Visit to Bordeaux

Bordeaux,

Located in the region of Aquitaine, Bordeaux is indeed a famous city in the country where it’s placed and also in the regard of world for its wine. Since it’s just 2 hours from La Rochelle, I decided to go there when I have some time and then I went there for the holiday of La Toussaint (it’s the holiday for the Dead People). As I’m a member of Couchsurfing, I met once in Bandung a couchsurfer from Bordeaux who visited Indonesia. Her name is Natacha, she was with her brother whose name is Nicolas. After the trip, Nicolas continued working in China and Natacha went back to Bordeaux but we still kept contact until my retour to France. At the moment, Natacha can’t host me but she said that she’d find someone who can and there’s this Franc. Franc is not a couchsurfer but he hosted already some foreigners at his apartment, and this time, me.

I had a plan to do the covoiturage (it’s a system in France of getting a ride cheaper by car. Normally worked for someone who has car and doesn’t wanna pay too expensive for gas and highway, so they offer some place for people with the same destination but to share for the gas and highway- see the site : www.covoiturage.fr). Another way to get to Bordeaux is by train. The price depends actually of a lot of things. For example the age of the passager, the date, the member card, etc. Me, I have what’s called carte 12-25. It’s a card which we pay about 50 euros if we’re 12-25 years old to have a big discount for train tickets. Next year I’m gonna be 25, but I was just lucky because lately it’s the 30th anniversary of SNCF(the company which runs the trains in France), so they created the limited edition of carte 12-30 which can be used until I get 30. So now I have this card and usually this card offers almost 50% of discount from the price normal, and of course until I get 30. J cool, huh?

I checked first the train ticket and to get to Bordeaux, I’ll only pay about 14 euros. But the covoiturage offers 10 euros. So I contacted two different person with whom I’ll get the ride to Bordeaux and to return to La Rochelle after. But the morning on the D-day, the covoitureuse sent me an sms and said that she had a problem that made her not be able to go to Bordeaux that day. I quite pissed me off but I still can catch the train and arrived in Bordeaux at the same hour I told to Natacha. Once I arrived in Bordeaux, it was 6 pm already(I took the train at 4 pm). I went to the toilet in Gare Saint Jean (that’s the name of the train station in Bordeaux). I tell you guys now, you have to pay 0,50 cent to enter the toilet. For some it’s nothing, but if you can find another one which is free, better go there. :D

To reach Franc’s place, I need to take tram. Yes, there are trams in Bordeaux and unlike the normal trams, these trams are run by the rail and not by the electric cables on them. Bordeaux is the first city which does this system, though seems they will change it soon due to the high price they paid for it. But it’s impressive..

I bought the tram ticket at the train station for 1,40 euros and took the C tram on les Aubiers direction then I stopped at the stop Paul Doumer. That’s the second time I met Natacha but now it’s in France. It’s so funny. We both laughed while remembering the night we met in Bandung. She took me to Franc’s apartment because he went running with some friends from the sport club. After dropping my backpack, we went out for some apéro(aperitif). Natacha took me for a walk along the sidewalk of Garonne, the river which flows along the city. Then she showed me miroir d’eau(the water mirror) which is located in front of Place de la Bourse, the majestic  buildings with the monuments of three Goddesses at the front. The last time, the Goddesse wore the pink ribbons, because October is the month for the International Awareness of Breast Cancer. So this Water Mirror is actually a place in a square form which is filled with a two inched of water that can reflect the lights of the Palace de la Bourse at night. I saw also the Pont de Pierre(Pierre Bridge) which connects rive gauche(the left side of Garonne where the city center of Bordeaux is located) and rive droite (the right side of Garonne which is called Le quartier de la Bastide, the industrial area of Bordeaux but most of people don’t consider this area as a part of Bordeaux).

Natacha took me walking on the old street of Bordeaux where I can see a lot of restaurant, and including the asiatic ones. She told me this japanese resto called Fufu which is very famous and always crowded. We took apéro in the bar next to the Théâtre called bar The Regent. We ordered Lillet, a white wine for aperitif from Bordeaux (for the complete info, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillet ). It’s about 8 euros a glass.

I was really curious about this Fufu restaurant and wanna taste their foods. Then we went there, bought it and went home with. I met Franc finally. He’s a nice guy, open-minded and always nice to talk with. We talk about mostly everything that we can share like computer, culture or traveling. That night I posted in CS group of Bordeaux for a coffee the day after. In the morning I got a response from a Cser and then we changed number. I sent her message and we met at Quinconces where there were a lot of carnival rides such as ferris wheel, merry-go-round and jetcoaster. But then again I got a little bit lost until we met in front of La Place de Bourse again. This girl named Farah, she was just awesome. She took me sightseeing the city and explain the brief history at the same time. Bordeaux was once fenced by the great walls and there were some big gates to access the city center. One of them is called Porte de Cailhau. The walls are already crashed but they still keep the gates for the history.

There’s a street called Rue Sainte Catherine(St Catherine street) which is said to be the longest shopkeeper street in Europe with approximately 15 km. At the end of this street, there’s this La Place de la Victoire. We can find  here a monument dedicated for wine, only in Bordeaux and in front of this monument, there’s a statue of a big turtle and a little one aside. The turtle is also the symbole of wine itself. Like the grapes he bites in his mouth just like the grapes on Dyosnisos’s(the God of grapes in Greeks Mythology) head. Farah also showed me the traditional market at Place Saint Michel where found the very high tour which people can see from far. We went also to the famous Cathédrale Saint André, located at the Place of Pabelan. After that, we passed in front of Hôtel de Ville(if translated directly will be ‘Hotel of the City’) which is in fact the City Hall.

At the end of the day, I continue the sightseeing by myself because Farah had something to do. While waiting for Natacha to dine together, I went to see the Grosse Cloche(the Big Bell) which was created to warn if there’s a fire in the city.

The night we went to the restaurant at Place de la Victoire, called Auguste or usually called Chez Auguste. It’s very famous of its burger, but that night I ordered Steak tartar. I met Simon, a french guy, a couchsurfer whom I met when I did my trip to Bangkok last July. It was so funny that we met again here, in France. Then Natacha introduced me also Fabienne and Manu. It was really fun that night. I left this city the day after. I did my covoiturage with a french woman named Magalie. She was with her two daughters, and there’s another covoitureuse name Iba who’s originally from Lebanon(actually I don’t know exactly the spelling but that’s how it’s pronounced). We had a really good conversation and I’m looking forward to meet them again. 


I just had a great trip to Bordeaux.

BsxxxARS