Bordeaux Dinner

We arrived in Bordeaux last night and ate dinner at the L’Orleans restaurant.

L’Orleans

Sign at L’Orleans.

L’Orleans

Another sign at L’Orleans. Dinner was good with a lot of wine.

Mercure Bordeaux Centre

We stayed two nights at the Mercure Bordeaux Centre which had some interesting sculptures in its lobby.

Mercure Bordeaux Centre

Another sculpture.

Mercure Bordeaux Centre

And another one.

Mercure Bordeaux Centre

Many of the posters throughout the hotel were of movies. This is the one that was in my room. Not exactly appreciated as I still remember being very frightened watching the movie, especially the shower scene. I tried not to think about it and avoided looking at the poster.

Bordeaux

Today, we had a Gate 1 city tour of Bordeaux. After the city tour, I took an open–top bus tour of the city, so my photos of Bordeaux are from both tours. Photo: Monument aux Girondins on the square, built between 1894 and 1902 in memory of the Girondin deputies who were executed in 1793 during the French Revolution.

Pont-de-Pierre

The Pont–de–Pierre (Stone Bridge) over the Garonne River, 1822.
The Basilica of St. Michael, built between the end of the 14th century and the 16th century, can be seen from the bridge. The historical part of the Bordeaux is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as “an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble.”

Riverfront Esplanade

Buildings along the Riverfront Esplanade along the Garonne River.

Riverfront Esplanade

Two of the old buildings along the Riverfront Esplanade.

Porte Cailhau

The Porte Cailhau, 1494, one of the city gates, built to commemorate King Charles VII’s victory over the Italians at Fornoue.

Bordeaux

The Rue Sainte–Catherine, a pedestrian shopping street.

Church of St. Pierre

The Church of St. Pierre, 15th–16th century.

Grand Theater

The Grand Theater in the Place de la Comedie (Theater Square). This is where our Gate 1 tour ended and I took another tour that started close by.

Les Epicuriales

Les Epicuriales, a yearly food festival, was running in Bordeaux.

Les Epicuriales

I haven’t been to a food festival before so I don’t know how this one compares to other food festivals, but it was very impressive. There were at least 25 separate restaurants at the festival with what I assume were very enticing menus but they were all in French and I couldn’t read most of them. I went to the Brasil restaurant as I had eaten Brazilian food before and could figure out some of its menu. My meal was very good.

Storm

The sunny skies turned dark very suddenly and the downpour was torrential. I had just left the food fair and was on my way to the taxi stand to take a taxi back to our hotel when the downpour hit. But there were no taxis at the stand and my travel umbrella collapsed in the wind, so I got drenched. A taxi came to the stand about 5 minutes later.

Winter in Bordeaux

After the torrential rain, it began to hail and make Bordeaux look like winter in May. It was an extra long ride back to the hotel as there was an accident on the road and we had to take the long way around. The driver apologized for the higher taxi fare but I was so glad to be out of the rain and hail that I gave him a big tip.

I have put my photos of Bordeaux on a slideshow. Go to http://www.peggysphotos.com/bordeaux/ (Slide Shows, Western Europe, France–2, “Bordeaux”).

Cotes de Bordeaux

This evening, I went on an optional Gate 1 “Bordeaux Countryside with Dinner” tour. Photo: We drove past the Bordeaux vineyards.

Chateau du Payre

We visited the Chateau du Payre winery in Cadillac, one which has been handed down from mother to daughter for five generations.

Chateau du Payre Vineyard

The vineyards in Cadillac are controlled by the AOC (Appellation d’origine controlee) and sets very strict standards as to how wine is produced, starting with the vineyards themselves, such as how often the vines need to be replaced, how and when they are pruned, the number of buds left on the vines, when grapes will be harvested, control of pests, etc. Cadillac produces a sweet white wine plus other wines.

Chateau du Payre

The vats at Chateau du Payre for fermenting wine.

Chateau du Payre

A wine produced by Chateau du Payre. I was given a whole bottle of red wine from Simeon, our tour director, because he gave the chateau the wrong number of people who wouldn’t eat the duck that was to be served with dinner. There were a number of us. I shared the wine, very good, with some tour mates the next night. A very nice present.

I have put my photos of the “Bordeaux Countryside with Dinner” tour on a slideshow. Go to http://www.peggysphotos.com/cadillac–bordeaux–vineyards/ (Slide Shows, Western Europe, France–2, “Cadillac, Bordeaux Vineyards”).