We had a bit of a lie in and then a nice breakfast with our supplied that we had bought the night before. Our plan was to head into the city and it should have been an easy fifteen minute journey by tram from the stop a few minutes walk from the apartment. It was nice to leave the car behind for a bit after a couple of days of driving.
Our plans took a bit of a turn at this point. Rather typically we discovered that the very convenient tram was not running as one had broken down further down the line so there was nothing going up or down to the city. We thought quickly and on the advice of a local bus driver, we took the bus for a short distance to another bus stop. It was now that we didn’t read the route properly and jumped on the number 28 bus, namely because it\s’ detonation was ‘Stalingrad’ which was the name of the book that Colin took a number of years to read while taking it on a number of holidays!! The route which would have taken fifteen minutes by tram took around an hour as the bus seemed to visit every suburb of Bordeaux before arriving at Stalingrad Square next to the bridge into the city.
It was a relief to finally reach the city and wander the streets and we found a lovely little coffee shop with excellent cakes to perk us up. We continued exploring and made our way to one of the places I had planned on visiting whilst researching Bordeaux - the ‘Miroir d’eau’ - the Water Mirror. From a sunny start, it clouded over which was not ideal but even so and with the added challenge of people walking in the water, the effect was very impressive.
The photography session made us a little peckish at this stage and as we had spotted a restaurant on one of the city squares - L’Ombriere, it seemed rude not to take a table there. It was a good lunch with baked cheese for me and French onion soup for Colin. More wandering and a visit to see the cathedral from the outside and we started to flag. I found the tram stop and luckily by this time we discovered that the tram we should have taken this morning was running again so we were able to make our way a lot more easily back to the apartment. A tad of stress trying to buy the tickets but we made it.
We were not incredibly hungry but it was nice to enjoy a lighter dinner on the balcony again.
