Day 423: Bordeaux, Port of the Moon

We've been here almost a week, time to check out the city of Bordeaux! The world heritage listing for the city describes it as the "Port of the Moon", named after the crescent-shaped bend in the river.

Historically it's been one of France's most important port cities, key to the trade with England, the Low Countries, and later the West Indies, Africa, and South America. It's also got fascinating architecture, as it was redesigned in the 18th century and that redesign directly inspired Baron Haussmann when he was redesigning Paris. Time for a look around!

We caught the tram in from our commuter town, quite a way at 30 minutes. Started off at the river where we filmed a bit, then headed to the tourist info to pick up a map of the key UNESCO sights to see. We spent the next 5 or so hours wandering around the city, roughly following the itinerary.

There's some great stuff here, a few old gates from the long-gone city walls, a beautiful theatre, the hotel-de-ville, a large crescent-shaped stock exchange building, and lots of lovely little streets and alleys, all very walkable. It was great weather as well so we had quite a nice day out.

Had some baguettes for lunch again, as we'd had an expensive day yesterday! By 3pm we were both a bit tired from wandering and headed home, where we spent the rest of the day.Read more