Bordeaux

Three consecutive days travelling is really our limit. It's not only the capacity of the van's tanks and leisure batteries, but my capacity to drive day after day that limits us. Heading north though, we broke the three day rule - Ampudia, Burgos, Zarautz, Biscarosse, not huge daily distances, but still tiring, so it's not really surprising that we felt a bit zonked when we finally stopped for a couple of days in Bordeaux.

Not that we sat about and relaxed, within two hours of arriving the laundry was sorted. It was warm enough to have a BBQ, and reacquainted ourselves with French wine after a few week of Spanish only.

Next day we were on the bus straightaway to have a look at Bordeaux, one of those French cities we have shot past on many occasions on the way to somewhere else. On the 'let's visit places we've never been to' rule; then it's one more ticked off the list. 

The day started with a requisite 45 minute wait in the Orange shop, a good old rant with a fellow English customer - but finally Gill managed to talk the manager in person - a rare honour.  He confirmed that the SIM sold to her in the Bayonne branch was unsuitable, but assured her that this was 'normale'! Then he discovered that the SIM bought back in October had not expired as we had been told, and he  simply credited with it €10. We were not offered a refund on the duff SIM from Bayonne, though..... Orange France, always a lamentable experience!

The Orange queue....

In many respects  Bordeaux looks like the archetypal French city. Big squares, wide avenues and grand buildings - Paris-style - in uniform white-stone, classically proportioned, but ornamented with the usual frilly bits.

The river fromtage looks very Parisian

Then there are always a few unfortunate modern additions too.

Large scale monuments celebrate the virtues of La Republique with overblown, and slightly monstrous public sculpture.

The hidden medieval centre miraculously escaped the Enlightenment remodelling and now has intimate squares and artsy cafés, full of artsy people being intimate.

We spotted this cafe, it seemed to offer the best value, but circumnavigated the area three times before we got a table, but it was nice, if not outstanding food, and friendly staff - which is not always the case.

Like in Valencia, cars are virtually banished from the city centre, but have been replaced by trams that glide about silently down pedestrianised streets, shared between people on foot, cycling, in-line skating,skateboarding and Segway tours. It may be greener, but it's equally alarming and stressful for pedestrians as having motor traffic. 

It was an interesting day, especially as the integrated tram and bus route took us through the citiy's more modern outskirts - very planned, an attempt at le Corbusier nouveau, really. No matter whether the ruling party is of the left or right, France, to me, always feels like a socialist republic. My head approves of the idealism, but my heart is not in it, I am too much of an Anglo-Saxon individualist to warm to such uniform social planning as we saw in the suburbs of Bruges and Bordeaux Lac.