Saturday 1st April - Bordeaux, France

Yesterday we said our final goodbye to Spain for this trip.  We loved Spain for its sunny days, warm nights, spotlessly clean campsites, affordable living and friendly people.

Today we headed into Bordeaux, just a few miles away from our camp site.  We decided to drive to the park and ride and take the tram into the city.

Our first port of call was to Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas, the iconic bridge over the Garonne.  Apparently, there had been a breakdown of the tram service that runs out to the bridge, so we walked for the final twenty minutes or so from the city centre, and were forced to shelter in McDonalds when the heaven's opened up on us.  The bridge is close to La Cité du Vin, another iconic building and a 'must do' place to visit, or so our campsite host would say.

We weren't disappointed - both structures were remarkable.

Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas

La Cité du Vin

Later (but not much later) we took the opportunity to sample the wares at La Cité du Vin.  Well it is Bordeaux, so it would seem rude to do otherwise.

Angela in wine heaven (La Cité du Vin)

Wine vending - enter your card and choose your wine - et voilà

We noticed a number of amusing and well executed items of street art in Borbeaux.  Below is an example we spotted near La Cité du Vin.

Street art near La Cité du Vin

Two other places we wanted to visit were La Cathédrale Saint-André and the town hall.  The Palais Rohan in Place Rohan now functions as a rather splendid looking town hall.

When we got to Place Rohan we watched in admiration at a large crowd of people energetically salsa dancing.  It was an exhibition by an organisation called FREESalsa that operates in Bordeaux.  On this occasion they invited members of the public to join in with their members - and, despite the persistent rain, they did, as can be seen in the photo below, which shows just a few of the people dancing and thoroughly enjoying themselves.  It was a lively and joyous spectacle to watch and the music was great too.

La cathédrale Saint-André

Street Salsa in Place Rohan (Town Hall in the background)

On our visit to Bordeaux we noticed a rather interesting building which looked like some sort of chemical plant, so we had to investigate.  The plaque below was on the wall.  One wonders if they think they are still being punished.  Actually the building is quite interesting and reading about it later it seems that Richard Rogers did Bordeaux proud.

The old law courts

Richard Rogers' re-designed Law Courts

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