La Mer, le Canal & les Pyrénées

[VPS]

La Garonne

We decided to take a cruise on the river at Bordeaux: La Garonne. The price included a canelé and a glass of wine. I can't say that I am a fan of the canelés; a bit too stodgy for my taste but the wine was fine.

La Garonne is not a particularly beautiful river as it passes through Bordeaux but it was an interesting cruise nonetheless. Our boat:

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The original bridge; still in use:

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This one is a vertical-lift bridge: the Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas. At 575m long and 77m high it is both the longest and highest vertical-lift bridge in Europe.

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Around 20-odd years ago there were, from memory, 17 decaying warehouses along the waterfront in Bordeaux. Seven of these have been restored and now house restaurants, bars and the like, with car parking on the rooves. The other 10 were demolished to reunite Bordeaux with its river. From what we saw it has been a very successful project.

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I was quite impressed with Bordeaux - when we were there a few years ago they had reinstalled the tram system and I enjoyed the city. The light show near the harbour was great. Agree about the canele but we got one free on a bus tour

 

[Jacques Vert]

It was then time to hand back our car and get ready to leave France. We booked a couple of nights at the B&B Hotel Mérignac Cadera. There are three B&B hotels near the airport and we originally went to the wrong one. The one we booked had until recently been an Ibis and as a new hotel to the B&B chain it had a special rate of EUR50 per night. It's very basic, even for an Ibis, but has the advantage of a tram stop just 50 metres away from where it's only two stops to the airport or about 40 minutes into the CBD.

This gave us the opportunity to clean the car (part of the T&Cs) and hand it back on time, plus re-pack and get ready for our flight without any stress.

 

[FlyingFiona]

No, you can't leave. I'm not ready to stop reading about France!

Thank you so much for all the time you've spent to bring us along with you. It's been really wonderful.