Bordeaux, France

Today is our day wandering around Bordeaux.

After booking into the hotel for another two nights, we made the three kilometer walk into the center of town, via the two main streets, Cours de Mains and Rue St. Catherine.

Our first port of call was the tourist information center, and from there we walked Esplanade de Quiconces. This is a fountain monument erected in the 14th century in memory of those who fought in the French Revolution.

Two blocks away from that is Musee d’Art Contemporian, which had a display on called Cities on the Move II, which was an exhibition about art, culture and architecture in Asia, and well worth the 30FF (AU$8) we paid to get in.

We walked to Place Gambetta, which is a small garden island in the middle of the city. It was once the area in which guillotine executions took place.

After this, we walked to Cathedrale St. Andre. This church had construction dating back to the 9th century, with the more modern work in the 1400’s. This fantastic sandstone building is currently being renovated and the work done already is amazing. Some of the artwork has been completely restored and the areas on the outside of the building, that have been restored, first by hand cleaning, then by laser, look brand new.

Dinner is to be a home cooked meal, so on our way home we stopped at the Champion Supermarket to pick up some food for a cheap meal, i.e., baguette, bananas, camembert and orange juice.

Once again, the day took a lot out of us, so we stayed in. Besides that, the hotel we are staying in is near a pretty seedy part of town. Once again, I found it hard to sleep as our bed slopes down from the foot of the bed.