Up early, because I wanted to go for a walk along the Bourse, the avenue that runs along the Garonne River where all the “No U-turn” signs were last night. I’m not normally a morning person, but I was so glad that I was this morning. The feeling I got as we entered Bordeaux last night (in somewhat of a hurry) was confirmed by my short walk. Bordeaux is a stately, beautiful and comfortable city (not at all like I had in my mind before coming here). The wide Boarse along the river has space for just about all means of transport (walkers, joggers, inline skaters, cyclists, cars, buses, trams) and set back from the river about 50 metres is a long, long row of beautiful sandstone/limestone public and private buildings.

While I was walking along the quay, a tourist barge was pulling away with many of the passengers doing Tai-Chi on the top deck.

But time was short and I had to return to the hotel so that we could pack up and get back to the concert venue of the previous evening, for a Sunday morning matinee performance by the Andy Narell Quintet – no orchestra today, just Andy and his four buddies. I found this concert even better, because you got a much better chance to hear the steel pans. We also sat out the front this time, just in front of the sound technician, which probably meant they were the “best-tuned seats” in the theatre. Absolutely fabulous concert, as you can hear below.

When we left the theatre, the sun was shining! So rather than waste good sunshine, we left the car to take care of itself in its parking space (whose ticket was due to expire in 10 minutes), and went for a walk around Bordeaux. We started by going to the monument and fountain, then down to the river, then along the Boarse to the barge moorings, then stopped for lunch at a bio-café, then returned back to the car via the inner part of the historic downtown area. The pictures below may give some idea of what we saw.

It’s not often you fall in love with a city so quickly, but I must admit that Bordeaux did it for me. It is stunningly beautiful (to my eyes) along the river, the back streets are full of character, and just when you think it can’t get any better, you turn a corner to be greeted by a stunning vista or streetscape full of restaurants, music and activity (and all this was in less than perfect weather). The thing that convinced me of the quality of the city was the number of smiling faces on the people we passed along the way. This surely is a sign that people who live in Bordeaux love living there. After this brief experience, I can hardly wait for our flotilla trip down the Garonne to Bordeaux with our bunch of Pipers.

A 100-minute trip back to Moissac (about the same time as our trips from Taggerty to Melbourne, but twice the distance travelling at 130kph), and the first thing I did was check the “wine cellar” – luckily not much water had entered since we left 24 hours earlier. I caught up with emails etc, while Rita and Theresa took the bikes down and cycled along the canal past the turn-off to St Nicolas de Grave. Then a “last supper” on board before Theresa has to leave in the morning from Gare Montauban. While the weather has not been the best this week, we have managed to squeeze in quite a few things and Theresa says she has thoroughly enjoyed her visit.