Camino

We arrived in Bordeaux yesterday and it seemed a nice change from Paris and not quite as hot!
The trip to get to Bordeaux was not for the faint hearted as we had to navigate the metro at peak hour in Paris and then try and understand the workings of the Montparnasse train station..a major challenge and began to wish I had concentrated more in my french classes at school as not a word of English to be seen. We caught the fast train down to Bordeaux and it only took 2 hours so it was a very relaxing ride.
We had done the day before in Paris a 4 hour cycle ride through the so called off the beaten tracks part of Paris but it didn't always seem that off the beaten track and we decided our bikes were quite wobbly..of course nothing to do with the riders. We did see some amazing places including a beautiful park Place des Vosges where Victor Hugo lived. We wobbled our way over the Seine and biked through the Botanic gardens. It is design week in Paris so masses of beautiful design and antique stalls. The heat was intense and cold beers were very much appreciated. The poor Notre Dame is still under repair and will not be ready for the Olympics but all the usual sites looked magnificent even in a heat wave. All the french are so gracious when they know we are kiwis and half apologise for beating us. You certainly know the RWC is on and the Irish nearly drank Bordeaux out of beer last weekend. By chance we banged into Sam Whitelocks parents in Montparnasse station so had a coffee with them and tried not to talk too much about the rugby!
Today we went on a great trip out to St Emilion with a young french guide, gorgeous accent, twinkly blue eyes and red curls with an incredible knowledge of wine. The town of St Emilion is so old and so pretty and like Bordeaux ,all the buildings are made of sandstone. The wine harvest is to start in 3 days and we had a wine tasting of course! An acre of land in St Emilion costs approx 1 million euro so there were no life style blocks out there just rows and rows of grapes.
So tomorrow we head to St Jean Pied de Port and start the walk on Thursday, walking 24 km with a climb of 1500 metres so no doubt the next blog will be from a very tired walker with 3 very tired walking companions.
We have loved our time in France even if tres expensive and hot but so so chiq and stylish.
Photos of the Chateau Montlabert where we went through the winery. Even the cellar was designed by an award winning architect and some of the walls were made of cork. Brian who loves Cathedrals saw his first one inside today at St Emilion
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