Bordeaux

In Bordeaux we stayed with the family of Maxence, the girl from Paris. Like I said previously, Austin’s family and this family have a lot of history together. There are several family members that weren’t there but the ones I did meet were Lorrie, the mother, Fred, the father, Victoria and Theo, who were two parts of a triplet. Austin and I were met at the train station by Lorrie and Fred and were taken back to their house. They live just outside of Bordeaux in a town called Cestas. The house is nice and has a garden surrounding it. Or maybe that was normal, but growing up in Arizona it made me think it was a garden. It may have just been normal foliage. From the moment we arrived we were treated like family. It was so nice to have a place to relax. That day we rested for a bit and then went into Bordeaux. We spent the day looking at different architecture, walking up the riverfront, and having ice cream. That day we experienced the first of many home-cooked meals. Most of them were pretty tasty. Some of them were kind of weird. We didn’t do a whole lot that first day because we hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep and were pretty tired. Each day Lorrie took us somewhere new to show us a part of France, which was a lot of fun.

The next day we went to the beach! We went to Arcachon. We wandered around the town for a little bit and then hiked up a sand dune. It’s apparently the largest sand dune in Europe? Or maybe France? One of the two. It was pretty big. Once at the top you could see the ocean on one side and a massive forest on the other. Which I do remember is the largest planted forest in Europe. After we hiked back down the dune we sat down for lunch. I decided my new favorite fruit is the nectarine. They’re so good! We headed back to the main part of town and got on a boat tour that took us around the bay. It was a little over three hours of a boat ride, and I spent all of it outside. It made me miss the lake. Victoria’s dad has a boat and I used to go with them a lot to the lake. I want to wake board so badly! So being outside all day got me dark; fast. But only where my tank top wasn’t covering. I got a little burnt, but mostly just dark. That night when we got back Fred joined the three of us for dinner. People eat dinner a lot later in France, usually around eight. We stayed up for a while after dinner talking with the two of them, a German even came out to talk with us. Fred and Lorrie were also housing a couple of German students for a week. The day was tiring but oh so fun!

The next morning we woke up late and took it easy for the morning. In the afternoon we went to the vineyards. We pulled up to the “castle” which was basically a cool looking house. And we started the tour. It started with the chapel. One of the previous owners had built a small chapel behind the house in remembrance of her husband that had died. After that we went to where the vines and the winery were. Seeing the vines was cool, but seeing the winery was even more exciting. There was a lady with us the whole time explaining the wine making process and answering our questions. It was very casual and personal and I really enjoyed it. The coolest room was where the barrels of wine were; literally, it was air-conditioned. We didn’t try any of the wine because neither Austin nor I like wine, but he did buy a bottle for his grandpa. The rest of the day we just lounged around the house. Austin napped and I worked on editing a bunch of photos because I haven’t put up any photos from the entire trip yet. I’m working on it.

The next day we went to the beach again, but a different one. The first day we were on the bay side, this day we were on the Atlantic side. The beach was so much fun. It made me miss California. It was a toasty day, so the water felt really good. The water was a tiny bit chilly but it felt great compared to the heat from the sun. One difference about the French beach and beaches in the states are the cement bunkers all over. When the Nazis occupied France they built what was called the Atlantic Wall. It was a series of fortifications on the beaches in France meant to defend against a coastal invasion. There were half sand-covered structures strewn all over the beach and in the water. Over time they have worn away and moved out further to sea. It was interesting to see history lying right before me. It was a very fun and interesting day indeed. That night we had Foie Gras and Duck. I’m definitely going to try my hand at making Duck when I get back to the states. That night Austin and I washed a load of clothes but by the time they were clean the sun had gone down already, so we had to dry them off with a blow dryer. Then we went to bed because we had to get up at four thirty the next morning to make our first train.

One of the great things about Bordeaux is that Lorrie spoke fluent English. This removed the language barrier, for the most part, that had been so frustrating up until this point. It also meant that it was easier for us to practice our French. She helped us with our pronunciation quite a bit. Another thing that was very nice about Bordeaux is that we were there for four nights. Which means we didn’t have to pack all of our things around, we could just leave them at the house. It was nice to be in a home as well. There was a family there and it was very relaxing. Lorrie also planned pretty much everything that we did, which took a big stress off of Austin and I. We did a lot but it was a very relaxing and refreshing time. Bordeaux was one of my favorite places thus far.