Flying North to travel South.

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Unlike some large European cities we have visited recently - Warsaw I am looking at you - Bordeaux has made a feature of its waterfront area.

The "Hangars" area looking towards the Pont Jacques Chaban Delmas - a lift bridge. It was a very nice walk along the waterfront but you always had to be on the lookout for cyclists and scooter riders travelling at an excessive speed. The fancy light fittings are all along the riverside walk.



Pont de Pierre - commissioned by Napoleon. It was closed for all but pedestrian and cycle traffic during our stay due to the reconstruction of the tram network. There were plenty of keen anglers about but I never saw much sign of success.







There were some very nice flower and even vegetable gardens as well with plenty of people using them for a casual picnic. They are called the Jardins des Lumières.





One of the major features of this area is the Miroir d'eau.





Everyone, including us, tries to photograph the reflection of the historic buildings across the road in the shallow water feature. You have to work around young kids playing in the water. The water also disappears' every now and again.

Some of our efforts.

 

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Some more photos from around the city

The real reason we go to France



We also bought some meat rolls from here which were very nice. However we walked out the back door to find a market. If we had known it was there we would have had lunch there instead.





There was an extensive flea market operating in the back streets







One evening there was a very well attended free concert by the Cathédrale Saint-André de Bordeaux. The was a very noticeable heavily armed police presence - which I took care not to photograph.





Apart from the monumental ones there are lots of interesting buildings around like this old bank building

 

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One night we walked out to the middle of the lift bridge for few night photos









That is our 'Aparthotel' at the end of the bridge with the blue sign



The Hangars

 

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We took two day trips from Bordeaux. The first was to Arcachon Bay. It is about 35 minutes from Bordeaux by rail.

Arcachon Bay

The Arcachon Bay has been shaped by fishing and oyster farming and has retained its authenticity thanks to the winds and tides. Its microclimate makes its inha…

www.bordeaux-tourism.co.uk

The main rail station in Bordeaux looks the way a rail station should. Classic style terminal building and a large arched roof with plenty of glass panels covering the platforms.





After you get out of Bordeaux the trip is mostly through semi-rural countryside passing through some small towns. It is not an express trip by any means.





On the way there we passed through what should have been Jimmy Durante's home town.



As you close to Arcachon you begin to pass tidal creeks . There is some commercial activity around these but also lots of what are obviously holiday homes. It all reminded me of may seaside resort/fishing towns in Australia.







Arachon is at the end of the line. It has a small but well cared for station.

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The seaside part of Arcachon has no particular architectural or historic merit. It mostly consists of fairly new low rise buildings. You could be in any anonymous seaside tourist town around the world.







Luckily we did what we usually do and went into the local tourist office which is located next to the railway station. They were very helpful and spoke pretty good English. They told us of a walking tour that really piqued our interest. The "Winter Town is set on the hills above the 'Summer Town'. It has a magnificent collection of both quirky and beautiful villas mostly built in a very idiosyncratic way. There was a very good little paper map that gave a suggested route and basic description of them given out by the tourist office. It took several hours to cover most of the route.

"Set above the beach and Arcachon's Ville d'Eté or summer town is the Ville d'Hiver, the winter town. This part of town is packed with magnificent villas built at the end of the 19th century both to extend the summer season and as an alternative to cures in the mountains for tuberculosis."

The Winter Town of Arcachon: itinerary of the most beautiful stopovers

Lose yourself in the narrow streets of the Ville d'Hiver d'Arcachon, relax in the Parc Mauresque and climb to the observatory...

bassin-arcachon.com

Arcachon Ville d'Hiver: tourism and sightseeing

Admire the beautiful belle epoque villas in the Ville d'Hiver of Arcachon.

www.francethisway.com

To get there you have to walk just under a km to a little park that overlooks the town and go uphill. There is a small elevator at the bottom of the hill.





Above is a lovingly tended park. As had happened several times before in France we ran across a group of schoolchildren being given a history lesson in the park.

 

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And now onto the villas. Many of them are Art Nouveau in style - my favourite period. They were mostly built before the arrival of Art Deco.
There were lots of other people touring the villas and you would see everyone staring at their maps working out which way to go.

 

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Short term tourist apartments



Even the pharmac_ blends in





We even ran across a pilgrim trail marker



Some of the villas were being restored









Some were grander than the others

 

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I think that this had been a private hospital - maybe for TB - and was being turned into apartments





Lots of wealthy English also built villas here. This little Anglican Church was built to cater for them





Villa Alexandre Dumas is one of the more famous ones

Dumas

The streetscapes are lovely

 

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Having just skimmed the villas we moved onto another park overlooking the town.



Needless to say this little black duck was not going up this



Looking out over the bay





We then headed back into the Summer Town



We were getting hungry by this time so we went to the local market hall. It is also a very new structure

Arcachon Bay is famous for its oysters so we had some freshly shucked ones. We eat them but very rarely.





There was plenty of choice of molluscs



Then we sat down for a couple very nice and relatively inexpensive meals.

The restaurant was in the market.





I had the Carpaccio de boeuf Fume. Perfect for a lovely summers day of around 33 C.



My wife had the Paupitte de Veau