Bordeaux: It’s more than just wine, but a lot of it is still wine.

 I’ve been to France before, on student trips, never by myself. I decided last year, while I was at Sarah and Nico’s, that I was coming to France this summer. So I switched my DuoLingo lessons from German to French. 

The France portion of my trip already started with a speed bump. I was supposed to take an earlier flight, and arrive in Bordeaux in the early afternoon, but while I was waiting in the Madrid airport last week, I discovered that Iberia has cancelled my flight to Bordeaux, and I was booked on a later flight, one that got me into town around 5:30. Now this wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t have train reservations at 5:25. Needless to say, I did NOT make that train. So I had to book another night in Bordeaux.

After taking a taxi to my hotel for one night, The All Suites Bordeaux Marne, more on the hotel later, I took a walk to the train station. In the morning I needed to get to the train station, and drop my bag at the luggage office, so I could catch my train for my day trip to Sarlat. I wanted to map out the route without my suitcase.

I found the train station with little trouble, and went in search of dinner. I’d checked some google reviews and picked a place to eat. Well, it was BUSY! There was a couple of empty tables, but that was more than I wanted to deal with on my first day in France. So instead I went to the grocery store and got something to eat back at my hotel room. I walked through a French city carrying a shopping bag with a baguette sticking out of it. How French!

The All Suites Bordeaux Marne was…fine. The room had a kitchenette, which was nice to have a fridge for a cold beverage in the morning, but overall it wasn’t really anything to write home about. The room I had was in a secondary building, and the lobby of that building REEKED of garbage. It was horrible, and it made the elevator and stairwell reek as well. Overall, it was fine for a place to stay for the night. Not sure I’d recommend it, but well, that’s up to you.

I lugged my bag to the train station, got myself a locker to leave my suitcase in, and boarded my train to Sarlat. It’s about a 2 1/2 hour train ride to Sarlat. 

Sarlat was not my fina destination though. In Sarlat I rented a car, a Jeep Compass actually, and drive about 40km to the Chateau de Hautefort. The Chateau de Hautefort was one of the filming locations for the 1998 cinematic masterpiece, Ever After: A Cinderella Story. It’s one of my all time favorite movies. I’m not ashamed to admit, I got very choked up seeing the chateau. 

The outside it what’s really spectacular at Chateau de Hautefort. There aren’t a lot of rooms open inside, well at least there weren’t the day I was there. I did tour the rooms and they’re beautiful of course, not the biggest or grandest chateau I’ve seen, but still impressive. 

The gardens at Hautefort are really spectacular. The French just have a way with sculpted ornamental gardens. All of the pruning is done by hand, and all of the flowers are native wildflower species.

I finished my visit to Hautefort with a trip to the cafe. I had a crepe (because of course I did, it’s France) filled with caramel and walnuts that were from the grounds of the chateau. It was delicious!

I made my way back to Sarlat. My original plan had me spending the night in Sarlat, the night before, then being to Hautefort when it opened, and being able to see a couple of other chateaux before returning my car, but with the change in train plans, that plan changed as well. I didn’t want to have to rush, so I returned my car in Sarlat, and went to the grocery store. My train wouldn’t get back to Bordeaux until after 8, so I knew I’d need a snack for the train ride back. Some bread and cheese was just the right thing. 

The train ride back was eventful. I didn’t understand everything that happened (or really anything), but the train started out as delayed by 30 min. That’s no big deal, I didn’t have anything planned for the evening in Bordeaux anyway. Then we needed to get off the train at a certain stop, and get on a different train to make the rest of the trip to Bordeaux. Luckily there were a lot of people on the train, and I just followed the crowd. I got into Bordeaux about 40 min later than planned. 

Of course, at this point, it was rush hour, and the trams were shut down for the night, so I had to catch a taxi to my hotel. The queue was long, and it took a while, but finally I made it to Hotel des 4 Sœurs. It’s right in the center of the historic part of the city. Great location. My room is small, as all European rooms tend to be, and needed to be aired out, but the windows opening made that pretty easy. 

Saturday, I woke up and realized that I had spent SO MUCH time planning my time in Paris, that I didn’t really plan anything in Bordeaux! So I did some quick Googling, and refreshed my memory or what there was to do in town. 

My first stop was an errand to a makeup store for some eye makeup remover that I had forgotten to pack!

The one thing I knew I wanted to do in Bordeaux was a trip to the Cite du Vin (wine museum), but since I knew that a glass of wine was included, I didn’t want to go too early. I got there about noon, and walked right in, no line at all. I was super surprised. 

I was a bit skeptical when I first heard about the Cite du Vin. Would it be a tourist trap? Too cheesy? But no, it’s a well thought out tour through wine. From the areas in the world where it’s grown, to the process of growing grapes, to how to make and bottle wine. And how to taste wine, what are the senses you use to taste wine. It was interesting, informational, entertaining, and fun. It’s a must see in your ever in Bordeaux. If I had been thinking, I would have booked the Via Sensoria, which is an hour and a half long wine tasting experience. Next time. 

Saturday night for dinner I ate at L’Entrecôte. It’s just right next door to my hotel. They don’t take reservations, so people start lining up about a half hour before they open at 7:00. I got in line about 6:35 and was at least 35 people back in the line. I didn’t realize at the time, but this place is huge! It’s 4 floors, and they make use of every available space. I got in no problem. L’Entrecôte only serves one thing, steak and fries. They ask you how you want your steak cooked and what you want to drink, that’s it. The meal starts with a salad with walnuts (which are a specialty of the area). It’s dressed with oil and vinegar. The steak is served with their special sauce. I don’t know what was in it, but it was amazing! They serve the steak pre-sliced, and plate part of the steak for you along with your fries. They give you the rest of the steak on a warming tray with more sauce, so you can plate the rest yourself. My only disappointment with the meal was not having anyone to eat it with, so I had no one to talk to about how great it was! If you ask, you can have more fries, but the mountain of fries I got was enough for me. You CAN have coffee and dessert after your steak, but I was too full.

Sunday, I started my day with a bus tour of the city. I love to do these kinds of tours because it gives a good overview of the city, where everything is located, and usually the guide has a lot of good information. In particular I found out that Bordeaux is right on the Camino De Santiago. So after the bus tour, I had to go explore, and see if I could find any way markers. I did! I’m guessing Bordeaux is 1 maybe 2 days from St. Jean Pied du Port, which is where I started my camino. 

On that same street, I found an adorable shop that had postcards and posters. They’re all done in that old fashioned travel poster style. I wanted so badly to buy a poster (or 12), but the tubes were too big to fit into my suitcase! But they have a website…

But now my time in Bordeaux has ended, and I am on the train to Strasbourg. If that sounds more German than French you’d be right. I’ll tell you all about the Alsace and its relationship between France and Germany in my next post. 

Until then, Au revior!