Sometimes a trip can be the culmination of a life-long dream, or the realization of an important goal. Maybe you win a vacation on the Price is Right. Or, maybe you realize that you have some free night rewards from your credit card that are set to expire and go looking for an interesting place to use them. Yeah, that sounds about our speed right now. We’re still neck deep in a Portuguese-language class that we’re committed to finishing, so we can’t take any long jaunts for now. But 3 nights to use during the Carnival holiday week, that has to be somewhere that isn’t hard to get to from our home airport? That seems just about right. So, where can two people fly to, direct from Porto for about $200, round trip (and have a viable target for our reward nights)? There were several intriguing options but the one that captured our interest was Bordeaux, France. A scant two hour flight, plus you know.. France!
[Note: we’re sort of catching back up after a very busy few months, so this isn’t exactly what you’d call “timely”, and probably a little truncated. Still, hi!]
As anticipated, the trip itself was easy-peasy. I hate to admit it but we have succumbed, over time, to Ryanair’s charms and must admit that they know their business very well – they find the balance point between how much savings they have to offer in order to inflict the maximum amount of pain. They’re good at it; we like almost nothing about any part of traveling with them but we keep doing it because they go where we want at a price we can tolerate. Anyway… Braga to Bordeaux, via Porto, was no trouble, and our hotel was nicely located in the center of town. For all that Bordeaux is a lovely city it is not a brutally expensive one, nor is it overrun with tourists… at least not in February.
So, what does one do in Bordeaux in winter? First – freeze your tuchus off. We’re always so proud of ourselves for traveling in the off times – fewer crowds, lower prices – but it’s good to remember why the off times are the off times. However, a nice coat and a good pair of gloves and Robert is your father’s brother. OTHER than chatter our teeth, we took in the sites, both on our own and, once, with a lovely tour guide, Galia Emilova of Bordeaux Grape Colors. She took us around to the Cathedral (you’re in Europe, there’s a cathedral somewhere in town), various places of local importance, and then, as stipulated in the city charter, a wine bar for a tasting of the local fare. We actually did learn some things; most of what stuck was how you knew how rigorous a wine has adhered to the guidelines by exactly how it is described. A wine that has played fast and loose with the structures may not even be able to claim the region as its home except circumspectly. Ah, the French. (Don’t let the sparseness of our words fool you, Galia was fantastic. Especially recommended if you are interested in wine; she knows her stuff.)
The most interesting thing we did in Bordeaux, and probably the reason that we chose it as our quick-trip destination, was the Bassins des Lumieres, which is a converted World War II submarine base in which immersive light-and-sound shows take place. If you’ve ever been to one of these new-fangled “Van Gogh experience” type things, it’s like that. Video projected on walls, floors, and ceilings, while music and narration plays. What’s fascinating about the Bassins is that the submarine pens are still very much there; you’re in a cavernous super-warehouse type structure, with massive trenches of water spaced throughout. It provides a unique experience even before factoring in the light show. I mean, I guess; maybe there’s dozens of these things but I don’t think so. There were two installations when we were there; one featuring the work of Henri Matisse, and the other showcasing the work of Frida Kahlo. Her work in particular made for a trippy presentation when projected onto forty foot walls. The digital manipulation of the elements in each painting are, perhaps, not entirely respectful (or at least not as reverential as one might hope) but it’s unarguably cool.
It was a quick trip and we could only fit a little bit in, but it was well worth it. Naturally the food was scrum-diddly-umptuous. Our first meal was dinner at Le Regallien. Classic French, superbly prepared. Lunch the next day, at our guide’s recommendation was at Le Comptoir St. Andre. A simple menu, heavily focused on wines and the food that easily pairs with them. Excellent.
The city itself was fascinating; in learning about the history we found out about the affects of the industrial revolution on the porous limestone that much of the central buildings were built out of. Specifically, how they were nearly tar-black from all of the soot soaking into the rock. Until a municipal cleaning project that happened not too long ago Bordeaux looked like something out of a dark fantasy novel. Happily for them (but boring for recent tourists, ahem) the place has been almost entirely cleaned up. Not that we aren’t happy for Bordeauxians, of course. Still… a good trip and well worth the time.
