Paris to Bordeaux and beyond
It didn’t take long for this Santa to get itchy feet. Although I love Paris, I was happy to get on my way. First stop was Bordeaux, famous for it’s wine making amongst other things. As one can imagine, after being stuck on a diet of milk and cookies, getting stuck into some nice French wine was a real challenge.
Unfortunately travelling through the wine district is not like home. You generally have to make a booking to get into any wineries, and many don’t have cellar doors anyway. Therefore the only way to get to wineries is to do a formal wine-tour which doesn’t happen on the weekends. Doh!!
A further disappointment was to realise that I had left the North Pole without Vegemite. After a week of solid withdrawals one finds that the withdrawals still don’t stop. Particularly heightened by times of post Bordeaux wine tasting from the local bottle-boutique.
Walkabout in Bordeaux revealed an awesome city with a sort of clash between funky shops and random old French architecture. A lot of this is due to the large university population which is settled here….including quite a few students staying at the hostel!!
I went into the Jean Moulin (the leader of the French resistance during WWII) museum and said “Allo, Allo”. They didn’t seem to get it……come on, think about it?! Also found the time to climb up to the top of a tower a get a great panoramic view over the entire city.
Talking about people at the hostel, met a cool couple of Aussie who, as always happens, knew someone I know….in this case one of the girls went to school with my sister!?! All was not lost once this information was discovered, Cath kindly donated her jar of vegemite.
Finally I decided, whilst sitting in a one of the Squares, staring at the people walking by, to make a few comments about what’s cool and what’s not:
1. driving on the right hand side of the road in any city ‡ not cool just scary
2. dog shit ‡ not cool
3. je suis photographe d’Australie ‡ apparently very cool
4. any vehicle with <125cc motor being driven through streets at full REVs ‡ not cool
5. driver of number 4 ‡ not cool
6. sandals and socks ‡ not cool (it’s just German)
7. Nickel-Chromè ‡ apparently the new phrase in French meaning “it’s cool”
8. African people walking around ‡ cool
9. Riding a bike with your cello on your back ‡ cool
10. Matty Ho with a mo ‡ just fucking wrong!!!!
11. yellow strings on a double bass ‡ cool
12. jeans tucked into socks ‡ so not cool
13. being given a piece of chewing-gum with your expresso ‡ cool
14. grapefruit chewing gum ‡ NOT COOL
After 2 days of soaking up the sights, sounds and wine of Bordeaux, it was back onto the train for the trip to Biarritz and back to French school.
Unfortunately travelling through the wine district is not like home. You generally have to make a booking to get into any wineries, and many don’t have cellar doors anyway. Therefore the only way to get to wineries is to do a formal wine-tour which doesn’t happen on the weekends. Doh!!
A further disappointment was to realise that I had left the North Pole without Vegemite. After a week of solid withdrawals one finds that the withdrawals still don’t stop. Particularly heightened by times of post Bordeaux wine tasting from the local bottle-boutique.
Walkabout in Bordeaux revealed an awesome city with a sort of clash between funky shops and random old French architecture. A lot of this is due to the large university population which is settled here….including quite a few students staying at the hostel!!
I went into the Jean Moulin (the leader of the French resistance during WWII) museum and said “Allo, Allo”. They didn’t seem to get it……come on, think about it?! Also found the time to climb up to the top of a tower a get a great panoramic view over the entire city.
Talking about people at the hostel, met a cool couple of Aussie who, as always happens, knew someone I know….in this case one of the girls went to school with my sister!?! All was not lost once this information was discovered, Cath kindly donated her jar of vegemite.
Finally I decided, whilst sitting in a one of the Squares, staring at the people walking by, to make a few comments about what’s cool and what’s not:
1. driving on the right hand side of the road in any city ‡ not cool just scary
2. dog shit ‡ not cool
3. je suis photographe d’Australie ‡ apparently very cool
4. any vehicle with <125cc motor being driven through streets at full REVs ‡ not cool
5. driver of number 4 ‡ not cool
6. sandals and socks ‡ not cool (it’s just German)
7. Nickel-Chromè ‡ apparently the new phrase in French meaning “it’s cool”
8. African people walking around ‡ cool
9. Riding a bike with your cello on your back ‡ cool
10. Matty Ho with a mo ‡ just fucking wrong!!!!
11. yellow strings on a double bass ‡ cool
12. jeans tucked into socks ‡ so not cool
13. being given a piece of chewing-gum with your expresso ‡ cool
14. grapefruit chewing gum ‡ NOT COOL
After 2 days of soaking up the sights, sounds and wine of Bordeaux, it was back onto the train for the trip to Biarritz and back to French school.
posted by santas walkabout at 7:43 pm
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