September 27, 2013
Day 71: Espiet to Bordeaux
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Had we known in advance that the Sauveterrre to Bordeaux trail was going to be almost all downhill, with a good surface, good signage, station buildings along the way (one or two with restaurants and others with camping possibilities), and a connection to a bikeway into the heart of Bordeaux, we would have been really excited to get on it. As it was, the excitement built as we saw more and more, and too soon it was all over.
"All over" of course, only applies to the bike path, because as mentioned, it dropped us into Bordeaux. (OK, the editorial board says I should mention getting lost. So to be perfectly accurate, the path dropped us into a "rond point", with ambiguous signage about how to proceed. We chose poorly, and ended up sliding 2 km down D113, before Dodie slammed on the brakes and declared she was too frightened by the cars to proceed. I said, let's look on the tablet for a way forward. She said, "I'm for going back". Guess which way we went! Actually, it was too scary to go straight back, so we took a side road, and got double lost. The GPS did eventually take us to the bike path by the river, and that path took us into the city - as claimed, before I added this paragraph.
The first we saw was from the opposite shore of the Garonne, and it was a skyline of church towers. Up then on Pont st Jean, a strange "french provincial" building was visible, just off the bridge. We thought it must be city hall, but as we drew near we saw it was semi-derelict. Puzzling!
We proceeded along the quay, waiting to draw abreast of the largest church before diving into the city. But Dodie spied an old gate, and she loves old gates. So in we went. It turned out to be thhe Porte de la Monnaie. We only got 200 feet before encountering an outdoor restaurant, La Turpina. We had already planned to eat at a restaurant, and said what the hell, why not this one?
Well, one possible reason could be the typical €30 price a la carte. On the other hand, we had just spent two nights wild camping, eating crackers and the like. The restaurant demonstrated the amazing difference there can be between the same nominal thing made right, and not. What I got was essentially the same as at Carcassone - poulet et frites, with bread on the side. But, but, just the bread was a symphony, and it came with really real butter. The chicken was clearly free range, firm yet tender, and flavourful. And the frites - just greasy enough to be great. Dodie had lamb and cassoulet, and pronounced them superior.
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We are just waiting to order dessert, for which we will need another €20, excluding coffee! With any luck by the time you read this you will be able to look at a photo below of what we got.
... so, what did you think?
We continued a few streets over into the St Michel district, which features a basilica and the Fleche St Michel, a tall independently standing tower by the basilica. The church was built between the 14th and 17th centuries, in a gothic style. Lots of various churches were built in this area, starting in the 8th century, but the neighbourhood took off in the 14th century when it got included inside the city walls. In the next 100 years fraternal societies built side chapels on the church, for a total of seventeen. The tower was built from 1472, and is 114 metres high. They wanted 5 euros to climb it, just one of the reasons we gave that a miss!
All around st Michel (and despite construction) were old buildings of tremendous character and charm. The people were living among these, calmly sitting at their cafes and patronizing their wonderful bakeries, as if it were all perfectly normal. Helllooo!
That building at the bridge, the Port de Monnaie, the St Michel - these could be enough to make a town great. But guess what. Bordeaux goes on like this for maybe 10 km of great stuff. as we pedalled along the quay, there was great building after great building on our left. And every street we looked down presented another great scene.
On our right, the river side, there were also some good things. For example, a large square flooded with two inches of water. People could walk here and cool off.
Another one was a skate park. Lots of thirty somethings were skooting around very professionally. I got this lucky shot:
The signage for Lacanau-Ocean, at the coast, kept up perfectly, as did green painted cycle way. we followed this west until, we came to a sign pointing to a Decathlon. So we hung a right and went off looking for it. Dodie went in, and bought camping gaz. Then she tried to argue there was no time for me to go in. Hah. I did promise to be right back, though.
Inside, first off, it was air conditioned. Next, it was full of gear. Whaahaha. Let Dodie stand out there in the sun! In fact, I did pop back out pretty quickly.
From there, we nipped up beside Lac de Bordeaux to the four star camping. Four star camping, you'll remember, does not include toilet paper (well, we remember, anyway). It does however include a pool. Go figure.
At the next tent, three motorcyclists were from South Africa. We enjoyed hearing comments about places like Ethiopia. Such things become real when referred to by someone who has just been there. We mainly spoke to Michnus, and much enjoyed listening to his accent. Strangely he said our English sounded flat, without any regional accent.
Tomorrow we expect to arrive at the sea, this time the Atlantic. That will start a new phase for us, as we head north. Even by bicycle, these stages seem to come and go awfully fast!
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Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 4,747 km (2,948 miles)
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