Bordeaux

I'll start off by saying that I was blown away by Bordeaux.  I really had no idea what to expect. Maybe it was because of the weather or maybe because I live in such a small town.  Either way, the city of Bordeaux is absolutely beautiful.  We took the 930 train from Angouleme and were checked into our hotel and walking around by 11 am.  Pretty good for not being a morning person.  We basically took the morning and early afternoon to walk around and get ourselves acquainted with the city.  Bordeaux has this bike system where you can rent a bike for 24 hours for 1 euro.  IF you don't use the bike for more than 30 minutes at a time then it is free.  They have bike hubs all over the city and you can check them out at any time of the day so it was a great way to get around once we had already seen a bunch of things.  It was great for the nightlife as well because we were able to go to a bar for happy hour and then use the bikes to go out across the city in the old part.  In the old part we found a bar with some billiards to watch the France USA soccer match.  Unfortunately, les Bleus defeated us 1-0 and Esven and I lost in a round of pool to some french dudes which is humiliating, but the night was a lot of fun.  We met a bunch of young french people and it seems like Bordeaux is a great place to go out for young people.  It definitely made me wish that I was experiencing the daily life of the big city and profiting from having a lot to do, but I am by no means disappointed with my living arrangements.  After all being in a small town lets me do more traveling because the cost of living is so low.  It may seem strange, but I think this me appreciate places like Bordeaux a lot more than I would if I actually lived there.

The architecture of the city is probably what attracted me to is the most. The whole city is a stone city and the old part is the best.  They have several old gothic cathedrals that have towers reaching up 60 to 115 meters in the air.  Also, another reason why I found the city to be so beautiful was all of the open squares that it had.  It was a style that looked more Spanish or even Italian than it did French.  Probably the highlight of my day yesterday was just sitting outside at a cafe on the plaza that contained the Hotel de Ville and the Saint Andre church.  The sun was shining bright and I was wearing a t-shirt in the middle of November.  What more can you ask for?  I took over 150 photos and I was in the city for less than two days.  I am looking forward to going back at least two more times. It is definitely worth it, because the train roundtrip cost about 24 euros.  Even a day trip seems like it is worth it to me.  While it doesn't top the natural beauty that I was able to enjoy on the Amalfi Coast, Bordeaux may have been the most beautiful (big) city that I have traveled to thus far.

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