Bordeaux, and Beyond

Bayonne is a nice city. Very walkable and pretty, and with some great sites to visit. We spent a lot of time strolling around and sampling some of the remarkable foods and nice coffee, but we had bigger jobs to do, namely, getting ready to get out of France.

The old cathedral

 

Coffee. A daily requirement

 

Giving the bike a much needed wash in Bayonne

Even in view of the bad times that we'd had with the French train operators, we decided to roll the dice one last time and try to ride the TER train from Bayonne to Bordeaux. Jon had his tickets for the TGV from Bayonne to Paris, then Paris to Geneva, and we bought tickets for the much shorter ride to Bordeaux. I spent a sleepless night worried about whether we'd be allowed on the train with the tandem, or kicked off at some random spot.

We booked the first train in an attempt to be inconspicuous. A 0631 departure. Jon's TGV left at 0700 and he had his bike all packed up in a TGV-approved bag. He had to huck it across the bridge. Lorie and I rode. 0530 is much too early for this stuff...

Looks heavy...

We rode across the bridge in the early morning.

We were nervous about being allowed on the train. When it arrived, we quickly stashed the bike in the bike area but not a minute later a conductor said "who's tandem is that." I said, pointing at Lorie, "it's hers." Ha! Anyway, it was very early in the morning and there was nobody else on the train and the nice conductor guy said that it was fine, but don't make a habit of it. What a relief.

We had a 2.5 hour trip to Bordeaux and during the ride Jon sent a message via WhatsApp that he'd gotten on the TGV and that his trip was going well. Everything falling into place.

Soon enough we offloaded in Bordeaux. Coffee first, then visit some bike shops to find boxes for a few days from now to pack our own bike. Then, about noon or so, we set off for a 2 day visit to Saint Emilion, which is about 70 km east of Bordeaux and which is the throbbing heart of Bordeaux wine appelation. It was maybe 60 km on a dedicated bike path. We haven't seen that since Nederlands!

A beautiful, isolated ride

Fleur de soleil, and Lorie

Iconic southern France!

Our ride was on a "rails to trails" type of path, and included several long tunnels that were conveniently lit so we didn't have to turn our our headlight.

Maybe a 1 km long tunnel

After the tunnel we began to ride through vineyards. Bordeaux is perhaps the most famous wine producing place in the world and we rode through many dozens of kms of vineyards.

Vineyard in Bordeaux

And we came across this guy in the road. He is pretty big but I think is pretty harmless.

I need to try to identify what kind of snake this guy is...

Saint Emilion is a beautiful little village. We had a bit of a snafu when we tried to get into our room. No, it was a major snafu. But in the end it worked out OK, after a lot of needless angst, but we have learned to roll with these types of things. The snafu did give us several hours to stroll around the hillside town.

Saint Emilion

Part of the 13th century embattlements

We finally got into "a" room at about 2000. We tucked in and bought something to eat. Pizza (the French don't know how to make pizza. Note to self: remember that.) All things considered, not too bad despite some inconveniences on the day. For sure, Saint Emilion is touristy, crowded, pretentious and sold-out. But after 1800 the throngs of visitors seem to disappear and it becomes quiet and kind of likeable. Just what we needed. We had a quiet spot for the night and got a good sleep.

I will update you later on our wine adventures the next day. A demain.