Day 1. Thursday 18th
September 2014. Plymouth to Bordeaux.
08:14 Peter arrives dead on time
to collect us from Lynwood Avenue. Mike, complete with bergan is stood in the drive awaiting his arrival.
Spotting only Peter in the car, he calls out to Jackie “Jill is not in the
car.” Panic! Has Jill had second thoughts? Have she and Peter fallen out? No
sooner has Peter switched off the engine than he is bombarded with questions
from the Stopporton’s. It seems that Jill has to put the bins out for the bin
men who are calling later this morning. What? Apparently they will blow around
in the wind if left unattended! The Stopporton’s lock the house throw their two
bergans in Peter’s boot and we’re off to Ivybridge and hopefully to collect
Jill. Subject to South Hams Council standing her down from rubbish bin guard
duty.
08:33 The issue of the rubbish
bins has been resolved. We asked the neighbour to put them out and collect
them. Simples! We’re off. This is going to be interesting the whole vacation
revolves around rubbish bins!
10:25 Peter, driving his Nissan
Micra like a demon has us at Goblin Coombe Farm car park in record time. Located
at the end of the runway at Bristol Airport it’s ideal for location and pretty
reasonable on charges. We pull into the reception area right beside the mini
bus which is loading. Open the boot, grab bergans, into reception and pass over
the car keys. Peter has disappeared into the little boys’ room, we are called
to mount the transport. Jill asks “Shall we leave him?” “That’s up to you
Jill.” says Mike “But if we are going to do that we must do it now.” With that
Peter reappears. “What’s up?” he asks. “Nothing Pete, let’s get aboard.” From
switching off the engine to leaving in the mini bus couldn’t have been more
than five minutes. That's the way to do it!
Bristol is so familiar to us now.
Straight up the escalator to embarkation. Mike hands out the boarding passes to
the other three. There is no queue and having scanned our boarding cards we
proceed straight to luggage scan. Here of course the men fall foul of the
authorities. Peter sets off the walk through scanner and has his shoes returned
in one of those special white trays for yet another scan. He is also selected
for a rather lengthy pat down by a rather burly security guard who in addition
to coiffured hair seems to be waving the detector wand around life Vidal Sasson
would a set of curling tongues. Mike, having passed through and standing in the
duty free shop, thinking this amusing decides to snap a photo. Now I know we're
not supposed to in the security area but I thought no one will see me. I would
have gotten away with it but for the flash announcing to everyone some idiot
has just taken a photo. A diminutive security person approached and asked that
I delete the photo. She stood “over” me whilst I fumbled around with the
camera, identified the offending photo and deleted it. Don’t I feel like a nit-wit.
11:16:26 We have found ourselves
a table in departures which has a good view of the overhead monitors. From here
we can glance up and check on gate opening times etc. Whilst Peter guards our
table and luggage we three go off in search of a breakfast snack. There are
quite a few options. The bar is open. No, let’s not encourage anyone to alcohol
this early in the day! Although I, as I am sure you have, watched in amazement
whilst people, men and women both consume pints at five in the morning! This
isn't a continuation of an all-night binge but a "breakfast bevy."
The full Monty? Any takers? No.
How about McDonalds or Burger King? No. OK we are down to slightly more
traditional breakfast/ lunch / brunch items. Peter’s breakfast request either
was too complicated for the catering staff to understand or Jill to remember.
The staff were locals not Poles
but as we spoke with a Devon accent and they listened with a Bristolean
ear neither party could understand the
other. Repeatedly saying "Sorry, can you say that again." Did not
help. Panini seemed to be a word much bandied about by various counter staff so
we settled on four of these rather plastic and uninspiring, supposedly Italian
filled bread rolls.
The young lady who served us and
I use the term loosely, was a charmer! It would have been interesting to have
sat in on her HR interview. Butch women, with Mohican hair styles and shrapnel
in their nose, ears, eyebrows and tongue, it must be said is not my particular
bag. I am certain that somewhere she had a loving partner that could not wait
for her to return home safe after her working day. However, I wonder what
thought process one must have that decides you would wish this to be the face
on your food counter to greet your customers.
Having finished our plastic
Panini’s, the £12-34 price tag seemed suddenly not so expensive. If I keep
telling myself that I might well believe it.
Eventually our flight gate is
displayed and we start the route march to the departure gate. My next nagging
worry is the size of the pack I am carrying! It is slightly over the guaranteed
hold size and definitely over cabin locker size. One day I will be caught. Let
us hope it is not today. It is not over packed and I carry it nonchalantly in
my hand. Arriving at the last check in desk before the door I offer the person
on duty my best smile, proffer my passport and boarding pass and with a
"Good morning, how are you today?" Keep my fingers crossed. It does I
believe work in my favour. Well so far. All four of us pass through with no
hitch. We are about eighth back in the queue to board. OK priority boarders
will get in first but there can't be more than twenty or so of 'em. It does not
seem worth the extra to pay for priority boarding to me. IMO.
13:04:41 On board our EasyJet
aircraft we are seated in Row 15 A-D as we are one of the first on board there
are no problems with carry on storage in the overhead lockers.
Two G&Ts £10-40 Peter and I
abstained. There might be some credence given to the Governments suggestion
that if the price of booze and fags is hiked sufficiently high then we will
conduct our own rationing thus saving the NHS millions. Neither Jack or Jill
seem inclined to that school of thought.
14:52 Landed at Bordeaux. I may
have snatched a few moments of sleep. It was during this period of semi slumber
that I became aware of someone "interfering" with me. I woke with a start
only to find Jill's head in my lap. Thinking that the G and T’s that she and
Jackie had been consuming before I fell asleep must have had an effect upon her
libido and as Peter was sat on the opposite side of the isle I reasoned I must
therefore be the object of her attentions! Alas, it was not so. It seemed that
the hostess who I had not noticed standing above us to our right had in fact
passed Jill another can of tonic, this, Jill had dropped right between my, well
legs. If you travel in cattle class as I often do the seat back is so close the
only way to sit is with your legs open. Rather delicate for you young ladies
but not so us guys. Well perhaps not. Anyway it seems she was ferreting around
on the floor with her hand when she inadvertently woke me.
With no luggage to collect we
passed through passport control and into the arrivals hall. That's a joke.
Corridor more like.
In anticipation of Tim awaiting
us here I ran my eye across the few people who could actually fit inside this
corridor. The first four I discounted but the person on the end seat was sat
engrossed in and hidden by a broadsheet newspaper. Could it be our man? It was
indeed. Now have you noticed how on a long car journey one tunes into Radio
Four, other radio stations are available and gets quite involved in a
discussion, play or news item only to find one has arrived at ones destination
but there is some ten minutes of the radio presentation still to go and you
wish not to be disturbed? Well I believe our meeting with Tim was slightly like
this however within a flash he had remembered why he was there and swung into
his "Meet and Greet" tour guide mode. Hugs, kisses and handshakes
over we marched out of the Billi terminal building at Bordeaux and across the
car park to the Avis Car Rental desk. Here we were redirected back into Billi
Terminal and the Avis Car Rental desk. Just a minute I thought this was the
Avis Car Rental desk. "No sir, this is the Avis Car Rental returns
desk." "Well where do I collect my car rental from?" "Here
sir, but you need to book it over there.” says the nice young man from
Avis! We make our way back across the
car park and into the terminal building seeking the Avis Car Rental desk.
At the desk an elderly English
couple, well they appeared older than me, seemed to be having some sort of
difficulty hiring a car. That was no surprise to me. We stood and waited.
Voices at the far end of the counter were being raised and in true English
fashion we looked the other way, talked about the weather or sought refuge in
the nearby loo. In walks a ginger haired guy. "Where have I seen him
before?" I ask turning to Tim. He says" He's the man who told us to
come over her for our car booking remember." I ought too. There doesn't
seem to be that many gingers in France.
Before I can say something to him a young lady appeared. She was
efficiency herself, spoke good English, knew all about our on line rental
booking, had details of the extra insurance we wished, no GPS, length of hire
period and return address for the Renault. "Wait a mo, we've asked for a
Citroen C8." "Oh that, no we never have had a Citroen C8, why they
put it on the web site is beyond me." I must admit it was a bit beyond us.
We had a quick Irish Parliament about the offered Renault Espace. "OK, we’ll
take it." "Bon."
Her name was Alexandia and with a
beaming smile and a flourish she wrote her name across the top of our copy of
the booking form. Any problems ring me she said. I melted.
Our next stop was the Car rental
pick up / returns desk. Who is the first person we meet inside? Our ginger friend.
"Have you come to return your car?" He asks. It's a wind up right?
..............A few moments later we were all five aboard our Renault Espace.
Mirrors, seats and air con adjusted. Mike the nominated driver on the hire car
paperwork was ready for take-off. "Where's the hand brake?" It's bad
enough they put the steering wheel on the wrong side without hiding the
handbrake! Do we get out the instruction manual or blag it through? Real men
don't read instruction manuals. Peter suggests it’s an automatic handbrake.
Never heard of such a thing. Mike engages first gear and gently let's out the
clutch. We roll forward. No warning lights flash or alarms sound. It must be an
auto brake. We're off. As is the brake.
Tim directs us to the "Rocade"
this is Bordeaux's ring road system. Traffic is heavy but it is moving. After
thirty minutes or so we are driving along parallel with the Garonne River. I
now know where I am and feel secure in the knowledge that Le Place de la Bourse
is up ahead on our left, facing the river and we will drop down into the
massive underground car park there. The Espace will seat some seven persons with
luggage and is therefore not that small a vehicle.
As we drive down the narrow ramp
that enters the underground car park all fall silent. I certainly breathed in
and I am certain the others did as well for on completion of my spiral down to
level five and stopping in one of the numbered bays there was a collective
release of tension. How we got down without bumping off the side walls I do not
know. We made our way to the elevator
and up into day light.
Bordeaux a bit of History.
From the mid-1600s, Bordeaux
entered a commercial and demographical boom period which lasted to the French
Revolution and was largely centred around the city’s port and the commerce of
wine, sugar from the colonies, and it must be said, slaves. Yet at the
beginning of the eighteenth century the city was still confined within its
medieval walls until the arrival of the new Intendant of the town, (that’s a
high ranking official or administrator to you or I) his name, Claude Boucher.
Boucher engaged the services of
the king’s architect, Jacques Gabriel (1667 – 1742), to draw up the plans which
would open the town to the river and offer a more engaging face to the visitor
coming upstream or from the right bank of the Garonne. On his arrival in
Bordeaux in 1729 on casting his eye along the port of Bordeaux and the curve of
the river he declared, “It well deserved something recommendable for
posterity.” In the same year he laid down the plans for three projects of which
the least ambitious in terms of urbanism was retained by the Jurats (city
councillors). After a series of modifications the final plans for the Place
Royale (Place de la Bourse ) were signed on 22 March 1733.
On the death of Jacques Gabriel
in 1742, his son, Ange-Jacques, took over to 1755. The statue of Louis XV on
horseback, erected as the square’s centrepiece, was inaugurated in 1749 and
symbolised the town’s prosperity.
Tourny takes over from Boucher
The monumental
construction of the Place Royale (Place de la Bourse) constituted the first
step in the town’s modernisation and embellishment which was carried forth with
Louis-Urbain-Aubert de Tourny who became Intendant in 1743. It was not until
the 19th and 20th centuries however that the Place de la Bourse was finally
completed with the final extensions and the creation of the Place Gabriel,
named after the architects.
During the French Revolution the
square was renamed Place de la Liberty, then became Place Imperial a few years
later under Napoleon 1st and with his abdication and the return of the Burbon
king, Louis XVIII, the square was re-baptized as Place Royale. On the fall of
Louis-Philippe 1st and the instauration of the 2nd Republic in 1848 the square
took on its present name of Place de la Bourse.
Today the Place de la Bourse in
addition to housing Suzie’s office also houses the Chamber of Commerce on the
north side and the Customs museum (Musée des Douanes) on the south side.
The Four Stooges at The Three Graces
Fountain, Place de la Borse, Bordeaux.
During the French Revolution the
bronze statue of Louis XV on horseback was dismantled and smelted down in 1792
and replaced by a “tree of liberty”. This in turn was “uprooted” in 1828 during
the French Restoration period under Charles X and replaced by a modest column
shaped fountain of pink marble surmounted by a white capital and a globe. The
present fountain by Louis Visconti was erected in 1869 and is known as the
Three Graces (The Empress Eugénie, Queen Victoria and Isabelle II of Espagne) Elsewhere
it has been suggested that The Three Graces were the daughters of Zeus and were
named Thalia, Aglaia and Euphrosyne. Take your pick.
During the recent development of
the tramway (2004) the fountain was removed. On completion of the Place de la
Bourse underground car park the question arose as to whether or not to erect a
replica of the bronze statue of Louis XV on horseback but finally the Three
Graces which had been there since the 2nd Empire were re-instated.
This area of the city of Bordeaux
lies on the bank of the Garonne and was for centuries the area upon which the
warehouses were located. As France's third largest city these were extensive.
One of the primary exports from here was the famous Bordeaux Wine. Tobacco has
until the last twenty or so years also been grown here and was shipped out from
these very wharves. Today the wharves have all been demolished and a most
fantastic esplanade with gardens, parks, and sport areas built. The most
striking feature of which is the "Miroir d'eau."
The Miroir d'eau (Water Mirror) or Miroir des Quais (Quay Mirror)
is the World's largest reflecting pool, covering 3,450 square metres (37,100 sq
ft). Located on the quay of the Garonne in front of the Place de la Bourse, it
was built in 2006.
It is made with granite slabs
covered by 2 cm of water. In summer, a system allows it to create fog every 15
minutes. Conceived by the landscape architect Michel Corajoud, and developed by
the fountain expert J. M. Llorca, it was, with “le jardin des lumières” (the
garden of lights) and the skate park, one of the main elements of Bordeaux‘s
quayside recent redevelopment. This fantastic water feature lies directly opposite
Suzie's office in Le Place de la Bourse. In fact if you look closely at the
main block and the third floor, eleventh window from the right you might be
able to see Suzie peering out from behind the curtains.
The Mayor, for now that is what
we call The Intendant, who had the vision to implement such restructuring has
to be congratulated. The whole of this area is magnificent. The buildings
finished in Portland Stone bear testament to the cities wealth. The stone
incidentally was shipped out from England. The French sold us wine and we
traded stone for their return cargo. Not a bad deal eh?
A stone’s throw behind Le Place
du Bourse is Parliament Square. This is one of many "places" that dot
the city. This is, I believe one of the largest. It is very popular with locals
and tourists alike. Bordeaux has it’s own university and so has a large
proportion of young people. It seems that in France one generally attends the
local university, returning home for the weekend. Thus, Thursday night is fun
night and one of the busiest of the week. As soon as Suzie joins us we can let
the good times roll but for the moment we must choose our bar on the edge of
Parliament Square, choose a table outside that gives a great view of the
passers-by, sit down, place our drinks order, quaff the beer and people watch!
Like most of us trying to
"clear the desk" before a vacation there is always something more to
do and Suzie it seems has more than most. She sends a text to Tim telling him
she is “progressing well and will soon be with us”. We order another round. The
clock ticks on and before long there she is walking towards us like something
off of the front page of Paris Match.
We are all greeted with two
kisses each. One on each cheek! .....Steady!
After a drink Suzie suggests a
restaurant in La Place Camille Jullian. It is only a short walk from here in
Parliament Square, South down the Rue du Pas Saint George's and into the
square. Are we ready?
We arrive at the restaurant and
sit outside beneath a large overhead roller blind. We are soon attended by a
lovely young fellow who is keen to please. We order aperitifs, beer and wine
and peruse the menu. Suzie translating, where we have difficulty. There is a
most comprehensive menu and it is with difficulty we choose but having done so
we sit back in our most comfortable chairs, chatting, watching the world walk
past and waiting. We wait and wait and wait. At first, as there is so much to
catch up upon and enough vino to keep us occupied we do not notice the delay
but it seems there has been a bit of a mix up. We are offered someone else’s
meals. No. Another wait. It transpires that we have a trainee waiter allocated
to our table. He has a most engaging manner and is doing his best but he has,
it seems been thrown into the deep end so to speak. Watching him it is obvious
that he is struggling with placing the orders on the till, the wine bins and in
general is totally confused. As it is busy no one seems to have sufficient time
to help. Eventually a woman arrives at our table and asks us what we think we have
ordered. Suzie explains, the waitress confirms. In no time at all our grub
arrives. It was as good as Suzie promised. Indeed the whole experience was
enjoyable. Tim in an aside suggested that “He’s on the next banana boat back to
Senegal in the morning.” We did not leave a tip.
Time is ticking on, it is a
beautiful evening and we wander across and view the Utopia Cinema on the
opposite side of the square. It is an old converted church showing mainly art
house films. We return to the car park pile aboard the Espace and make our way
out of the city on the forty odd minute journey to Langon.
Arriving at Les Terres we unload
bergans and Suzie allocates us our bedrooms. Someone mentions a nightcap but it
has been a long day for all and we agree that some kip is probably a better
option.
23:32:38 In bed.
