August 29 -- morning of our second full day in Bordeaux

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Most stores in France are closed on Sunday. St. Catherine, which had been pretty full of shoppers on Friday and Saturday, was mostly deserted on Sunday.

Looking south on St. Catherine.




We turned north on St. Catherine.

I just noticed, while processing this pic, that the statue in the pic is the top of the Girondist monument at La Place des Quinconces......

We're not that close to it, here -- it's a Big Monument, and a Big Statue.




A closeup of the fancy lights.




And a mise en scene shot of the whole works.




We found a sweet shop that was open.

Macarons.




More macarons. The sign says it's 4.5 Euro for 100 grams of macarons, which, it notes, will be about 8 or 9 macarons.




I asked if I could take pics inside the shop, and was told "two."

Ok.  I chose carefully......

Love these candy eggs, and am pleased with their reflection on the bottom of the scoop.




The sign says these are hazelnuts, caramelized (I am not sure if that means the same thing it would mean in English...), enrobed in cocoa.

I liked the spirally thing, and its shadow. I didn't realize, when I took the pic, that this is almost certainly meant to keep people from moving from one balcony to the next, but I bet that is why it's there.....

Another "people really live here" shot -- this guy is washing his motorcycle.

Flower shop.

Orchid.

After we saw the plants, we spotted a branch of Paul bakery which was open.

We asked for "flutes" -- smallish baguettes, I think.  They were just out of the oven, and so hot that we couldn't touch them.

We headed over to La Place des Quinconces to find a bench so we could sit while enjoying our bread.

Trees make such a difference......




I should have backed up a step or two -- there were two of identical gray "Picasso" cars, and  you can't see the "Picasso" on the nearer one's fender. (Another model of car we don't have in the USA.)





Finally, a look at one side of the whole Girondist memorial.

From my seat on the bench, the statue at the top was framed by sycamore leaves.

Our bread was still hot, but was cool enough to eat. Yum.

One more shot of the fountain at the bottom of the Girondist monument.




We walked in the direction of the Mirror.

A fancy restaurant.  It was closed, so I didn't feel funny walking right up to the window and taking pics.




The curtains only covered the bottom of the windows. Looking up, we could the ceiling.

The Mirror.

I was standing up -- it's elevated.

Shortly after the previous shot, the mist began.

It's easier to remove your flipflops than your tied-up shoes. I decided to keep the cameras out of the water, and let her enjoy the Mirror up close and personal.




It was warm enough that footprints disappeared quickly.

We watched for a while, and then I felt I'd been in the mid-day sun long enough, so we headed back to the hotel to decide what to do that afternoon.




In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, here is a link to the post that comes after this one.

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