Woke to a sunny day, but 6c. Had a shower that was terrible; the water pressure was appalling, sometimes a dribble, then stopped completely and the water temperature would go from cold to warm and on rare occasions hot. I decided to do something very un-English and complain. As well as the shower, the hand basin had no hot water, the safe wouldn’t lock and the internet was unusable.
The woman at reception explained that it was Sunday morning and early and everyone was using the shower so the water pressure was low. I said this is a hotel, you should expect lots of people to have showers in the morning.
She said she’d swap our room so we had to pack up and go to reception, so we just stuffed everything in the bags, went down and she said she’d store the bags till the new room was ready. We had to go back to our old room to repack properly because everything was all over the place. Of the literally hundreds of hotels we’ve stayed in, this was the worst. We eventually left the hotel and headed to one of the markets in Bordeaux which was open on Sunday, just 10 minutes away.
The market was packed, lots of produce and food stalls mainly doing seafood so Song was happy. She had a seafood platter (again), then I found a creperie and had a crepe and a glass of red wine (Bordeaux of course).
On the way to the creperie I spotted a pastry that Bordeaux is famous for so bought a couple. Hard to describe, so I took a photo.
The base is pastry, the top a soft creamy texture.
Song bought some olives, then we went back to the hotel, and on the way we passed a patisserie so naturally had to get a couple to take back.
Got back to the hotel and went to our new room which was a bit bigger, had a safe that worked and hot water from the hand basin.
Ate the cakes (really nice), had a tea then walked towards the tram to go and have a look at the other parts of town. On the way we passed a basilica which was on my list of things to do, so went in. It was pretty empty compared to others, but had an interesting pulpit and stained glass windows which were like abstract art.
Very impressive. There was a young woman playing the cello and lent the place a peaceful atmosphere.
Got the tram to the main shopping area, most of the shops were shut because it was Sunday, but there were still a lot of people around.
We came across another market, lots of food on display.
Carried on walking came to another church, the Notre Dame, there was a queue so we got in line then a guy told us it was for a concert, so we left the line and would come back tomorrow. More walking around the shops, popped into a couple that were open, then carried on to Le Mirroire which is a water feature by the river and in front of some impressive buildings. For some reason none of the fountains had water (one of the most distinctive aspects of a fountain), including this one, don’t know why. Song looked it up, there’s been a drought for a few years.
Took some pictures of the buildings, then went back to the hotel, decided to stay in for the night and had toasted ham sandwiches in the room for dinner.
