Intro.(en français): Bordeaux la blonde (du moins, sa partie historique)! Des bâtiments faits de pierres de calcaire venues des environs, bien nettoyées, cette ville doit bien faire le million d’habitants, si on inclut ses banlieues (un quart de million, la municipalité elle-même, m’apprend-t-on). Je suis descendu dans le quartier St-Michel, tout à fait au sud du Bordeaux historique, quartier populaire, fait d’émigrés (essentiellement du nord de l’Afrique), et qui donne sur les quais et le cours (rue) Victor Hugo (on y retrouve la basilique St-Michel et la Flèche du même nom, de même que des restaurants pas chers autour de la place), à 15 minutes à pied de la gare, au 13, rue Le Reynard. (Chambre bien – de la terrasse, belle vue sur les toits du quartier et la basilique Saint-Michel et sa tour – en dépit des 2 chats et des 4 étages à monter sans ascenseur – à la décharge du propriétaire, si on lit bien, c’est indiqué sur le site internet !)
Day 1 (in English from there on):
Fontainebleau to Bordeaux: by taxi (to Paris) and train (to Bordeaux – more
than 3 hours; from Gare Montparnasse) in the afternoon. Dinner at the
restaurant de la gare. Walked to 13, rue Le Reynard.
Day 2. Walked
along the « quais » towards « la
place de la Bourse », built starting in 1730 as the “place Royale”
dedicated to Louis XV, (great square where this mixture of water and brume that
is the “mirroir d’eau’ is located) is the heart of the “vieux Bordeaux”! This
is also where the office of Tourism and of UNESCO’s “Bordeaux Patrimoine mondial” that tells the story of the architecture
of the city, are located. Not far away is the “Place du Parlement” where I had lunch at one of the several
restaurants that border the place (“Chez
Jean”) and from where I started my long walk back to the B&B. First by
the Grand-Théatre, built towards the
end of the 18c – very impressive with its peristyle ”à la grecque”; then, via la “place du Chapelet” (the Dominican church of “Notre-Dame”) and “le cours de l’intendance” (possibly the
most beautiful street of Bordeaux, says the Michelin guidebook! It is a
commercial street.), towards the “place
de Gambetta”, more of a garden where people lie down on the grass (…and
where the guillotine was set up during the Revolution – can’t be a better
choice!).Walked along the major thoroughfare of “cours d’Albert” and “cours
Aristide Briand’ (uninteresting!) that leads to the Place de l’Etoile” and the
St- Michel neighborhood,
Dinner at Le Rizana; on a Moroccan kebab. In the
neighborhood, on the “place St-Michel”..
Day 3. Walked back to the Tourism Office for
bookings and further info. Went to Cailhou
gate, which was built as part of the walls, facing the harbor, that
surrounded Bordeaux in the Middle Ages, and dedicated to the king (Charles
VIII, the same guy who married secretly Anne de Bretagne at the Chateau de
Langeais in the Loire – and who died of hitting his head on a lintel!) On to St-André’s cathedral, an
“incontournable”, built during the 11 and 12c, and modified in the13 and
15c.Gothic style. Nearby the “tour Pey-Berland”,
closed (worth seeing anyway!) The “Préfecture” (in the Palais Rohan) is nearby
and a statue of Chaban-Delmas, prime minister and mayor for 30 odd years (in
France, it is common: you can still occupy 2 political positions at the same
time, that in spite of the current debate on this!) Walked down nearby rue Sainte-Catherine, a commercial
street that goes to remind you of the same street name in Montreal except that
here, it is a “piétonnière” …It leads to “place
de la Comédie” and the “Bar à Vin”
(the official CIVB – Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bordeaux) where I
drank/tasted a 2010 Listrac-Médoc du
Chateau Focas-Horten and a 2010 St-Emilion Grand Cru du chateau de Pressac,
along with a plate of cheese (Gruyère de Savoie, un fromage fait de lait de
vache du pays Basque, un comté et un Brebis vache!).
Did not know
that Bordeaux was a stop on the “chemin de Compostelle”! Many French pélerins
went by the city! They went by la “Porte
Cailhou”
Had lunch on
the terrace of the Grand Hotel de
Bordeaux, facing the Grand-Théatre.
Rested in the
afternoon and had a light dinner nearby.
Day 4. It was
devoted to the “Musée d’Aquitaine”, where
I spent most of the day, which traces back the history of Bordeaux (from
prehistoric times). Lots about all areas of its history (e.g. Eleonor
d’Aquitaine” who started 300 years of wars between France and England by
marrying - she was divorced from Louis
VII, the French king, at his initiative – Henri de Plantagenet, who was to
become Henri II and king of England, and thus joining Aquitaine – to its
advantage as the Brits bought all the claret – to the crown of England!) and
the best collections I have seen so far on slave trade, not that Bordeaux was
the principal place – in the 17 and 18c – where it took place (there was much
more trade in England – in London and Liverpool for instance - and in some
other European ports!) but the city’s prosperity was built on traded goods
produced in America (mostly in the French colonies of the Caribbean islands) by
black slaves!
I had lunch at
a café nearby, walked by the ‘tour de la Grosse Cloche”, and visited on the way
back the large “basilique St-Michel”
which was built over several centuries starting in the 14c (it is part of the
UNESCO’s “Patrimoine mondial”). I stopped by the 15c Flèche, beside the basilica-the highest tower of all the south
of Europe but did not go up!
Day 5: Day to St-Emilion.
St-Emilion’s
jurisdiction extends to 7 other communes and covers some 7to 8000 ha (of which
–one would have guess! – at least ¾ are
vines!):it is a small village nonetheless. About half hour by train from
Bordeaux. Got there early: it was not 9am! Nobody in the streets! Had a coffee
and brioches for bkfst at the local ‘boulangerie”.
Eventually
walked up to the”Collegiale” and its
cloister: nice specimen of 14c. Architecture!
Early lunch
(carpaccio de thon and canard confit) at “L’Envers
du Décor” (recommended in the Michelin – very good; full of
English-speaking people!)
Walked to the king’s tower; either Louis VIII’s or
Henri III’s: there are speculations. But certainly early 13c! Went up on top: Good
example of square donjon of the day; it housed the “hotel –de-ville” until the
beginning of 18c.
Note that the
‘jurat” (local council) was abolished everywhere at the Revolution but
reinstituted after the Second WW. (ceremonial in St-Emilion but real in
Bordeaux, I understand!)
Went home,
back to Bordeaux, by the 15:18 train…
Day 6:
Beautiful and warm day. Went to Arcachon,
by train(less than an hour to go) early in the morning. Lunch at the Cabestan restaurant. No public
transport to the Dune on Sunday – I
guess too early in the season; you could not say that by the crowd there was at
the Dune itself! To go, shared a cab with American girl from Dallas (on an internship at the American consulate in Bdx) and a Chinese (doctor, on holidays, at Peking University hospital in Shenzhen!);
The dune: huge accumulation of sand – at least 20 meters high – the largest I
ever saw –climbed up by stairs!. Came back to Bordeaux by 4 o’clock train (51
min). Dinner (Italian) near Utopia Place after
film.
Day 7: Lunch
across the river (Gironde) on a terrace that gives one the river, at the “Cafe du Port». Taxi to airport. Flight
to Malta (via Barcelona) at 4:50pm. Arrived around 11pm…
Bordeaux,
April 13, 2015
