53 - When it rains, it pours (like wine) - Bordeaux

 Sunday March 31 - Bordeaux

This Sunday morning started off great: by sleeping in 😆.  In addition to the loss of an hour, I really needed the extra sleep.  I don't know if it was jet lag but the previous few nights involved being tired until bed but that wasn't an issue for this sleep session.

Once up, we drove up to Bordeaux and parked at the parking lot next to the cité du vin.  The morning weather was great: warm sun and only mild winds.  The planned activity of the day was to visit the cité du vin museum, since the weather was so nice we figured we would profit from the sun a bit more before spending a couple hours inside a museum.  

So first we had lunch at les halles, located just across the street from the museum.  Les Halles were jam packed with people:  they reminded me of the ones I'd seen in Toulouse but with significantly less seating.  We couldn't even find an open table outdoors; fortunately my friend found enough empty space at a counter for us to squeeze in.  I opted for cuisse de conard confit while she had some friend chicken bites: her's was a handheld basket while mine had a plate so I needed some counter space.  My duck was tasty but the guy didn't give me a knife, only a fork.  I didn't think it was a big deal thinking the meat should basically fall apart but it proved trickier than expected, maybe it was related to the leg being reheated from it's casing of fat in a deep fryer.  I eventually had to admit defeat and searched around for a knife from another stall, though I suppose treating it like a renaissance fair turkey leg would've been a viable option too...

Les halles were very busy!  These halles were more focused on dining than selling local products but I was surprised not to find a water dispenser.  My salty duck leg and fries had me looking for a little hydration

After lunch, we walked along the Garonne to the miroir d'eau (Place de la Bourse), it's still dry for the winter so no mirror effect but it was still a nice walk.  The city has seen a lot more green and color since my visit in January. From the mirror d'eau we worked up to rue st Catherine and on to the Chartron district.  

In the Chartron district, we entered a plaza with a nicely sized church.  Across the plaza, I saw a sign for a store whose name included "de notre dame".  I asked my friend if the church was the local church of notre dame, she shrugged and said "probably; but you realize everything in France is named notre dame, right?".  It's a fair point, people really seem to like that Mary lady but in this case it was the Église de Saint Louis de Chartrons; the sign I'd seen referenced the store being on Rue de Notre Dame 😂.  We finished our pedestrian tour of the city finished along the river as a light drizzle proceeded to grow into rain.  

I spotted a Viking river cruise boat docked in Bordeaux.  It's no fly boat but I'm sure its passengers are having a great time.

While the rain was beginning to intensify, the line outside the Cité du Vin became huge, apparently many other people had the same idea as us.  Instead of waiting in the rain, we opted to check into the hotel and hope the line would dwindle in the interim.  

The hotel featured six concrete silos and a fancy Instagramable seat in the entryway.  The hotel also had a 2nd hand clothing (les vêtements d'occasions) and massages event going on; I'm not sure what the link between those two things is but it certainly attracted a crowd (or maybe the rain played a role too).

An Instagram able entry way via a silo

Taken moments before the rain started coming down in earnest.

There wasn't a break in the rain, but the line did dwindle so we popped into the cité du vin.  I'd visited this museum about 5 years ago but still found the permanent exhibit neat; it was a little different from I remember but that's probably due to an improved understanding of French 😅.  

Something I had missed last visit was the invasion of phylloxera bugs near WW1 that resulted in most vineyards using grafts onto American rootstock.  There was a section of the museum dedicated to characterizing scents, one of the scents in an ampoule was a stack of buttery cookies; apparently, these "petit beurres" are a French childhood classic.  

The museum made interesting use of projections onto surfaces, I think the audio guide syncing could have been improved but the overall go-at-your-own pace worked well.

Some of the exhibits were more sensorial than informative, this one left me scratching my head.

The ticket also included a glass of wine at the rooftop bar.  There was a decent selection of wines at our discretion.  The bottles as light fixtures in the ceiling were a nice touch.

There was also a panoramic balcony around most of the rooftop bar, not all the items mentioned in signs were visible due to rain and clouds.

After the museum closed, we returned to the hotel. Since it wasn't quite time for dinner and the weather was still rainy, we went for a swim in the hotel's pool.  The pool was located just next to the restaurant and featured a strange layout with hidden steps and bubble jet seats. 

There was enough time to enjoy an Easter peep 

We ended up having dinner at the hotel restaurant's bar to avoid more rain, the bar area was because the restaurant was completely booked.  Still, it was a great meal and we had a nice view of the city despite the window glare (le reflet).  I received a very good remedial language lesson over dinner, je essayerai d'oublier pas les "pas" quand je veux faire de la négation.

The bar's cheese and charcuterie platter was a surprising amount of food.  The lights on the columns of Pont Jacques Chaban Delmas made for a nice show on a rainy night.