While we were biking Bordeaux,
France the Air France pilots went on strike. My pot-luck roommate couldn’t let
go of it and talked incessantly about how she was going to get home. Finally
I’d had enough and simply told her I did not want to hear any more about it, as
there was absolutely nothing we could do until we actually reached Bordeaux.
Our Bordeaux hotel was located on a
very narrow street in the heart of the old city and nothing bigger than a small
car could get down the street. We were let out at the end of the block. Our
guide hustled to the hotel for the luggage cart and took care of that chore.
The small old hotel had been renovated and updated and turned out to be quaint
and most comfortable to say nothing of being very well located.
After we settled into the reception
area we learned we all had been rerouted home on other airlines. My flight
times were a mere 15-minutes off from my original schedule. A bit later our
local city docent arrived. The very flamboyant little French fellow spoke
English with a marked accent. I’ll never forget the picture of him flitting
into the street, frantically waving for all traffic to stop, and yelling,
“hurry, hurry” to us. He knew his city and its history well and walked us all
over it for over three hours!
We learned the city was a walled one
until the 1800s when the walls were torn down and the ditches
filled in.
Several ports to the city remain; we walked through a couple of them plus one
in the pedestrian mall on the way back to the hotel. Bordeaux is the capitol of
the Aquitaine region. The name means port
of the moon. The Gironde River is moon shaped in this area, thus the city’s
name. In 1453 it was the last area to become French again after the Roman
Empire.
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| One of remaining gates to city |
Ten years ago the population was
over 650,000. The huge Statue of
Freedom is full of symbolism and one of
the city’s landmarks. A statue atop a 43-meter high column represents Freedom
breaking out of his shackles. At the base is a large ornate fountain cast in
bronze. In the fountain are horses and
falling soldiers The docent went on for some time about the battles between two
factions. In this large square there are a couple of other statues. I wish I
could tell you more about, but between being tired, the docent’s accent and my
disinterest in local conflicts, my notes are pretty scanty.
Needless to say there are several
well known churches in the city. We poked our head in one of them and the thing
I remember most was the straight back chairs instead of pews that I suspect
were anything but comfortable.
It was in Bordeaux that we
discovered France shuts down about 2:30 in the afternoon as all the restaurants
and cafés close. It was quite an adventure walking up several alleyways to find
a sidewalk café still open. Although the one we found was ready to close they
did accommodate four of us ladies for lunch. We had an excellent leisurely meal.
It was kind of management not to rush us on our last day in France. We
gratefully tipped them well. Their kindness made our day.
An aside re: dogs.
It seems everyone in France owns a
dog, often a small one, and they go everywhere! It is strange for an American
to see dogs in a store, market or restaurant. I was shocked at how well behaved
they were; even when not on a leash the dog stuck close to his owner. I never
heard a dog bark, except in the country when one might bark from his backyard
as we biked by. However, they do drop their business anywhere and everywhere so
it is wise to watch where one steps when walking the alleyways. The French
wouldn’t think of carrying a plastic bag, never mind a super, duper, pooper
scooper!
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