Bordeaux

10/13

We took the bus directly in front of our hotel in terminal 1 to go to terminal 2 for our Easy Jet flight to Bordeaux. All went amazingly smoothly and we arrived in Bordeaux early afternoon. A cab to the hotel and settling into our room and we were ready to seek out a restaurant for dinner for us and the Fielding's and Sweeney's who were to arrive late afternoon. The hotel was totally unhelpful, "any restaurant along the quai is good."  So Dick and I walked up and down the quai checking out menus and ambiance. Our room was hot because the AC was not working. The hotel feigned sympathy and told us they would fix it but in the meantime, we sat in the lobby waiting for our friends to arrive.
The restaurant we chose was a small place that wanted to seat us outside. When we asked for an inside table, they put us in a room where we were the only table, a private room! It actually was probably used by the restaurant for some storage but worked out perfectly for our private little party. We all enjoyed an excellent meal with some nice wines and appreciated the good company.

10/14

Embarkation day! We were able to roll our luggage done the quai to our ship. Though we couldn't get into our rooms yet, we were welcomed aboard and a great buffet was available in the dining room. We hung out in the dining room a while and also explored the ship a bit then went on a guided short walking tour in our Bordeaux neighborhood. The neighborhood of the quai is the "Chartrons" district of Bordeaux which in the past was the port and the location of great warehouses for wine storage and shipping. Immense renovation has been taking place in Bordeaux over the past 10 years with the buildings directly on the quai torn down and a huge esplanade created with walking paths and bike ways, a skate park and green areas.

On the other side of the street, the warehouses were converted into shops and apartments and the buildings' facades cleaned. The area has become very expensive and trendy with many antique stores, restaurants and expensive boutiques along the narrow streets.

An interesting food stand we passed

Our guide was a British ex-pat who married a Frenchman and has been in Bordeaux for many years explained the long history of Bordeaux including it's being allied with Great Britain at points in its history because of the economic necessity of protecting the wine industry. Certainly, the neighborhood was vibrant and enjoyable to walk through.As part of the cultural season of 2017 celebrating the new high speed train service from Bordeaux to Paris, Anthony Gormley, a British artist, provided some sculptures for the city. He made 16 identical naked in men made of bronze that has rusted to a uniform orangey color in various locations in the city.

We also visited the local cathedral on our route.

Then back to the ship for  afternoon cocktails while we waited for Ted, Sandy, Hillary and Nelson to arrive. We scored a table for 10 for dinner and had the usual terrific Viking meal with Bordeaux wines. After dinner a few of us went to the lounge to hear an opera concert with 3 very talented performers.