Arrived in Bordeaux in the morning and blessed; the auberge (french for hostel) was near the train station. We couldn't get our room, so we dumped our stuff and got walking. We took the scenic route and checked out the town's tourism office. We got our rooms a bit later in the afternoon (they were nice rooms- massive and we had our own bath!). Cant remember what we did the rest of the day- i think there was a siesta, shopping, dinner and long walk by the riverside (even messing around in a playground- dont you just hate it when they design swings so that only lil kids can swiing on 'em.....grrr.....i love the thing that goes 'round and 'round though....whirl.......)
The next day we headed out bright and early to St. Emilion- a cute, medieval wine growing town. The train station is basically two platforms on each side of the tracks. We got off and had to walk into town, past vines- some heavy with grapes, and at the end of some rows roses are planted. The town itself is built on a natural hill, with the vines making up the valley surrounding the town. Underneath the town is natural catacombs in the rock, and monks had dug out an amazing church underneath the town. Walking down there is creepy- i felt a bit Lara Croft-ish in my cute shorts and tank (all i need is slimmer legs and bigger boobs, oh, and big guns). The entrance is a small doorway, and the there is very little light- but it opens up to this massive hall supported by these huge beams. There's a painting of a pair of angels on the ceiling- watching over the congregation. Wandered the hilly town- had a canneles which was bought on the steepest street ever- it was yummy! And before we left, got myself 3 bottles of wine to take home: a bordeaux red, a rose and a white. Had an uneventful dinner- another night, another kebab (broke-ness from shopping!).
Started the next day with a bit of faffing about-lingered over breakkie, did some laundry....left the auberge pretty late, but we headed out to the Plage par le Lac (beach by the lake). I wasn't too keen, but T was, so we headed out on the long bus ride there. Basically someone had dumped tonnes of sand of a spot of grass next to a massive lake, cordon off a bit of lake, put some floating platforms around it. It was a great day, so what else- sunning and swimming it was. It was different swimming it fresh water, but what was real fun was jumping off the floating platforms.....There's enough room on the platform to take a short run before"geronimo....!" and leap into the lake. I had almost lost my shorts and had a brief tankini malfunction in the water after a particularly spectacular jump. On the way back we stopped by the mirror lake- its a really big rectangular shallow pool (about 2 cm deep) with jets placed at even distances from each other. It fills up and drains in cycles- when filled up, it reflects just like a big flat mirror- hence mirror lake. We went crazy- chasing each other around and trying splash each other. I watched in fascination as the mist rose up from the jets and then the water bubbles up....lots of kids just running around (me included) and i took lotsa nice shots on the camera. Came back to the hostel utter exhausted and with sore burnt shoulders and back. We went out later with full intent to party (it was a saturday night) but instead wandered about town aimlessly (enjoying the sights, Bordeaux is beautiful at night!) and passed out when we got back.
The next day, after breakkie, we boarded the train headed to the seaside town of La Rochelle.
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