So Then We Went To Bordeaux

Bordeaux:
Exploring more of France

For the second part of February break (after Italy), Nikki and I took the day-long train journey over to Bordeaux, in the southwest of France.


Did you know...about Bordeaux??

• annual wine production: approximately 850 million bottles.
  
• longest shopping street in ALL of Europe, pedestrian-only, 3/4 mile in length
• in the 16th century, played a central role in the distribution of sugar and slaves from the West Indies, along with wine
• in terms of metropolitan area population, just shy of 1 million, it's the 7th largest city in France
• (and in case you're suddenly curious, the ranking is as follows:1.Paris, 2.Lyon, 3.Marseille, 4.Lille, 5.Nice, 6.Toulouse...8.Nantes)
  

Nikki and I stayed with Florian and Mickaël, our latest friends from couchsurfing* during our 3-night stay. We met up with other couchsurfing-host friends of theirs and had dinner together on our first evening in.
*www.couchsurfing.org, in a nutshell, is an awesome online network that connects travelers with other travelers! It's a great way to meet new people who want to share their culture, passions, and ideas with others, and vise-versa. You set up a profile and are able to request to "surf" people's couches (stay at their place), and are then able to offer the same for travelers in your area. Check it out if you haven't already! =)

Touring Bordeaux a bit by night.

More city sights...

Cathédrale Saint-André de Bordeaux

Luckily, we had a day of nice weather and were able to walk around a bit. Did some shopping on Europe's longest shopping street, and we had a nice lunch out at a brunch/lunch place called "Karl". It reminded me of Portage Bay (mmm) except without the toppings bar (dang). Nonetheless, had one of the best salads of my life :)

The main reason we wanted to head over to check out Bordeaux, other than b/c we heard it's a nice place, is because our friend/former SPU'er/current language assistant Brittany is living & working in the area! We took a day trip out to see her place, grab lunch with her and her roommate at their favorite spot, and tour around their city a bit.

SPU'ers reunited in France...yet again :)

For our last evening in Bordeaux, we were invited to Paul's place (another friend of our awesome hosts) and we all had dinner together. Of course, on the way over in the car, Florian and Mickaël decided we should come up with a good story about our **real** reason for being in France. Naturally, what followed was an evening of crazy made-up-story telling, involving careers as pole dancers with stage names and everything! It was hilarious and Paul got a kick out of it...we really surprised them with our acting skills, especially considering the reserved, well-behaved sort of first impression we often make. And then, we headed back to real life; back to life-as-usual on the Riviera. =)