Tripy_McTripFace: June 23: France Day 6: exploring Bordeaux and dinner on the bay.

This morning Burt and I woke up at the Clos Bamboo, our B&B in Merignac, without Bethany; she had spent her first night with Louise and her family. Our B&B is only a 10 minute walk away so we got ready and walked over to have breakfast with Bethany and her french host family. It was a typical french breakfast: coffee, juice, and an assortment of bread and croissants. After breakfast we walked down the street with Louise and Philippe(Louise's dad) to catch the bus to the old town area of Bordeaux and the city center.

Waiting for the bus......Bethany is too cool to look at the camera.

Botdeaux is a beautiful city.

The first (but not last) chocolatier shop we saw today.

I thought this little cafe was just adorable with their little piggy!

And of course, creperies, creperies, and more creperies!!😋

This is the original entrance gate to the old city

I just loved looking down the side streets at the cobblestones and stone buildings with ornate details as we walked along.

We walked past this cheese shop and just had to go inside to look at all the cheeses. Oh My!

The cheese selection was astounding, and the aroma was quite pungent!

Then we came upon a beautiful church and stepped inside to take a look. It was beautiful...

They had a map on the wall of the foyer for visitors to put a pin and mark where they are from.

So of course we had to add one....

Then Philippe brought us to the best chocolatier shop!

Bethany got one of the biggest merengues we had ever seen!

Then we walked down to the river front.

Bethany and Louise.

They are having a wine festival this weekend all along the river front. It was too early for us to drink wine, so we just walked through and looked at it all.

Apparently there are a whole lot of varieties of Bordeaux. This map shows the different types that come from each region. I never knew!

At this point we were ready for lunch so we went to find a place to eat. That was harder than you'd think. Bethany is so picky! We ended up choosing a pizza place even though I I was expecting to be eating french food in France (silly me). The pizza in France is really surprisingly good!

Then we got ice cream for dessert.

And we were ready to walk some more and see more of the city.

This is the gate on the other end. We thought it looked like Cinderella's castle!

There was this little model/relief map of the gate/entrance and this area of the city. Soo adorable!

So many cute shops. And a lot of tea shops or as they say in France: "Salons de the"

So much walking.......Time for a coffee break!

And another church. This one was a big deal! And there was another cute little bronze model of the area outside.

That was the end of our tour of Bordeaux. Time to take the train back and have a little rest before dinner.

😴💤

We went to a beautiful area on the bay about a 45 minute drive from Bordeaux. They took us to a very authentic french seafood restaurant where everything is really fresh. It was such a treat and all so delicious!