{"id":69,"date":"2013-06-29T19:31:10","date_gmt":"2013-06-30T02:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/bargecruise\/?p=69"},"modified":"2013-08-04T16:35:41","modified_gmt":"2013-08-04T23:35:41","slug":"day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/bargecruise\/day-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Explore Bordeaux City<\/b>
\nBrilliant morning.\u00a0From our 2nd floor window we see a rush of people, autos, bicycles and\u00a0tram traffic\u00a0bustling through the city.<\/p>\n

8 am\u00a0<\/strong>buffet breakfast\u00a0Hotel de Normandie<\/strong>\u00a0go<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>dining room
\nHotel\u2019s breakfast\u00a0buffet riches: scrambled eggs, local sausage,\u00a0yogurt, croissants, bread, fresh and dried fruit,\u00a0\u00a0a\u00a0variety of cereals, juices, cold meats,\u00a0cheeses, and best of all, good coffee – but no lingering over a second cup.
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9 am<\/strong>\u00a0ride\u00a0Bordeaux\u00a0tram lines\u00a0go<\/a><\/strong>
\nTurns out the tram is literally right in front of the hotel.\u00a0We ride the\u00a0tram to discover different parts of the city. Convenient and easy to use, the\u00a0tram never goes below\u00a0ground so you always know where you are. Ride it to see\u00a0the outskirts or get around the city center but look\u00a0both ways when crossing\u00a0tracks – they are so quiet you may not hear their approach.<\/p>\n

We pass the\u00a0row of handsome, well preserved 18th\u00a0century buildings lining the\u00a0waterfront\u2019s wide promenade\u00a0with wonderful views in all directions.\u00a0Old riverside\u00a0warehouses have new uses – discount shopping, water front dining and shops \u2013 all\u00a0easily\u00a0accessible by tram. We decide to ride Tram line B all the way to its end.\u00a0University of\u00a0Bordeaux is on the B line; it is so large (75,000\u00a0students), its sprawling campus requires 7 tram stops to provide service.<\/p>\n

1 pm<\/b>\u00a0do it yourself lunch at hotel
\nThe day is flying by, so to gain time, at UB\u00a0stop #3 we hop off the tram to shop for lunch fixings at a local Simply Market\u00a0Supermarch\u00e9, jump on the next tram, return to the city center and have lunch in our hotel room.<\/p>\n

2 pm<\/strong>\u00a0Bordeaux city walking tour with Bordeaux\u00a0guide\u00a0go<\/a><\/strong>
\nWe meet our very experienced guide, Christine Birem,\u00a0at the Bordeaux tourist center and set off on a 2 hour walking tour. She helps\u00a0us identify landmarks, understand the\u00a0architecture, and appreciate the\u00a0preserved remnants of previous decades. Often converted to new uses, one\u00a0former\u00a0church is now the Utopia – an art movie theatre, another church is now used as\u00a0an apartment house. A\u00a0stone cross and fountain are the only remains of the 14th\u00a0century cemetery buried beneath a popular square.<\/p>\n

Bordeaux, originally a Gallo-Roman port,\u00a0had become the most important port in France by the 18th\u00a0century, filled with wealthy residents. As testimony to its prosperity, the medieval\u00a0town was transformed into a city with\u00a0great squares, large avenues, splendid\u00a0buildings and gardens.\u00a0As a crossroads for international\u00a0trade, Bordeaux was a multi-racial melting-pot, evidenced by the \u201cmascarons\u201d\u00a0gracing the buildings. Unlike the traditional 16th\u00a0century Italian\u00a0depictions of animals and creatures from Greek\u00a0mythology Bordeaux\u2019s stone faces\u00a0represent ordinary or wealthy middle-class people, Turks in turban, Chinese\u00a0and\u00a0Africans.<\/p>\n

Today,\u00a0Bordeaux, a World Heritage site, is the second most popular tourist destination in\u00a0France after Paris.\u00a0\u00a0Smaller than Paris\u00a0but resembling it in all the ways that matter, the city is vibrant, exciting\u00a0and beautiful.\u00a0Walking slowly\u00a0through the city we marvel at the grandeur of Opera National and the Eglise\u00a0Notre Dame la\u00a0Grande before\u00a0\u00a0strolling\u00a0the main shopping street where luxury items, posh shops and famous Paris design\u00a0houses have regional stores.<\/p>\n

A three level shopping\u00a0mall is the place to go for all things food related. We watch \u201ccanneles de\u00a0Bordeaux\u201c, the\u00a0famous little cakes being made, and try a sample. Cathedrale St.\u00a0Andre and the bell tower, Tower of Pey-Berland,\u00a0are remarkable. Climb to the top of the Tower for unique\u00a0views. We walk to Porte Cailhau,\u00a0previously the Royal\u00a0gate to the Medieval city and Pont de Pierrre, the\u00a0first bridge built (1819-22). Some eating,<\/p>\n

There are lots\u00a0of people, all colors, all ages and everywhere they are enjoying themselves.\u00a0Some eating, some\u00a0dancing, others selling, buying, shopping, walking , talking,\u00a0siting in the shade or in a caf\u00e9 – the vibe is energetic,\u00a0cheerful, and\u00a0colorful.<\/p>\n

8 pm<\/strong>\u00a0dinner\u00a0Brasserie l’Orl\u00e9ans\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>go<\/a><\/strong>
\nThe hotel desk clerk recommends this restaurant right near our hotel. Turns out pretty well. It\u2019s a typical French brasserie, immediately welcoming, with pristine white tablecloths, plenty of space between the tables and a smartly dressed waiter who almost spoke English. A shared order of Arachon Bay oysters on the half shell, the evening special, a seafood pasta, French bread, excellent local white wine complete another great day. Ask the waiter for a tour of the unique underground wine caves. Many of the well known Chateaux have private lockers. Pretty cool to see.<\/p>\n

stay\u00a0Hotel de Normandie<\/strong>\u00a0go<\/a><\/strong>
\n<\/a><\/strong>The moon is up so we leave the drapes open and fall asleep to moonlight.<\/p>\n

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    Explore Bordeaux City Brilliant morning.\u00a0From our 2nd floor window we see a rush of people, autos, bicycles and\u00a0tram traffic\u00a0bustling through the city. 8 am\u00a0buffet breakfast\u00a0Hotel de Normandie\u00a0go\u00a0dining room Hotel\u2019s breakfast\u00a0buffet riches: scrambled eggs, local sausage,\u00a0yogurt, croissants, bread, fresh and dried fruit,\u00a0\u00a0a\u00a0variety of cereals, juices, cold meats,\u00a0cheeses, and best of all, good coffee – but no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/bargecruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/bargecruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/bargecruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/bargecruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/bargecruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/bargecruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/bargecruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/bargecruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/bargecruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/bargecruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}