Bordeaux.... once again in the beautiful land of France

Mysterious Sharon

Oh no, two of him.... how will we cope?

Pretty fountain

Fun in the fountain

Huge ferris wheel in the carnival

The biggest candy floss ever.... and we had even picked the smallest size!

Fun fair!

People on the bridge looking down on a huge screen showing a video montage that was a part of the art festival.

Our first stop back in France was Bordeaux. As we drove into town on our bus we had to stop for a troop of musicians sitting in baskets on the front of bicycles who were crossing the road and we thought 'where exactly have we found ourselves?' .... As it happened they were a part of an art exhibition that invloved the whole town of Bordeaux and was starting the day we arrived! There was also a huge carnival on at the same time to add to the fun and excitement of this crazy exhibition.

We had arrived at mid day and so after a wee rest (due to Sharons terrible habit of feeling sick when travelling) Sharon headed off to a laundry mat to do some much needed washing while Andrew paid for the accomadation. Luckily for Sharon a kind French man (who happened to speak no English) helped her work the mashines which had instructions that were very helpfully only written in French and which on her own she actually would have got all wrong due to an inexplanibly complicated set up for payments.... maybe it was good that Andrew was not there....

After paying Andrew picked Sharon up and headed into town and a very pretty town it was. We did a bit of window shopping and then worked our way back to the laundry mat picked up our washing and hung it up in our room (yes we are too cheap to pay the four Euro drying cost)! Once again we headed out this time in search of a supermarket and we were soon to find the supermarket that beats all others.... This supermarket had everything one could desire, on three huge levels of a massive building. Over the next couple of days a few hours happened to be wasted here! After a bit of exploring we bought our dinner and headed home for a night in watching BBC, (the first TV we had watched in months) as this was the only English channel.

The next day we further explored the town and stumbled upon the most chaotic, crazy and roughest market one could find. The stall holders where all of Arabic and African origin who yelled at the top of there voices things that I swear even if one spoke French you would not understand and the buyers flocked to these different stalls in stampeding rhino style... goodness forbid anyone fall over, as they would surley be trampeled! Andrew and I braved this market for a while enjoying the sheer scale and crazyness of it all, brought a huge bunch of silver beet and lunch then breathed a sigh of relief as we both made it out the other side alive! We ate our lunch in a garden beside the incredibly brown river and were joined by another couple who thought it was ok to eat each other alive in public, I might add this is not uncommon in Europe :/. After lunch we had a little seista (something one gets easily used to when in Italy and Spain) before heading out for an evening stroll through the carnival before a late dinner and bed.

Our last day in Bordeaux was reserved for checking out the main shopping street and local art festival. Much to my disapointment and Andrews glee the shops were all shut (I still maintain he planned this) as it was a Sunday in Europe! So we headed further afeild to explore the art around town. The art included a huge bridge built accross two roads and half way over the water, some tin shapes that made screeching noises (Andrew especially enjoyed this one), wrecked cars, light shows, trees made into crazy shapes and other oddities, most of which we were at a loss to understand... maybe its a French thing? We also discovered a fountain that was designed to reflect anything that faced it or was on top of it (see above photos) and also let out mist intermittently. We spent a long time watching people from all walks of life play together, young, old, hippy, metro, city, rural, local, tourist and all nationalities enjoyed this fountain!

Next we walked along the river boardwalk and came accross a very popular, and much more civilized market. It seems on Sunday the whole of Bordeaux buys their lunch from this market. Lunches mostly consisted of a bottle of rosè and freshly shucked oysters for the whole family to sit around on the ground and enjoy. Andrew and I both do not like oysters but felt the need to join in all the same! We carried on along the walk stopping for a whlie to watch some very young and talented roller bladers at a skate park, and then further along to watch some street preformers....

After a very plesent day we headed back to our favourite supermarket for some more dinner before heading out on our last night to check out the night life. Firstly we went through the carnival watching all the crazy rides and getting in the spirit by buying some huge and yummy passion fruit flavoured candy floss. We then watched an outdoor concert with African preformers before finishing the night with a drink in one of the many cute little pubs.