I didn’t think it’d be so soon but I did it folks! Within less than a month of being in Madrid, I took my first trip and spent 48 hours in Bordeaux! Yes, I know, that’s a short trip. But you do what you can, you know? Plus, I do feel like I got a decent feel for the city with all the walking I did. As usual, I’m going to walk you through my trip but I’m going to add a few tips at the end for you!
Day 1
I arrived to Bordeaux by bus, a 9 hour overnight drive from Madrid. I’m glad I did it since it was the cheapest way to get there, but I won’t do it again. The bus was full, so I wasn’t able to sleep. Plus, I ended up catching a cold from someone. Talk about the gift that kept on giving!
I arrived at the hostel at 7 am, way too early for any kind of check in. Famished, I ate a quick breakfast and got some computer work done. It got to a point where I had to either get outside and moving or fall asleep in the cafe – which wasn’t an option. So I checked my luggage, freshened up a bit and took to the streets!
That morning stroll ended up being the best thing I could’ve done! Walking any city on a Friday morning is a great way to see it’s true colors: you see people on their morning commute and get a chance to see the sights with fewer tourists than on a weekend morning. So that’s what I did! I walked down to the Place de la Bourse and alongside the river.
From there, I meandered to the Place des Quinconces and the Monument aux Girondins. Turns out I was there while they were setting up for the Fun Fair, which is a month-long carnival hosted at the Place.
[Note: it’s near impossible to get a photo of the entire monument on an iPhone. And yes, I got on the cold ground.]
A few more steps and one coffee later, I walked around the Jardin Public. Most medium/large cities have some form of public garden or park, and this is Bordeaux’s. It reminded me in part of Central Park, St. Stephen’s Green and Powerscourt Estate & Gardens. The park was in full fall effect for me, leaves turning yellow and orange, falling gently from the light autumn breeze. Walkers, runners, and moms with strollers passed me as I walked. Everywhere I turned, there was some kind of artist at work: what looked to be students sketching, painting and drawing their surroundings. It’s that kind of place. I ended up sitting down on the steps of the museum, plugging in my headphones and snacking on a sandwich. The weather was perfect, a cool 68 degrees with the sun shining down. Like I said, in full fall effect.
[Wow. Writing that made me relive that moment and DEAR GOD. Words cannot do those moments in that park any justice.]
Moving on from that daydream…
By that time my friend was supposed to be arriving, so I slowly made my way back to the hostel to meet her. I say slowly because I loved taking it all in. The architecture, the shops, the townhouses. Everything was picture perfect.
Once Melissa arrived, we both rallied and showered up for an evening of walking, eating and drinking. Wine, of course, because Bordeaux. The one landmark I hadn’t made it to was the Miroir d’eau, the world’s largest reflecting pool. It’s made of granite slabs covered in 2 cm of water. The cool part? It’s water fills up to look like a pool and then empties, drying out to look like wet marble, coming back up as fog. The cycle runs about twenty minutes long, so you do have to stay at least that amount of time to see it all.
See how cool! There were little kids running around having the time of their lives, but I managed to get those in-between moments, when it had cleared out a bit.
Another one of Bordeaux’s monuments is the fountain in the Place de La Bourse, so of course I had to get a picture there! We spent the rest of the evening walking, eating and drinking our way around the center of Bordeaux.
Day 2
So the thing I didn’t know about Bordeaux was how much the weather was going to fluctuate. Mornings were very cold and damp, but the sky would open up and warm us up some 20 degrees (Fahrenheit). As you may know, I have a tendency to get very hot very quickly, so my refusal to wear a jacket may or may not have been a part of my getting sick later on…We’ll never know really!
Saturday morning was just that: a cold and damp morning. We went to a nearby cafe for brunch, dropped our jackets off at the hostel and headed to Saint Emilion for the afternoon. Now, if you don’t do your research – like I didn’t – you won’t know that most of those wines Bordeaux is supposedly famous for aren’t actually from Bordeaux. They’re all from neighboring towns and villages, one of them being Saint Emilion. So we took a quick 30 minute train over.
The train station in Saint Emilion felt like something out of the movie Leap Year. It’s a little over a mile down the road from the actual town, but there weren’t really directions on the roads, so we just followed other tourists. At some point we lost them and wandered up into a vineyard southwest of the town…it was stunning. And of course, photos don’t do anything justice.
We continued to wander, taking pictures in and around vineyards until finally walking into Saint Emilion for some food and wine. For whatever reason, we ended up having hamburgers at some touristy restaurant before heading into *the best* wine tasting of my life. I wasn’t quite convinced by the Irish wine store, but thankfully Melissa led us there. Turns out, Paddy has been in Saint Emilion for thirty years and in the wine industry longer. What I thought was going to be some tourist trap ended up being a private wine tasting, great conversation and an amazing lesson on wines from around the world. It’s also an excellent reason to visit his Dublin store!
Several glasses of wine and a long walk in the rain later, we made our way back to Bordeaux. We grabbed some more to drink and what we thought would be appetizers turned into several drinks and singing and dancing at our table. Random? Very. Fun? Absolutely. Good food, good company and yummy wine makes for a great end to a quick trip.
My flight back to Madrid was fairly early, so I wasn’t able to enjoy Sunday morning in Bordeaux. There’s always next time!
Tips:
By no means would I ever presume to be an expert on a location after 48 hours (or ever really) but these are some helpful tips should you be planning a trip to Bordeaux.
- First tip: spend more than 48 hours there, duh! Bordeaux was stunning and with so little time, you can’t eat at enough restaurants or spend time in any museums!
- Second tip: pre-book any Chateau or wine tours ahead of time. I did zero planning for this trip and didn’t realize Chateau and wine tours were actually in surrounding towns. On top of that, many of them were sold out or closed because of the weekend. Seriously, major fail. Don’t make my mistake.
- Third tip: if you arrive by bus, please be aware that the stop is practically in the middle of nowhere (or at least it felt that way at 6:15 am!) Make sure you have Uber or WiFi to find a taxi to your hotel!
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