Day 18 - Bordeaux

We had a day exploring Bordeaux a bit more today, but not before a lovely 9.30 sleep in. We're taking the bikes out again today, just so we can explore a bit further a field. We started off with a stop at the local market, only a 7 min bike ride away. We love how the locals shop at the markets - the produce is so fresh and varied. At this market there were stalls specialising in products from Portugal, Greece, Italy and Spain as well. They're always a great spot to take a few photos - sorry! It's amazing how little chicken there is compared to Australia, and when you do see it, it's usually a whole chook and the fat is so yellow. You don't see it on the menu in any restaurants either, but duck - there's heaps of that! We didn't actually buy anything, just had a look.

Ade's navigating around today. We stop for a look at some antiques and have a bit of breakfast.

We rode up the right bank of the Garonne River and back down the left bank. It's a very wide, fast flowing and dirty brown river. Most of the old port infrastructure is on the left bank (see below, looking back across the river at the left bank).

We saw the Cite du Vin building - a wine museum shaped like a giant decanter.

Stopped here at a giant food hall for a wine and cider.

Rode down along the newly renovated basin area. It looked all renovated except for on the opposite side where there was this very ugly old World War 2 submarine base. But on researching it we discovered that it is fact now the Les Bassins des Lumières - the largest digital art centre in the world, with four 110 metre-long pools of water, a projection surface area of 12,000 m² and 90 video projectors. It is recognised as the largest digital art centre in the world!

We rode over the Pont Jacques Chaban Delmas, which has a 117 metre lifting span (the middle bit). We didn't see it lift but I put in a photo of what it does.

Then headed back towards home.

We went home for a few hours rest and then walked 40 mins to our restaurant for tea - through a different part of town.

Dinner was at Chez Dupont. It was very good - traditional French.

It was a good thing that we had a 40 min walk home too 😂
We came across a live broadcast of a local orchestral performance in one of the squares and sat to listen for a while, they performed Ode to Joy, as well as a few other pieces.

That was another big day.