August 30 -- leaving Bordeaux

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I finally figured out that I should be drinking coffee.

The tea I had in France was ok, but not wonderful, and it was a lot more expensive than coffee. I need a little caffeine, morning and evening, to keep headaches at bay.

In Bordeaux I finally figured out that I might as well be drinking medicinal coffee, instead of more-expensive mediocre tea.

Cute little espresso cup, on the carpet of the hotel in Bordeaux.

And on top of my 80-cent (Euro) shopping bag (one of my favorite purchases).

And in closeup.

We were ready to go back to the train station.  The hotel called us a taxi, which would pick us up right in front.  It's not a surprise that whoever the hotel calls will know how to get all the way to the hotel!


Hanging around, waiting.

These half-manikins were in the window of Pimkie, a clothing chain seen in many parts of France.  I thought this was rather a clever display idea.  They rotated, when the air currents pushed.

Immediately left of the window above.  You can see our Paul, and also the street which led a few blocks west to the Monoprix (grocery chain).

This was directly across the street from the door.

Our taxi showed up, right when we were told he would, -- and it came from the Place du Parliament side, rather than from the St. Catherine side, neatly avoiding the issue of how to get across St. Catherine.   The driver was friendly and chatty.  He asked what we were doing in France, and he told us that, now that he was getting older (he was about my age), he wanted to see his own country, and that he had just been to Mont St. Michel on his recent vacation.

(We had thought of going there, too, but it was relatively hard to get to, without a car, and so we decided to pass.)

I told him that I agreed about wanting to see my own country, and said that I wanted to see the Grand Canyon.  He thought that would be a good thing to see.

We arrived at the train station.  The train station in Bordeaux has better food than some other train stations I've seen.....  (gros morceaux = big pieces)

This is the same Paul bakery chain, and Baillardran is the place we got our canelé.

In the train station, you watch signs to see from which track your train will leave, and then you get yourself out to the proper track.  This almost always entails going downstairs, under one or more tracks, and then up again, to the platform.  Hauling all your stuff.  On the stairs.  We only saw a very few escalators.  Stairs, stairs, and more stairs.

I never saw people whose job it was to help haul stuff.  Train travel in France is not for sissies (and traveling light is a very good idea).

Then again, most people didn't have a lot of stuff.  I think a lot of train travel in France must be day trips, including commuting to work.

Our train hadn't yet arrived when we arrived at the proper track.

On our way out of Bordeaux.

This is the steeple in all of those riverside park pics, and you can see the twin steeples of St. André, a bit farther away, bottom right.

The very next shot.  I like the way the lights are framing the steeple, and I kind of like showing the traffic on the bridge.

One last look at the steeples.

Graffiti in a lot of places.  Better here than on the old buildings!

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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