B for Bordeaux
Cooling our toes in the world’s original water mirror, fog emanates every 15 minutes from the banks of water that define Bordeaux in two words: bord and eaux. This UNESCO world heritage city of art and history in southwest France sits on the tidal Garonne River that flows from the Pyrenees to the Atlantic Ocean, 45 kilometres to the west.
From Stock Exchange Square on a walking tour, our guide makes us laugh at the lackluster names given to Bordeaux sights. Water Mirror, Fortified Gate, Big Bell (Grosse Cloche), Big Theatre (Grand-Theatre) and Stone Bridge (Pont de pierre) whose 17 arches represent a familiar emperor, N-a-p-o-l-e-o-n-B-o-n-a-p-a-r-t-e.
Travel guru, Rick Steves suggests Bordeaux stands for bore-dom… Au contraire, Monsieur Steves! Bordeaux has more preserved historical buildings than any other French city save Paris. A steamy dance exposition unravels off St. Catherine’s Promenade, the EU’s longest pedestrian shopping street: part of a summer-long Dancing-on-the-Quay swing and blues invitation.
We take a multi-stop riverboat shuttle. First stop is at La Cite du Vin, a self-guided wine-museum with 20 themes on 10 levels, architecturally-shaped like a wine carafe. We pair wine and chocolate at Maison Gobineau from their list of 30 wines daily: reds, dry and sweet whites, roses, clarets and sparkling wines, but I decant.
L for Leafy Links
We book with Explore! – a company with a wide array of travel adventures for the solo or small-group trekker or cyclist. As a former French-language teacher, I’m overdue for some parlez-vous. Toulouse is our pink-city destination (ville en rose) with its terra-cotta brickwork. We’ll cycle southeast to access the Garonne Canal bike path, a 19th-century short cut between the Atlantic port of Bordeaux and the Mediterranean Sea.
Our start and finish extend like spokes to and from the UNESCO spiritual hub of Santiago de Compostela. Today, pilgrims and non-pilgrims walk and cycle it. Bordeaux is on the north-south artery; Toulouse, along its east-west access.
We ditch our bags and hop along to Holland Bikes, who set us up with helmets and hybrids (a cross between road bikes and mountain bikes), pumps and locks. We carry small essentials in our front paniers. Also supplied are route notes, maps, and an odometer. We’ve brought our own side-view mirrors, shammy (chamois) shorts, padded gloves, water, and flat-soled bike shoes (stiffer than a normal runner, and tread-less so as not to catch pedals).
We merge with a converted railway bike path (the greenway or voie verte). We’re on a false flat, rising gently, winding our way through vineyards to the village of La Sauve and its thousand-year-old Benedictine abbey. A UNESCO site and stop on the Santiago route, we stop at the town’s bakery, where a baguette take-away is ‘incroyable’ and the pistachio-raspberry and apple tarts, irresistible! What stone carvings at the top of the abbey columns! Our top two picks are Daniel in the lion’s den, and pinecones (or bunches of grapes) symbolizing sacrifice and resurrection.
We spool along the plateau for an hour before a descent into Cadillac (the same Cadillac as the car, named after Detroit’s founder). The Hotel Chateau de la Tour’s outdoor swimming pool is the perfect aperitif, followed by buttery white fish, pea coulis, roasted-red-pepper lasagna, cubes of marinated raw salmon around a half-moon of green-tea-ice-cream, and several grapefruit-cream swirls.
Leaving Cadillac, up and over Sainte-Croix-du-Mont, brings us to the Garonne Canal. A palette of green hits us; every shade from yellow-greens at the top of the plane-tree canopy to the olive-dark-greens of the waterway.
We mosey on to Meilhan-sur-Garonne and feast our eyes and noses upon the town’s summer food fair. We are steeped in music, escargots, wines, figs, bread, oysters, preserves and enticing mixtures simmering onto plates.
Other cyclists along the way ride e-bikes (electrically-assisted bikes). One easy rider suggests they can comfortably average 20 kilometres/hour to our 15.
Moissac brings us to the edge of the Tarn, one of three rivers feeding the Garonne. Another UNESCO town on the pilgrimage route, it was rebuilt in art-deco style in 1930. We eat in the square below the medieval abbey/cloister and strike up conversation with the couple next to us.
“Where are you from?”
“Cognac,” they answer.
“Have you always lived there?”
“Yes,” she says. “We are French… but we are also Gauls, Moors, Visigoths (Germanic tribes), Basques, Romans, even Aquitaines (a British possession from the 12th to 15th centuries and a term still used today).”
“The British are drawn to our warm climate although no longer as conquerors,” says her husband with a smile as warm as the dishes we’re sharing at Le Fromage Rit (the laughing cheese).
T for Toulouse
Our hotel off Place Wilson memorializes the 28th US president’s peace negotiations post WWI. We find Hunger Beans Vegetarian Restaurant (La Faim des Haricots), which opened in 1996, knowing full well it was ‘crazy-crazy (to open in the land of) duck breast and foie gras.’
We sightsee the Garonne River through the mile-long Brienne Canal, lock-connecting with the Canal of the Midi. We love St. Etienne Cathedral’s rose window and Gothic nave, and the Augustinian Museum’s exhibit of Toulouse Renaissance art. We douse croissants with jam facing The Capitole at the heart of the pink city: a sumptuous city hall and opera house. Up the great stairway, natural light streams in through rooms frescoed wall-to-ceiling.
We walk pedestrianized streets down one of six star-shaped boulevards. Between boulevards are bowling greens (Boulingrin for the French game of boules).
Our BLT has been a Bordeaux-Links-Toulouse self-guided tour.
IF YOU GO:
Explore! (One of many week-long travel experiences that provide luggage transfer, route notes/maps, bicycles and accoutrements, most breakfasts and some extra meals). Visit: www.exploreworldwide.ca
Ryan Air from London Stansted to Bordeaux: Ryan Air from Toulouse to London Stansted
Bus shuttles go regularly to the Toulouse airport from Place Jeanne d’Arc
Air BnBs at both ends: Apartment Appart Cozy/Quartier St. Pierre/Rue des Faussets in Bordeaux (contact Laurence) www.airbnb.fr/rooms/11646632
Studio Chic/Cozy/Calme in Centre Ville Capitole in Toulouse (contact Pascale) www.airbnb.fr/rooms/8702204
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