Bordeaux....a province or a city or both??

With no research at all I had no idea what to expect when Ewan said  our next stop was Bordeaux.

For future reference -Airbnb - Grand T2 aux Capucins Bordeaux - host is Sonia

As it turns out it's a really beautiful 18th Century city with very consistent and substantial architecture: 99% of the buildings are no more than a few stories high. Most of the city has been classified as a UNESCO heritage city as a perfect example of 18th Century architecture. It is very different to any of the other cities we have visited because it is very open and spacious, rather than small buildings and narrow laneways. The blocks of limestone used in all of the buildings are light and warm in the sunlight.

A huge promenade lines the river with bike paths, very modern trams and pedestrian walkways...and a mirrored pool which is flat stone with water trickling on to it for kids and adults alike to play on.









So far we've:
 - visited the CAPC Museum of Modern Art ( I think we were beginning to overload on ancient castles and chateaus!).

In case you're wondering the rocks are the artwork.

 Unfortunately it was very disappointing as there was so few artworks to actually see. They were in the process of installing two new exhibitions, and the rest of the place had  some permanent work and a special exhibition about an obscure radical French Press in the 1970's which none of us found interesting. The highlight was the building itself as it had been a huge warehouse for coffee, tea, vanilla etc. so very solid and arches everywhere. But check to see if anything is on before going I would suggest!


- spent a few hours at the very swanky Cite du Vin learning all there is to know about every aspect of wine, and then sampling a glass of wine of our choice whilst enjoying a panoramic view of Bordeaux.

the impressive Cite du Vin building

The exhibition was very clever and very informative, and you'll be interested to know that Australia rated a few mentions.

Wine regions of the world display

The wine tasting area: note the amazing lighting
consisting of hundreds of glass bottles
suspended from the ceiling!

Liz and I really enjoyed the history section as it was displayed using all sorts of media. The audio guide responded to sensors and was really helpful (for once!). Our energy started to wane as I think it was supposed to take about 2-3 hours and there were no seats available and suddenly Ewan was texting us from the 'belvedere' and sipping his glass of wine as he was worn out!






- viewed all of the important monuments available and some of them very impressive.

The enormous Opera House

A lovely Opera House with no opera on currently, and no tours in English unfortunately. Some huge stone arches, a clock tower, cathedrals (of course) and some modern street sculpture completed the collection.

We loved this street sculpture as the expression on the face seemed to change as you moved around it

- finally we had success with the shoe shopping!!

We stumbled upon the long shopping street - Rue Saint Catherine by mistake.....really!. Ewan is a bit concerned as we have the same red jackets and new shoes from the same shop and they cost the same price , but are different as you can see. He thinks we're turning into twins or clones or something!!??






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- conquered the public transport system which includes boats as well as buses and very flash trams.And all on the same ticket.

This is the current church tower but the three
 arched windows are actually the high windows
 of the 12 th Century church carved
 out of the hillside underground 

- managed to get out of the city to Saint Emilion, one of the  medieval wine towns nearby. Very steep and rocky cobblestone streets with lots of roman gothic and neoclassical architecture. We did two tours: a catacombs and underground church tour, and a tour of a winery, Chateau Villemaurine.

The entire town is built on limestone which has been quarried since the 9th century for limestone blocks for building, especially the buildings in nearby Bordeaux. There are apparently 200 kilometres of underground quarries in total, and many are used for the ageing of wine in wine barrels: perfect temperature (about 12 degrees) plenty of ventilation and high humidity.
The first tour took us under a church tower where catacombs for burial of the wealthy and stillborn children had been carved out of the rock, and then in the 12th century a local wealthy man sponsored the building of a very large underground church complete with gothic curved roof. It was quite amazing and had some frescoes and carvings but had not been fully excavated. Huge square pillars had required significant metal struts to keep them up, as not only was the church tower above the church but so was a 5 star hotel No photos allowed though!

The second tour was of a winery, but not about the process of creating wine. We had the chance to wander around the caves under the vineyards where the wine is stored. It was really interesting to see the link between the beautiful Bordeaux buildings and the quarries where the rock had been extracted to build them, and the use currently being made of the tunnels from the quarry.
On each tour there was a slightly different version of the story of the life of the original Saint Emilion which was entertaining, as it appears no one actually knows at all!

Our accommodation was the attic of a lovely French couple house. The only problem was that it was three floors up and had lots of beams and angled rooves so after I hit my head three times I requested that for our next accommodation we stay on the ground floor, and in a place that had a flat roof so I wouldn't end up brain damaged. Liz moved her bed in case she sat up suddenly in the middle of the night and hit her head on the roof! It was a really lovely modern apartment but obviously a health risk for us!

On the road to Toulouse (of Lautrec fame) in the morning,

Your slightly brain-damaged correspondent

Dianne

Liz and Ewan outside our door.
Note the winter clothes as it was freezing.
We're hoping for warmer weather as we move south

Is it possible to get bored with medieval villages and chateaux and castles and......old stuff?

Tuesday 25th April

The answer is NO. Today we've been to explore some of the above and enjoyed all of them.

But we have had a new experience: rain! Just when we were happily contemplating not wearing winter coats and we had worn T-shirts for the first time as the temperature climbed into the mid-20's, last night it started to rain. And the temperature dropped to 13 degrees as the rain/ drizzle/heavy mist persisted for the entire day. The clouds got lower and lower blocking out some of the panoramic views from the locations we visited.

But not to be thwarted we headed off to visit some more sights: we are very persistent tourists!

Equipped with our bright red French marine jackets Liz and I managed to stay dry although Liz forgot her hood and had to resort to wearing Ewan's flash new hat. We all agreed it wasn't a bad look for her!

First call was 'the feudal fortress' of Beynac. Set on the very top of a sheer cliff overlooking the Dordogne and the town below, it was a very substantial and impressive fortress. With a panoramic view for miles around there was no chance of a surprise attack, as you can see from the photos. Lots of tapestries to insulate any warmth from the huge fireplaces, and lots of pulleys to enable everything to be hoisted up to the heights of the castle. They were prepared for anything.

Restoration work in progress.

You can appreciate how steep the cliffs are and just see the town at the very bottom! 

Then it was off to De L'Abri du Fort Troglodyte - la Roque - Gageac (colloquially known as the Fort Troglodyte which I had somehow heard as Frog Troglodyte). In this place the town is set into a steep cliff straight up from the road which follows the River. So if you want to see anything it's straight up steep ramps or endless stairs. We were hoping to see the Fort which, like some of the buildings, was set into caves within the cliffs but it's being restored so no hope (although Liz admitted she wasn't sure about the old steep wooden stairs that provided access to it).

Some kind of weird date palm in Avenue
 Banans

More great views of the Dordogne River and the patchwork countryside in the drizzle and mist. On the way down Liz and I ended up going through an Avenue of Banana palms which seemed a bit bizarre in the cold rain. But there was a little church and lots of stone houses gripping the sides of the huge cliff so very pretty.

A crepe and omelette sustained us for our last visit for the day.

As opposed to Beynac where the fortress is on the top of the town and the houses are lined up along the river at the bottom of the cliff below, Domme is a town which sits at the top of the cliff and overlooks all of the surrounding landscape. We wandered around the ramparts/town wall and then around the streets of the town. Beautiful old stone mansions behind high walls, fabulous hotels and restaurants with remarkable views, and even the views from the local public park were lovely as you can see.

We decided that we should give ourselves some time off from travelling for good tourist behaviour and in the misty rain headed for home.

But only along the winding roads, so we could admire the bright green spring growth on the trees in the forests. As we have moved towards the south the flat plains of the north with open fields and few trees have been replaced by lots of trees and woods and larger hills. Not the towering huge gum trees we are used to but lots of narrow trunked bright green trees which glow in the sunshine - when the sun is out! No idea about the species of tree though!

A quiet night in and time to prepare for the trip to Bordeaux tomorrow

your relaxed and warm correspondent

Dianne

Time to be brief.....well at least I tried!

So far I have been trying to do the blog the way I would like to do it....talking about the quirky things that happen as well as describing where we have been going but it gets too hard when you're out and about most of the day, so you will have to excuse my brevity about the past few days.

The town hall

Limoges is a bit of a mixed town architecturally speaking: some beautiful old buildings mixed with some stark ugly plain ones.
We spent some time planning our day as a visit to the Laundromat and some shoe shopping were high on our ( Liz and I) list of priorities! We managed to combine that with breakfast at a local boulangerie so all good ...but no success with the shoe shopping (very sad!).

I have come to the conclusion that working out how each laundromat (laverie here) works is a sort of Mensa test. How long does it take for three reasonably intelligent human beings to actually get the machines to work.....far too long! And just to add insult to injury we discovered that regardless of the amount of Euros carefully inserted into the correct slot, and the right number being pressed, the dryers only worked for 10 minutes - full stop Very frustrating when you're trying to shop in between!

Finally prepared to resume our roles as tourists we headed for the Musee de Beaux Arts to see their historical collection of porcelain and enameling which was very interesting as you can see.

Then it was the usual test to see if we could find somewhere to eat that was traditional Limousine (local) and not overly expensive. And we managed to find a cute simple restaurant called Chez Mr. Edouard (61 avenue Garibaldi) which provided a beautiful fish dish on cauliflower puree and, as we couldn't resist dessert, creme brulee and coconut creme caramel were required!

Not only were the meals delicious but the owner gave us lots of advice about where to go in the Dordogne. It is nice to support people who actually provide a service!

Sunday 23rd April
The next morning we headed off for a mysterious location which even the GPS devices (too numerous to mention!) had difficulty pinning down . We'd booked a stone cottage in the middle of nowhere near a small town called St Cyprien (Airbnb: called Saint Andre-d'Allas).

But before we left Limoges we visited the Musee de La Resistance which provided lots of food for thought, and lots of information about the impact of WWII on France and the response from the French. Well-presented and worth a visit.
Many kilometres were covered with Liz navigating beautifully and me lying around in the back seat, doing nothing except offering words of encouragement. I think this might be a marriage saving strategy as trying to cope with the multiple devices that Ewan seems to think is essential nearly did me in completely!! The scenery has changed considerably from the flat open plains of the north to lots of  woods and forests and hills, wiht nay flat land cleared for agriculture. very green and beaitiful.








The latest accommodation is in Malartigue which seems to be a collection of a few houses and that's it - but beautiful country - and a view from the upstairs terrace for drinks and nibbles at the end of a hard day - which is perfect. We'd stocked up on food at the Limoges market before we left so we were set for a few days.

The local donkey: not happy
with me when I didn't offer any food as payment
for this photo!

For future reference - Airbnb - La Grange/The Barn, Malartigue, Saint Andre d'Allas, Vendee - the host is Jacqueline

Our abode: a renovated barn, With Jacqueline, the owner

We were greeted by the owner Pascal who stayed for drinks and dinner (pasta with beautiful fresh marinara with huge scallops, tuna and salmon)  and although protesting that his English wasn't good managed to advise us about the area and even discuss politics with Ewan (the French voted the following day). Finally we managed to get Ewan to keep quiet and Pascal went home to his stone cottage next door which he shares with his wife Jacqueline who was away.

Monday 23rd April

The next day we were well prepared for a hectic days sightseeing.

The small cheese stall where we bought rounds of local
goat's cheese called cabuchon

Firstly we had to explore the local St Cyprien market whilst the locals queued to vote in the local Hotel de Ville (town hall). On Pascal's advice we bought roast chicken, carrots and potatoes: Liz bought an extra lot of potatoes just in case (as in her mind you can never have too many potatoes).


Then it was tourist time for sure: we headed for Chateau des Milandes, famous, not only for being a superb chateau, but because it was owned by Josephine Baker the dancer and singer.

Her life was fascinating: poor girl from Missouri married at 13 who ended up as a French star, fought in the resistance, adopted 12 children and married /partnered quite a few wealthy men. The gardens were lovely, and the chateau although originally very old (15th century), has been beautifully modernised  for her including having two of the bathrooms designed to matchthe packaging from her favourite perfumes: Arpege by Lanvin ( black and gold wiht a touch of jade green) and Dior ( pink and blue). No photos allowed inside unfortunately.

After a picnic lunch by the side of the road (verdict on the roast chicken etc very good) we ventured up a very steep hill to walk up into the castle perched on the top.

Castelnaud-la-Chapelle was a great example of a defensive fortress. being so high up was quite an advantage for defence, but it also had some trebuchet's set up so you could see how they contributed to the defence.

A multi-barrelled cannon

Beautiful panoramic views of the Dordogne ,,,,and I would think if an enemy was going to attack you , you would definitely see them coming!!

Trebuchets are basically enormous slingshots or stone-throwing devices used to knock down walls. Although, according to the film we watched, they could only do two stones per hour so it wasn't a fast process! The fortress had been added to and modified over many centuries from it's beginnings in the 12th Century and was a base for the Cathars, an important religious Christian group in these parts.

We had a cold drink after climbing up and down lots of stairs and before summoning up enough energy to go back up the hill to the car. After a lovely drive home we had nibbles on our terrace . Liz and I decided to go for a walk to the local hamlet Allas, as it was only a couple of kilometres away. We knew there was a track somewhere but we soon lost it and trekked through the undergrowth for a while before deciding we would head for the road and circle back. The sun was going down but the forest was dappled and all shades of green. And we didn't get attacked by any wild boar, although we did see some suspicious looking caves and holes dug by some type of unknown animal!

Leftovers for dinner as Liz and I had over catered a bit: never happened before (!!!???)

 Tuesday 24th April

Old market building

Fabulous entree: smoked salmon

After dealing with the mundane aspects of life -shopping and laundry- we headed for Martel to have lunch with Chris,the brother-in-law of a  friend of Liz's.

Martel is another lovely old medieval town with lots of high 3 and 4 story houses many of them with attics. They have been well-preserved and it was lovely to walk around the ancient market building and the streets after lunch. Lunch was fantastic: see photos. A set menu with three courses which turned into five! And it included a particularly beautiful creme brulee.

So, to offset the effects of a long lunch, we headed for Les Jardins du Manoir d'Eyrignac as we knew it was a garden and would take some walking! So for an hour and a half we traipsed around the 7 linear kilometres of linear garden admiring the skill of the 6 full-time gardeners. In a nutshell it was topiary heaven and explained the number of topiary designed trees that have appeared in private gardens, outside town halls etc. The property has been owned by the same family for 500 years , and there was a tiny chapel with only a couple of chairs still used for their baptisms.It was a beautiful balmy 26 degrees Celsius and light breeze as we wandered slowly around: so perfect for enjoying a large garden .

But some of the topiary was downright weird!!

We drove home and encountered Jacqueline , Pascal's partner. She and a couple of friends came for drinks and fortunately she speaks excellent English - actually taught English at one point - so she could interpret. She was very entertaining and informative.

After our huge lunch we had an omelette for dinner bemoaning the fact that we have all put weight on!!

your ever increasing correspondent

Dianne