Bored-oh in Bordeaux
I was incredibly excited to visit Bordeaux, maybe too much so. When you have high expectations it is easy to be disappointed. As you can guess from the title of this post, I was extremely underwhelmed by the city. It's a beautiful city, but it has an element of coldness. Everyone is well dressed, all the buildings look like cost more than I will ever make in a lifetime, and it just lacks something. I would compare it to a beautiful person that you want to meet and then they turn out to have the most bland personality. To me Bordeaux feels like Paris without the magic. At the same time, I will give Bordeaux the benefit of the doubt, since I know we started off on the wrong foot and I encourage anyone to prove me wrong.
Driving into Bordeaux was not like driving into La Rochelle, where we were arriving from. Instead of the peaceful atmosphere, simple architecture and ocean breeze, we were met with traffic jams, sex shops and prostitutes. Our Airbnb was by the train station, and as we later learned from French people, staying by a station is generally sketchy. Here begins our first ever negative experience with Airbnb. When we got the apartment the host was not there to greet us, that's fine. Host's have busy lives and can't wait around us forever. He explained everything over the phone and we began to get settled in. I went for a quick post-travel bathroom break and-- toilet won't flush. I pulled out all of my repressed plumber skills, but nothing worked (I'm also a no good plumber!) When we told him about this finicky toilet he just told us oh, just don't worry about it. When someone reports an issue about your apartment, that is the opposite of the correct response; Fast-forward to us calling him many times and him not responding, to us asking him for a refund and him not responding, to us saying that we're leaving and him not responding. Eventually, after contacting Airbnb, getting our refund, getting a new hotel, he replies saying no big deal, you can stay! with no apology, no regret and no acknowledgement for his lack of responsibility. So that was our first foray into Bordeaux, pas trop sympa.
Next morning, we were undeterred: Bordeaux attempt #2. Let's go.
As a former travel counsellor, my first instinct was visit the local tourism information centre. There, our counsellor quickly circled about 10 things on our map and we felt very rushed to leave. We went to the nearest café to plan our démarches for the day, relaxed as we sipped our coffee, until we got our bill and almost choked; 10 € for 2 coffees! Two lessons learned; always ask to see la carte even if you know you're just getting a coffee; and never play the conversion game to see that you just spent 7$ each on coffee. Bonus lesson: don't drink coffee in the middle of the tourist hub, no matter how coffee deprived you are. Rookie mistake, Jo.
Of course, after paying so much for my coffee I felt more pressured to staying longer at the cafe and looking over our options. During this time, I found that Bordeaux had a Museum of Decors and Design. Jackpot! Any city I visit, if they have an interior design exhibit I am there and never square. The Museum itself is rather small and mostly 18th and 19th century furniture with random modern abstract elements in each room. Now, I'm sure that there was a specific design in mind with this blend of two completely different styles, but to me it just seemed like having a room full of elderly people with one teenager planted in the middle of them; out of place, doesn't connect with his surroundings and no one knows why he's there. So -1 Bordeaux museum for me.
The museum left me hungry for something more exciting, and well, hungry for food. In my guide, we found a restaurant called Le Petit Commerce. It was amazing. The restaurant advertises having a different menu each day based on the available in-season market ingredients. I honestly can't remember what I ate, but I can remember that everything tasted like it was just ripped out of the ground and put right onto my plate. I could taste every single vegetable, not one overpowered the other, together they created a magical, vegetable dance in my mouth. It was also the first place where I found hoppy beer on a menu in France. The service was incredibly fast and I would 10/10 recommend eating here while touring Bordeaux.
So here I am full of good food and full of hope. We made our way to Rue Sainte-Catherine, the main shopping street in Bordeaux. If you like shopping, this is the place for you. If you hate crowds, this is not the place for you. The street is slightly uphill so when you look ahead you see people like ants swarming the streets with their busy lives. We were there on a Monday, so I cannot imagine the crowds on a weekend. If you like shopping and hate crowds, early morning is the time I recommend you walk around here-- it was much more enjoyable.
Next, we escaped the crowds to the Cathédrale St-André. It has the grandeur of many French cathedrals and it's a peaceful place to just be. We were greeted by a pleasant surprise. A boys choir school was rehearsing for a concert that they were going to perform at the cathedral. The sounds of tiny angels echoed through the crevices of the cathedral, as we sat there in awe that such little humans can have such powerful voices.
In the evening, we went to go see the spectacular Palais de la Bourse to get one of those classic shots everyone associates with Bordeaux. While we saw it during the day, it's quite a sight at night. There, you're right by La Garonne, the river that runs through Bordeaux and it's a nice stroll with colourful lanterns leading the way.
Now, you can't stop in Bordeaux, the wine capital of the world, and not have any wine. For dinner, we stopped at La Ligne Rouge, a tiny wine bar on a tiny street. They have a whole wall of wines from all over the world and an assortment of appetizers (cheese platers, charcuterie, vegetables) to pair with the wines. Thankfully, the menu list isn't very long, because as a non-wine connoisseuse I would be completely lost with dozens of choices. There's about 5 choices for each type of wine, and a "mystery wine" under each category. I chose that for the element of surprise, but mainly because I am clearly uncultured and could care less if it's bold, full-bodied, has an "oaky afterbirth" (hey, the Office reference) or comes from Middle Earth . I cannot taste the difference. To me it's good wine or bad wine. That's as far as my distinguishing goes, and this place was definitely good wine.
We finished off Bordeaux the way we should have experienced it all along: slightly buzzed, hiding from people and not driving (seriously, take public transit everywhere). Overall, I can definitely see the appeal of visiting Bordeaux, but if you've already visited many European cities and want to experience something very unique, I would skip it.