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Day 1 En France
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Arrival 16:30 Bordeaux airport.
The quickest flight I have ever been on of 1 hour and 25 minutes transported me to the most French place I could possibly imagine.
Staying in Bordeaux for a night was a decision I made prior to my trip as I felt I didn't have enough time from Airport to the Gare to catch the last train out of Bordeaux headed to Chalais ( my final destination). Since the bus connection from the Airport to the Train station ended up taking a good hour instead of 30 minutes I was most happy with having thought ahead!
Finding the Auberge de Jeunesse which I had booked into for the night ( attempting to get the full French experience) was a struggle in the heat and with my très très très heavy suitcase. However It ended up being so easy to find and a really convenient place to have a stop over (€22 for the night and breakfast included Oo lalalala!)
Feeling a bit lonely and isolated checking in and dealing with getting information all in French taxed me mentally and I was honestly dreading the rest of the night on my own amongst mainly French people. However my stress was most certainly relieved when I made friends with the girl staying in the same room as me, Lucie from Lyon. It was so refreshing to meet someone around the same age as me, who was also alone and who knew nothing about Bordeaux. She spoke little English so It was a great test to my French, which she complimented.
(delighted !)
Much to my surprise she also wanted to explore some of the city après le dîner so we headed out together and chatted and walked exchanging anecdotes about French and Irish culture as we went.
Rue de St Catherine, if I am correct, is the longest shopping street in Europe. By god it is! We were walking and walking and walking trying to happen upon the huge Cathedral in Bordeaux and the Tour Pey-Berland. En fait we happened upon the place de la comédie with the Opèra National de Bordeaux. Which I was most pleased with as I never thought I'd get that far up the city. It was most spectacular. With some urban art hanging about, the magnificent grand steps of the Opèra and people slow dancing on the plaza to Sam Smith, It was definately magical. Jolie et magique !
We decided to return to the Hostel completely boggled that we had not found the Cathédrale St-André. However we still saw the Place de la victoire which was charming in the sunset with lovebirds canoodling all around, it was definately a good first impression of Bordeaux and France for me.
Gros Bisous,
À demain,
Aisling x
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Eadaoin Brilliant ! Up and coming journalist !
Deirdre Next lonely planet author x