Arrival in Bordeaux

 Bordeaux

October 14, 2021

The trip from Stresa to Milan to Paris to Bordeaux was uneventful and we arrived at our Bordeaux hotel around 7 PM.  After settling in, we went out for dinner to a nearby place recommended by the hotel clerk.  It was very good but very chaotic—it reminded me of a New York deli with waiters shouting and brusque.  Our waiter opened our bottle of wine, poured a bit in my glass, barked “taste” at me, and poured Joyce’s glass before I said anything.  The food and wine were very good; the atmosphere, after a full day of travel, left something to be desired.

 We slept late this morning, and after breakfast, began walking part of the city.  We are very well located, right in the center of town, around the corner from the opera house.  Most of downtown Bordeaux, and I mean a huge amount of the city, has been turned into a pedestrian only area, and it’s a delight!  We strolled the very long St. Catherine Street, which begins where we are and ends at the Place de la Victoire, near the University.  The top of the street is crowded with busy, very well-dressed people shopping at high-end places such as Cartier and Prada, and the street becomes more ordinary as you go farther toward the University.  Along the way we detoured a block to see the Bordeaux Synagogue, built in 1878.

 

It has a beautiful carved menorah over the door:

 

There is a plaque to the murdered Jews of Bordeaux on the wall outside:

 

We were unable to visit, as one must make arrangements in advance, and the tours today were full, and they’re only given Mondays through Thursdays.  More here:  https://www.bordeaux-tourism.co.uk/cultural-heritage/synagogue-bordeaux.html

 The Place de la Victoire has a monument to wine which, oddly, is a twisted obelisk:

 

 And there are some very popular turtles:

 The School of Medicine and Pharmacy faces the square:

Just a couple of blocks away is a giant market, the Marché des Capucins, in which you can buy almost anything food-related. 

Here is a fish market: 

And a meat market, featuring what I think is rabbit with the liver intact:

 

We stopped at a good-looking restaurant for lunch, where they checked our COVID passports (as they did at the hotel, but not at last night’s restaurant).  One of the day’s special lunches was andouillette, a dish I first had in Nice a couple of years ago.  At that time, I didn’t know what I was ordering, thinking it was Andouille sausage.  Wikipedia has this to say:

 Andouillette (French pronunciation: ​[ɑ̃dujɛt]) is a coarse-grained sausage made with pork (or occasionally veal), chitterlings (intestine), pepper, wine, onions, and seasonings. Tripe, which is the stomach lining of a cow, is sometimes an ingredient in the filler of an andouillette, but it is not the casing or the key to its manufacture. True andouillette will be an oblong tube. If made with the small intestine, it is a plump sausage generally about 25 mm (1 in) in diameter but often it is much larger, possibly 7–10 cm (2+3⁄4–4 in) in diameter, and stronger in scent when the colon is used. True andouillette is rarely seen outside France and has a strong, distinctive odour related to its intestinal origins and components. Although sometimes repellent to the uninitiated, this aspect of andouillette is prized by its devotees.

Of course, I had to order it today, and it was actually quite yummy:

 

Joyce had fish.

There is an army of Uber Eats bicycle delivery people ferrying lunches.  I guess no one has a sandwich from home at their desk as we are so likely to do.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped to see the Cathedral St. Andre, a glorious Gothic edifice:

 

This evening we have a reservation for dinner at a very highly rated local restaurant, and we will join our Road Scholar group tomorrow.