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.

 

[Jacques Vert]

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.

Well unfortunately we have to leave; reward flights booked and we have things to do back in Aus. Plus we have a new grandson that we haven't met yet.

Ready to head to the airport and it's raining heavily so we decided to order a Bolt (similar to Uber). The guy turns up, takes a look at our luggage (we have accumulated quite a bit during our travels) and decides he doesn't want to take anything that won't fit into the boot so he cancels the ride. Fortunately we got a break in the weather so we dragged our bags to the tram stop and around 10 minutes later we arrived at the airport.

Straying off-topic for a moment, it never ceases to amaze me why Melbourne has not extended a tram line to MEL. Lots of cities in Europe have trams to their airports including BOD, LYS and ZRH, to name just a few. Put in a train if you wish, but they could have easily had a tram connection 30+ years ago. But I digress...

Arriving at the terminal we notice there is a garden of grapevines; of course there is!




Back at the biginning of this TR, I mentioned that we were originally planning to do this trip in 2023 before some unanticipated medical issues forced us to cancel our reward flights and rebook for July 2024. We were fortunate enough to have SQ extend the validity of our ticket to allow us to rebook on points that would have otherwise expired. The only negative with this was that we were now required to leave France in or before December (due to Visa and tax residency issues). Anyone who frequents this site would be aware of how difficult it is to find Award seats in December. There was nothing available in J into Australia for all of December using QF points but I did find 2 x J savers from IST to MEL with SQ on 27/12. So how to get from France to IST?

Royal Air Maroc fly from Bordeaux to Casablanca, and from Casablanca to Istanbul, and generally have good award availability. As I've always wanted to visit Morocco we decided that this would be the way home.

Check-in was a dream thanks to a great check-in agent who obviously enjoys his job, then off to the lounge...




The lounge was quite small but there was only one other person there; we basically had the place to ourselves:




Food options were limited but adequate enough for a pre-lunch departure...






The important stuff was freely available although perhaps a little early for the tawny...

 

[Jacques Vert]

AT793 BOD-CMN

Our two and a quarter hour flight is on a Royal Air Maroc E190; we are the only ones in J:






Chicken or prawns?






Coming into Casablanca:

 

[Jacques Vert]

Back at post #20 I stated that I like to spend the first night after a flight close to the arrival airport to allow for the risk of our flight arriving late or being cancelled, etc. I've been caught out a few times over the years. On this occasion we were due to arrive in Casablanca at 1350 and as we were hiring a car and driving to Tangier and Fes, I decided to break my rule and on arrival we would pick up a hire car and drive to Rabat where we would stay the first 2 nights, thus breaking down the driving distance into 2 easy portions. What could possibly go wrong?

Well firstly our flight was delayed by about 40 minutes but no sweat, we still had plenty of time to drive to Rabat. Next, despite having "fast track" status, it took over an hour to get through immigration as there was only one officer on duty. Despite this, we still arrived at the baggage carousel before any of the bags from our flight! Only problem, one of our bags didn't arrive at all.

So it's off to baggage services; another 45 minutes in a queue before we get to talk to a chapie who confirms our bag is still in BOD. So we fill in the forms and he promises to have the bag delivered to our accommodation in Rabat the following day.

By now, the rental car guy has gone home but we are able to get someone to phone him and he returns to the airport with our car. Finally on our way we arrive in Rabat about 1930 instead of 1600.

 

[ellen10]

I have loved following along on your France adventures (my favourite destination country). Lots of familiar regions and many new ones. Loved the commentary and all those photos.
I especially love food pics!

Thanks for sharing and enjoy your journey and stop overs home.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Rabat

Our accommodation in Rabat. One of the reasons we chose this place was that it had a washing machine so we could wash our clothes; but most of the clothes are still BOD.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Mohammed V & Hassan Tower

We had a full day to explore Rabat so we started by visiting Mohammed V's mausoleum complex. First the guards; it was obviously close to change-over time as the horses were getting tetchy. It's interesting how animals get into a routine and know when their "shift" is over.






The Hassan Tower (a minaret near the mausoleum) and the remains/ruins of an unfinished mosque at the site...




and the mausoleum on the left and the completed mosque next to it.

 

[Jacques Vert]

The Medina

Next it was off to the Medina...








Stuff...






more stuff...




It sure was busy...






All that shopping is bound to make you hungry:



There were lots of these guys cooking various "treats" and no; I didn't try them.

 

[Jacques Vert]

We thought we would have dinner somewhere along the corniche and watch the sunset...






Only problem was I couldn't find a parking spot anywhere near the restaurants so we took the car back to our accommodation and walked to a nearby restaurant that was highly recommended,,,










We both had a tajine:




Nice ambiance but I didn't think the food was that great and would try somewhere else next time.

By the way, I've been to lots of countries and driven in most of them but these guys are probably the worst drivers I've come across.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Next morning we are due to check-out of our airBnB by 10AM and drive to Tangier. No sign of the missing bag, no phone call, nothing. Numerous phone calls to the RAM (Royal Air Maroc) call centre over the two days and the word is that the bag arrived in CMN the day after us and has been given to Budas Baggages transport company for delivery to Rabat. One call centre agent was yelling at me down the phone: apparently it was my fault that they lost our bag and they have no idea where it is (and I dare say nobody cares either). We asked for a phone number so we could contact them but the RAM call centre does not have a phone number for them. Eventually we managed to get an email address from one the agents..

We sent emails but got no reply. I googled Budas and got two phone numbers for them: one had been disconnected, noone answered the other. I tried to check their website only to get a message that their account had been suspended. Things aren't looking good.

So as we had to leave our accommodation we decided to stop at the airport in Rabat and talk to Baggage Services there. We managed to talk to a lovely lady who advised us that RAM never deliver bags and to return to Casablance airport to chase it from there... only an hour and a half in the wrong direction. We decided to continue to Tangier and keep chasing the bag by phone.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Tangier

Well I have to take back what I said about the drivers in Rabat; they've got nothing on the drivers in Tangier. These guys are nuts. Three lane roads come to an intersection where there is a roundabout with only two lanes, then three again on the other side. As a result there is a traffic jam at almost every intersection:




So what to do? Blow your horn of course. Everyone at the same time.

Every roundabout has a police officer standing there watching what's going on; but none of them do anything other than stand and watch. Eventually we arrive at the Ramada where we are staying for the next three nights. +1 is a nervous wreck and I could do with a stiff drink but finding somewhere that sells alcohol in Morocco is another challenge.

More phone calls to RAM and emails to Bugas about our missing bag get us nowhere, By now I'm convinced that Bugas Baggages no longer exist (if they ever did). The RAM call centre has the worst customer service of any company I've ever dealt with; even worse than QF at the height of the pandemic.

We managed to get out and about and look around town:




Spain, just over there...




Riding horses on the beach seems to be the in thing here...











Of course Tangier has a medina but this one is on a hill:

 

[Jacques Vert]

So after three nights in Tangier and 5 days since we last saw our missing bag, we decide to cancel our accommodation in Fes and drive the 5 hours back to Casablanca to try to track it down. At the airport we make our way to baggage services where the chap says he thinks the bag is there. So I follow his two helpers to a dimly lit room full of unclaimed baggage where I estimate there are around 2,500 to 3,000 bags on shelving. It's painfully obvious that there is no system as these two guys just wander around aimlessly glancing here and there, hardly checking any of the bags for any sort of tag.

So I head off down a different isle and as luck would have it I only go past about 30 bags before I spot a familiar looking padlock and there it is. It did have a hand-written note on it saying "deliver" in french but it was pretty obvious that it had never gone any further than this room.

We had spent about half of the previous 5 days trying to get some sense out of RAM and after all the frustration, worry and anger, both of us would have been happy to get on a plane and leave Morocco right there and then. But we have non-refundable accommodation booked in Marrakech (something I rarely do) plus award seats that will be virtually impossible to change; so we will stay in Casablanca for the next few nights.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Onomo Hotel Casablanca Airport

As we had no idea how long it would take to retrieve our bag (or even if it was at the airport) we booked that night at the Onomo hotel, a sort distance from the airport. It's rated as a 3-star hotel but the rooms could easily pass as 4-star. I presume the 4th star is missing because there are no fridges or kettles or anything else in the rooms other than the bed. They do have a restaurant/bar and a free shuttle to/from, the airport.

We are booked here the night before we leave Morocco and I have a QF Hotels voucher thus I only have to throw in another $0.59 + the tax, so why not? When you are travelling for 6 months, summer and winter, you tend to have a bit of luggage; well at least we do. So I had decided to drop the car off in Casablanca and booked J class fares CMN-RAK-CMN using Avios points, mainly for the extra luggage allowance, However, given the experience so far I didn't want to risk RAM loosing a bag again as there was no way we would be returning to Morocco to collect it. I asked at check-in at the Onomo whether they would store our bags for 5 days while we went to Marrakech HLO.

The hotel agreed to store our bags provided we had a pre-paid booking, which we did. So we arranged that we would drop the bags off before our flight to Marrakech in a couple of days and pick them up when we return: I needn't have booked in J after all.

That night we had a meal and a bottle of wine at the Onomo while we tried to put the last 5 days behind us.

 

[Jacques Vert]

We had intended to wash our clothes in Rabat but all the dirty stuff had been in the missing bag. So next morning we headed towards Casablanca looking for a laundromat. We didn't find one but we did find a Carrefour supermarket with a grog shop attached at Deroua, just a ten-minute drive from the airport. Very similar set-up to a Woolies/BWS and with very keen pricing.

Normal supermarket on the left, grog shop on the right behind the black BMW. One to keep in mind if you are picking up a car from CMN.




Meanwhile we had to find accommodation in or near Casablanca for the next three nights.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Casablanca Marriott

I found two nights at the Marriott for 13,000 points per night which I think is good value seeing it is usually around $300 for a standard room. Unfortunately it wasn't available for the third night but I did have a placeholder at the Courtyard for the third night.

Our room at the Marriott:










and we had dinner there the first night:

 

[RooFlyer]

Odd, not doubting your experiences, but I spent a lot of time in Morocco over 3 years when geologising for a company I and some mates established and terrible driving isn't one of my memories. Except maybe for Casablanca, which I found to be a hole. They had just opened a new tramway and the locals thought it was a great place to drive on, so that got jammed too.

I think there is a new terminal at CMN which would be a blessing, as the old one was a hole, too. Otherwise I found the country fantastic.

We had a local partner and when we drove around, mostly in the country areas, he would drive through towns, inspecting and sampling the roadside tagines before he chose one for us to have lunch at.