs directly from the airport and stopped just a few blocks from the Airbnb. The Airbnb was $430 for 3 nights, but I had $100 off from being a Superhost with Airbnb. The apartment was in a revamped art gallery. Quite unusual, and not for tall people since the ceiling in the bedroom was only six feet high and you had to duck under a concrete arch to get into the bedroom. But it had a nice outdoor space and was excellently located. We were able to buy a 72-hour tram and bus pass for 18 euro which was an excellent deal since the tram system was very easy to utilize and ran throughout the city. The pass also allowed us to jump off and onto the correct tram when I made one of my frequent mistakes😉
We arrived in the evening but it was rainy so we opted to grab some wine, breadsticks, salad and humas and just relax. The Carrefour Express was only a few blocks away, so it was easy to be lazy.
The next day we took the train out to St Emillion which is the main wine making area in the Bordeaux Region for a wine tasting. The tours of the wineries tend to be very expensive, but I found one for $22 each for one hour. (I booked this with GetYourGuide and got a 32% credit from CapitalOne Shopping.)
We reached the Saint Emillion train station via bus from Libourne which was not expected. The train connected to a bus then back to the train station. I learned later that this was due to some maintenance and most trains were direct. When we got to the Saint Emillion train station we found that it was the middle of vineyards about a mile from the town center….with nothing around. So, we hiked up the hill past numerous vineyards…it was very pleasant and we weren’t alone….the entire train was heading that way. Saint Emillion is a wine mecca….but it is not cheap.
The town of St Emillion is a beautiful Medieval Town built along a large hill. Big money here! We had another 1.5 mile walk out to the vineyard where our tour was conducted. We walked along vineyards the entire way. It was pleasant, but a long way away. No taxis or busses out here.
The wine tour covered two wineries and included three tastings. We were the only two on the hourlong tour and afterwards we opted to hang out and have a glass of wine overlooking the vineyards. I booked an Uber to take us back to the train station and we headed back to drink more wine at the Airbnb.
The following day we took off to explore Bordeaux. It’s an easy city with an unusual past. Only Paris has more monuments in France and the City was wonderful….except for some student protests. Our first stop was the Bassins des Lumieres, which is a digital art museum located in a massive Nazi World War 2 Submarine Base. Very cool!….both the light display and the 1940’s sub base itself.
Next, we headed off to find the Bordeaux Statue of Liberty (very small), Local Market (Smaller than anticipated), St Michaels Church, and the right bank of the Garonne River to visit the Darwin Ecosystem (which was an old military base converted into an arts area, that had nothing to do with Darwin?) Unfortunately, student protests shut down the tram system, requiring us to do a lot more hiking than planned. We ended the day playing in the water mirror. The Water mirror sits in a park along the river had has water only a few inches deep, providing great reflections. After that we found our way back to our Airbnb. This was a perfectly strange day for us! We like the unusual and Bordeaux definitely did not disappoint.
We had a late afternoon Flexibus to our next destination which left us the morning to visit the Cathedral and its closed bell tower (lightning strike), ride the goofy Ferris Wheel in a city park (every city seems to have one) and find the famous Bordeau Flying car. Good way to start the next portion of our journey.
Bordeaux is a cruise port stop and a very nice location to spend a few days. Each of these European cities has its own style and character. Despite the protests, which seemed pretty minor, the city felt safe, was reasonably clean and easy to visit. France is not a cheap country but it wasn’t much more expensive than the US.
We did meet an older local couple who gave us an odd look when they learned that we were from the USA. It was obvious that they didn’t care much for our country, presently. I smiled and told him that we still liked their wine. He smiled back and commented that he liked our coffee. I didn’t bother to tell him that we don’t produce coffee (other than Hawaii). People are friendly all over the world, regardless of the political issues at any one moment. It had been a few years since we spent anytime in France and it was wonderful to get back to this amazing country and great ally.
