Bordeaux!

To wrap up our three weeks of visitors, we decided to take advantage of the AerLingus seasonal flight to Bordeaux and head to southern France!  This was Drew's first time on a plane since Christmas so he was pretty pumped to get away, as was I.  We didn't really know much about the area, except that it was supposed to be pretty and have some great wine, so we went for it.  

First, I have to sing our hotel's praises, Chez Dupont, and my husband's for finding it!  He read about it on Trip Advisor, and it's a small, boutique hotel with only 4 rooms in a quiet little neighborhood and it was immaculately decorated!

Lillet for the guests - a sweeeeeeet white dessert wine that kind of tasted like perfume.  But I still drank it.

Aside from our side trip to St. Emilion (in a separate post), we mostly just wandered around the city.  Drew usually comes equipped with a Rick Steves book to do some self-guided walking tours, but not this time.  We just used a map and a camera and enjoyed some leisurely time in the city.

The Grand Theatre and Opera House.  

Some weird statue that the city is trying to raise money to keep...?  It was an optical illusion in that it was only about a foot and a half deep, so when you stand next to it, you can't see the face and it just looks like a flat wooden structure.  Weird.

The Quinconces Plaza - the center of town where the tram and bus stops are, as well as a huge courtyard with a view of the river.

Quinconces is evidently a throw back to the maritime theme, representing their past as a big player in water commerce.
(Side note: I like these kooky statues depicting sea creatures and stuff.  Call me crazy.)

More plazas and flowers.

And more tree-lined walks.

And some really pretty buildings I don't know the names of.

This was the Place de la Bourse, with a "Miroir d'eau" in front of it - a water mirror.  If you walk across it it looks like you're walking on water, AND it gives a beautiful reflection of the building and plaza.  Particularly at night.

A sunset stroll along the promenade on the River Garonne.  Tons of pedestrians, runners, bikers, and roller-bladers out and about.

Sunset.

On Friday night, we went to Le Wine Bar, recommended by our hotel guy and TripAdvisor, for some thick reds and a charcuterie plate.
I ate so much cheese and bread on this trip I may turn into a wedge of Brie.

Then we stopped at Cafe Brun, an eclectic "hole in the wall" dive bar on the busy Rue Saint-Remi, for a beer before our dinner.  That appears to be a giant ogre head on the wall.  Hmmm.

...and then we ate a delicious French dinner at Le Bouchon Bordelais .  I ordered the escargot for my starter (when in Rome!) and I even got Drew to try one!  When I usually get escargot, they come in a tray, already "shelled", covered in garlic and butter.  With these, you had to get them out of the shell yourself.  Interesting and weird.  But good.

And we both got the Steak Frites (frites not pictured) - but look at the size of that giant asparagus!  It looks like a tree branch!

On Saturday for lunch, we stopped by another recommended place, L'Autre Petit Bois, for some wine and lunch.  The place was covered in trees and leaves and had a unique feel to it!
(We also got breakfast at Plume, but missed the amazing lunch specials by a mere 30 minutes.  Damnit.)

We got the Croque Monsieur, which was a ham and cheese sandwich, covered in thick layers of cheese, topped with more cheese, finished with two mounds of goat cheese.  Help!!!

Saturday's dinner at Brasserie Bordelaise did NOT disappoint.  We had to make reservations a week in advance and I yelled at a girl trying to cut me in line when we got there.  No one gets between me and my French food.  Hell no.
Oh, and I got the Poulet Roti (roast chicken)!  Pretty damn amazing.

And Drew got the Beef Bourguignon.  And we split a giant side of Frites.  So good and so salty!

View of the Theatre at night.

On Sundays, they have this huge food market along the river by our hotel.  We're suckers for food markets, even though we rarely buy anything, so we went and walked around and looked at the beautiful food.

Loootttttttsss of fresh fish and seafood.

And we ordered a Nutella Crepe from this nice lady, DUH

And finished it up with an order of Caneles.
Evidently in Bordeaux (and maybe everywhere in the world), the use egg whites to "clean" the wine.  Did yall know this?  Cause I didn't.  So way back in the day, the nuns used to take the left over egg yolks and make these sweet Caneles and sell them all over the city!

They taste a lot less "sweet" than you might think, but we bought 20 and we ate them throughout the rest of the day.

We also wandered down the river to an "antique" market (a.k.a. JUNK MARKET, though I'm confident my friend Caitlin could've found a million different ways to use a million different things) where most of the African/Muslim population lived, and then walked back up to this old city entrance (above) and through the streets for some lunch before our flight.

I'll post more on our Saturday afternoon wine trip tomorrow, but the beautiful town of Bordeaux did NOT disappoint and it was a lovely way to spend 2 days.

Bon soir!!