It was time to clean up and head for Paris for the final part of the trip. TGV was right on time, and not crowded. Amazing from Tours to Paris in 1.5 hours! Fast, quiet and smooth. Trying out one of Annie Sargent’s (Join Us in France) recommended hotel, the Hotel des Grand Balcons, Just up from Odeon. Small but serviceable room at a reasonable price, for Paris. Went by to check out the Samaritaine remodel, spectacular, but now full of store with nothing you need, Fendi, Gucci, LV etc. etc. Then walked over to the newly remodeled Hotel de La Marine, but opted not to do the tour. Lovely dinner with friend Emi from the Camino and, Leslie and Tom from NH had booked at the same place, Les Enfants Rouge, and were at the next table! Unfortunately, the #4 line closed for work, so getting home was a long walk!
Got up early today and was out to meet the local walking club for a Sunday walk. Initial meeting, there were three of us and we started off across the bridge. Shortly met up with the rest of the group, I’d guess at least 60 people. Turns out this is the walk of St Martin that happens once a year, from Tours to Lunyes, in total probably about 15km. This is a regular walking club that organized it, and first meet up had coffee, then half way through, the mayor of that local town was handing out apples and bottles of water, then at the end of the walk there was a band, and a big 50 passenger bus to run people back to Tours. Nicely done. It was foggy/rainy for most of the walk, which followed the banks of the Loire, but an enjoyable morning all told. Back to Tours, took some downtime, but did a walk through the botanical garden. Weird seeing Kangaroos and an emu…. Anyway, met up for dinner with Vero, an inspirational tour guide, who went from regular tour guiding for Rick Steves to doing her own angle and now has her own thing doing virtual tours etc. check her out on YouTube or Facebook, under France with Vero, and La Bande de Vero. She has now established herself in Tours and is a big part of why I decided to spend a few days here on this trip. It was lovely to finally meet her. Here’s a sample of her videos. France with Vero Youtube
Got up bright and early and cranked out a load of wash. Mercifully it only took about 45minutes instead of the claimed hour and a half! Then off to Le Petit Atelier for coffee and quick round of the Tours Saturday market. Tours has a gigantic covered market it a modern building, very lacking in charm but functional. On Saturday’s there are added booths outside, and in the plazas there are brocantes, flea market stuff. Because the standing market is so extensive, the Saturday additions don’t amount to much. On a previous trip I had happened to go to Blois on a market day and remembered it as charming, so I hoofed it up to the station and caught a train with 5 minutest to spare. Blois runs down a hillside overlooking the Loire, and the market takes over most of the old town for Saturday mornings. Quite a scene. I found a pleasant and reasonable place for lunch out of the fray and overlooking the river. Walked around town some more and then caught the train back to Tours. Demonstration of some variety going on, so transit was a little messed up, so walked back to the apartment. Headed out for an early bite, figuring that it would help me last until the appointed 7:00pm dinner hour but after finishing snacking, dinner not necessary. (BTW you can click on the photos to expand them!)
Today came together unexpectedly well. I got up fairly early, and decided to call another of the various small tour providers to see if I could get to some chateaus. The one I happened to call had a tour going and was happy to have me join them. They were going for a full day, but I ended up getting the guy to drop me off after the morning in Amboise. We went to two of the very classic Loire Chateaus, Villandry and Azay-le-Rideay. There are fairy tale type castles with amazing gardens, My original plan was to have lunch in Amboise and then hop a train back to Tours, but I realized that I could use a one way bicycle rental service and do it by bicycle. So, after lunch, I rented an electric bike and it was a good long ride, somewhat along the Loire River and somewhat inland to get back to Tours. The electric assist is nice but I mostly kept it in the lowest setting. Definitely a very solid day on the exercise front. It was one of those cool, crisp fall days, and fortunately by lunch time had warmed up enough to make riding feasible.
Today was a big move, leaving Bordeaux and heading back towards Paris to Tours, the main transportation hub for the Loire. I got up early and did the necessary cleaning to leave my AirBnB in as perfect a condition as I could. Unfortunately, while I had left plenty of time to get to the station, the trams were delayed for some reason and it got really tight. Ran to the right track, had to stop and show my Pass Sanitaire, then had to get ticket scanned, but made it on the train with about 4-5 minutes to spare, way too close!! Smooth ride at over 150mph to Tours, total time a little over 2 hours. On arrival at the TGV station of Tours which is in the suburbs, had to catch a quick local train into the city, then hopped a bus to where my AirBnB was, the host had arranged to meet me in front of Notre Dame de la Riche church. That all went well, and she found me a few minutes after I arrived. Tours is substantially chillier than Bordeaux, and just generally has a very different feel to it. My AirBnb is a top floor, 3 flights up narrow staircase thing, but great views, all modernized and spacious. Went to the Tourist information office and got brochures, found out about renting an electric bike for a day, chateau tours etc. Got my transit pass. Should be good to go, but we’ll see what the weather is like tomorrow. Not a crowded time of year, so, unfortunately many of the normally very reasonable mini van tours don’t seem to be running. I’ll do the bike thing if it’s not going to rain and it’s not too cold. Had the classic French dining experience tonight. Finally located a restaurant who’s menu sounded slightly more creative than the others, (almost all French restaurants in any given area have essentially the exact same menu), only to be told after waiting an hour for them to open, that they are complet! As usual only two people were in the whole restaurant, and they could have easily served me dinner and had me gone long before other people showed up, but that is not the French way, tant pis! Went for some Vietnamese food instead and it was probably good to have a break from all the high fat meals that I’ve been having. Tours is the land of fairy tale castles, and they are everywhere. Having visited quite a few, usually the best parts are the gardens and the exterior. Big empty stone rooms, not so much.
Today the forecast called for rain again, but I decided to press on and good thing that I did. Took the train to Saint Emilion, about 35 minutes, and, on arrival the weather cleared and was generally pleasant for my time there. I had visited on a previous trip and it had been a bit of a nightmare getting back. The tracks were being worked on, and they substituted a bus. It had an unpleasant driver and no ventilation. We promptly got stuck in some kind of traffic jam and it took forever to get to Libourne where the train was available. This time, the train went straight through and, a 15 minute walk from the station takes you into the village. I strolled around a bit until lunch time and found a place for a bite. Then managed to schedule a tour and tasting on line at one of the in town wineries, Les Couvent des Jacobins (Grand Cru Classe). This ended up being a private tour with a minimal tasting at the end, but was still quite interesting as we went down in to a rabbit warren of cellars below. After the tour, I hoofed it back to the station and then got off in the regional town of Libourne. Did a little bit of a walk around there, but not much going on. Apparently, it’s much more lively on a market day, but that was not today. Rain picked up again, and I headed back to the apartment to dry out and take a break. After regrouping, wandered around until I found burger for dinner, and then headed back to the apartment to pack for departure tomorrow. I’ll be taking a morning train to Tours, back in the Loire.
Walking up to Saint Emilion from the train station
Fonplegade is a staple at the Barrel Thief
A little pun, the French number 20 sounds like Vin
View of Saint Emilion
The main square
Custom stainless tank
Interesting aging Barrels note pressure caps
Didn’t quite realize that when I ordered the burger it would be duck with foie gras!
Another rainy day forecast for Bordeaux, but sunshine started the day. I had a coffee at Blacklist, one of the better coffee shops and near by my Airbnb. Then took the tram down to the train station for the trip to Margaux. This takes about 40 minutes on a TER train, a local line. I’d arranged for a tour and wine tasting at a Grand Cru Chateau called Marquis de Terme. Arrived in Margaux a little after 11:00am thinking I could catch lunch before my 1:00pm appointment, but wow almost nothing around and nothing open, no people. Luckily the Chateau, which was about a 15 minute walk from the train station had a restaurant. It turned out to be a very good restaurant, and I had an excellent lunch, followed by a private tour of the winery and some tasting. I was sufficiently impressed that I bought 6 bottles, which will hopefully turn up in Seattle sometime in the near future. Would have done some more walking but the weather turned into a downpour, and took the train back to Bordeaux. It was really raining hard on arrival, so went back to apartment and hunkered down for awhile. Went out to Bistrot des Frerots again and met with John and Atsu and their friend for some wine and Charcuterie.
So, wanted to see what the outlying suburbs of Bordeaux look like, so I took the tram all the way out to Pessac. I should say that Monday, today, was a holiday, so many store etc. were closed. Pessac was basically a ghost town, so after a quick exploration, back on the tram and back into town. Went to the St. Michel neighborhood which had a bric a brac market going on, and had a so so lunch at a cafe. The soup came out cold, and, after talking with Etienne, the greeter in Nantes who was also a chef, I’m coming to the conclusion that his comments were spot on. He says that one of the reasons that many French cafes have the same menu is that they are buying things in prepackaged bags which they warm up in pots of boiling water. I’ve since noticed the soup I had at lunch, butternut squash on the same menu of many other places…. Hmm. Weather today alternated between a few sunny spells and pounding down rain. Since Bordeaux is paved with a lot of what appear to be limestone pavers, it can be really slippery. Anyway, after walking around a fair amount, went back Brasserie Bordelaise for dinner and had a reasonable entrecôte for dinner, nothing fabulous but it was decent. After dinner, it really started raining with some vigor. (Internet really slow here, so posting pictures is taking a bit of fiddling)
The Flèche St. MichelGrand ClocheThe soup, better after microwaveChickenEntrecôte at Brasserie Bordelaise Armagnac shelf Brasserie Bordelaise Mirror D’eauRainy evening, Grand theater.
By now, almost everyone can agree that Honolulu’s attempt at a rail system is turning into even more of a disaster than anticipated, and, at a price that is exponentially higher than anticipated. To those of us familiar with a wide variety of transit systems, it was obvious from the beginning that they chose the wrong kind of system to do the job. I’m now in Bordeaux, which does a particularly good job with transit, but is by no means alone in that distinction in France or in Europe. But, since I’m here, let me point out some of the things that really make this work. The core of the Bordeaux system are trams that run at grade. They don’t need anything other than a platform about a foot higher than grade to get people on and off. Every station has a ticket machine, and tickets can be purchased individually or you can buy a week long pass for about 14 euros. That’s 2 Euros/ day for all you can use. Notably, the trams come about every 4 minutes on a normal day, and slightly less often on a holiday such as today. One thing that is really neat, is they have figured out a way to safely put a third rail into the center of the tracks. This means that no overhead wires are necessary, and that when a tram is not coming, it’s perfectly safe for people to walk or drive over and on the tracks. Must be some kind of induction system, but really cool. I have seen other third rail type systems, but this one seems to be the best. Caen and Dijon also have systems for avoiding overhead wires. So, in a short distance, urban setting that is relatively low speed, it’s pretty clear that light rail at grade is the way to go. It’s not only massively less expensive, but it is much more flexible when it comes to changing or adding stops, and, adding on to the end of it.
Today I was fortunate to find that the scheduled train strike was canceled, therefore, my train was precisely on time. La Rochelle to Bordeaux leaving at 9:54 and arriving Bordeaux at 12:08. Bordeaux is much further south and as such is warmer than further north. On arrival, it was sunny and pleasant, and I took the tram and walked to find my AirBnb. This one is in a modern building, and is a a quite large one bedroom, but is very plain. In any case, everything works, the location is good and seems fine. Went out and found a crepe for lunch and spent some time reorienting myself to Bordeaux. It’s a big city, but the downtown core has lots of little restaurants and bistros. Went back to one of my favorite coffee shops, Black List, and they still make excellent coffee, and have super fast internet. After that, a little more walking around and then it started raining off an on with occasional vigor. Although google said Bistrot des Frerots would be closed, they were open since it is a holiday weekend here in France and Halloween seems to be recognized to some degree. I ordered a glass of Medoc and a small combination charcuterie plate, which turned out to be more than enough for dinner. Across the street was a Mexican bar with a full Mariachi band playing and there were enough costumes going on to think that it was going to be a wild night for the younger set.
