Day 8 - The long road to Bordeaux

Wednesday, May 19th - After grabbing a few hours of sleep it was time to say goodbye to Paris and make our way south to Bordeaux. Our first stop of the day was Chateau de Chambord, a French castle built in the 1500's. I never actually got to see the actual Chateau; we ate lunch just outside it and the wait service was slow so I missed out. A few hours later we stopped at a service stop to grab a bit of food and then continued on our way to Bordeaux - this was one of our longest driving days of the tour, over 11 hours including our 2 stops. A lot of people slept on the bus but even though I was only on a few hours sleep I was unable to. The French countryside is a sight in itself, heaps of Vineyards and quaint sights - at one point we drove by a woman on the riverside spending her afternoon painting - it seemed so French!

We finally arrived in Bordeaux around 7:30 that evening, we checked into our hotel and then we were off for our first "walk about dinner." Here Sian gave us a quick tour of the heart of Bordeaux and then we were off to explore on our own. Bordeaux is a fabulous place - cobblestone streets, tiny bistros and great 18th century architecture. About 10 of us girls decided to suss out a restaurant where we could experience some genuine French cuisine. We checked out the menus of a few restaurants, I tried to translate for the group as best as I could. My French was definitely started to come back after being in France for a few days - all those years spent in French class finally started to pay off! We finally decided on a place and I had one of the best meals of the trip - a very simple fish entree but it was delicious.

After dinner we walked along Rue Sainte-Catherine which is the best shopping district in Bordeaux. All the shops were closed which was slightly disappointing. We ended up at an American pub called "The Parliament" were the entire staff was from the States. We only stayed for one drink and then moved onto a more traditional French pub. I didn't travel all the way to Europe to go drink in a North American style pub! In the end we met up with some others from the tour and then sussed out a club and went dancing.

Chateau de Chambord