Friday 13th September - Bordeaux

Friday 13 September 
Its Friday 13th and a full moon, so what a great day to head for Bordeaux. Our Peugeot is a station wagon and very suitable for a comfortable trip and not too French. However, Amilee  the GPS has turned out to be a total bitch. What are her good points? She works well in the city. She has a sexy English voice. Other than that, she murders the French pronunciation of the streets, roads and villages and we expect, has been programmed by a mad French tourism executive who believes all English speakers should spend endless days lost in the rural countryside. Flashman's excellent sense of direction – not -  and his paper maps, not to mention his endless patience with Lady P's determination to go her way, were required on more than one occasion when Amilee took us down country tracks with resident only signs, in between rows of grapevines and around small villages, all in sight of the main road we were supposed to be on. After much cursing at her, to which she simply replies “turn around where possible,” we turn her off and rely on Lady P's instinct. We arrive safely in Bordeaux, which should have been an easy run on a straight freeway. Oh, and a little story of the Freeway. They're not free. And “T" means you have an electronic gizmo in the car  that magically opens the barrier on the toll road. Oh dear, a conversation in Fronglish and your credit card details later and we are back in the game. After checking in to a delightful Air BNB we wander into the old town area, past churches, restaurants and the university into a crowd of young people. A San Fran feel even if the buildings are hundreds of years old. It's hot, so we hydrate. Beer has water in it Flashy says. Then it's off on the river boat to the citie du vin – an incredible, modern glass building, housing a museum and interactive displays of all things wine.

It is truly amazing and we have a snack and a couple of Bordeaux wines of course, before heading back into town by tram. Flashy requires another hydration stop but Lady P needs to push the step count up first, so it's off to a beautiful, shady garden where we observe the first year uni students flour bombing and soap sudding each other, before seeking out a bar on the square. More walking and people watching before a glass of wine and some smoked salmon at the edge of another square, where we have joined the Friday after work crowd and the chatty young folk of Bordeaux.

As the sun sets, We wander back towards our apartment, through the very up market shopping precinct to emerge close to our residential neighbourhood. The fact that we are in a university town is reinforced by the countless number of Uber Eats and Deliveroo bike riders. Our light dinner tonight is taken in Bistro that is surrounded by Starbucks, KFC, Burger King and a Pakistani curry hut
French statistics. We have walked 262,843 steps in France and driven 2,273 kms in 22 days.