Walking in the Rain

 On Wednesday, I was ready to once again attempt to park in the parking lot of the tram that takes you into the center of Bordeaux.  This was after I got instructions from Angelique, who must be tired of my constant inquiries.  She told me that I just push a button to get in and then pay at a kiosk and get a ticket.  I scan the ticket as I leave.  Sounded easy.

The problem was I didn't see a button.  I pushed everything I could and finally, the gate opened.  I don't know if I will be able to replicate that.  The rest of the process was easy, including the tram ride into town.  The tram was very crowded, just like a subway car.  I found where I was to meet the guide and waited.

Our guide was Ani, a very enthusiastic guy from Mumbai, India, who spoke very fast and was constantly asking us to finish his sentences. For instance:  "The word for shoe is sabot and when you throw the shoe in the fire it is.....?"  I know I annoyed my fellow travelers by answering a lot of these questions, but they were easy and no one was speaking.  Sabotage? I said.

I was the only one in our group from the US, which surprised me.  There were about 10 of us.  Some from Australia, some from the UK, some from Italy, and a couple from Germany.  I guess English is the universal language for tours like this. (There was another one in Spanish that left at the same time.)

There are some very impressive buildings in Bordeaux, all dating to the 18th Century.  Ani says that some people remark that Bordeaux looks like Paris, but he says it is the other way around.  Paris looks like Bordeaux.  This sounds like braggadocious, but he actually has a reason for saying that.  Apparently, an architect named Tourni renovated the city (i.e. tore down all the buildings and built new ones) before Haussmann did the same in Paris.  Haussmann visited Bordeaux before he took on Paris so in Bordeaux they say there is where he got the idea.

The building in the first picture is the Opera House.  Opposite is the grand hotel.

Because of the wine trade, there were a lot of rich people in Bordeaux.  They lived a very good life.  Still, when the French Revolution broke out, they supported the overthrow of the king, but not his killing.  They mostly wanted to stop the high taxation.  Because of their differences with Robespierre and his friends, many of them were guillotined in the town square--300 in fact.

There is a fountain in the square that honors these resistors, called Girondins.  

It's incredibly elaborate, with every figure representing something.  Ani talked very fast so I did not get it all, but I do know that the goddess in the middle is banishing the three figures in the foreground who represent, ignorance, dishonesty and fear.

The weirdest parts of the fountain are the horses, which appear to be part amphibian.  Don't know why, except that Bordeaux is close to the water.

During the second world war, the fountain was taken by the Nazis.  No one knew where it was or if it even existed anymore.  In the late 1970s, it was found in the Loire Valley of France, in very bad condition.  It was restored and brought back to Bordeaux and reinstalled in 1987.

One of our first stops was the Cathedral of Notre Dame.  Ani says every French city has one.  This one was renovated and reconstructed many times.  At one point it had a smaller footprint.  But the architect did not care about the surrounding houses and built the church right up against people's windows.

In front of Notre Dame was a statue of the Spanish painter Francisco Goya. 

Goya lived in Bordeaux after he got in trouble for his anti-war paintings in his home country. This is one where he shows soldiers killing unarmed civilians.

He does look pretty angry as a statue.  Ani says he painted some of his most famous works in Bordeaux.  He died five years after moving to the city and was buried in a cemetery not far from the cathedral.  Years later, Spain regretted sending him away and wanted to bring back his remains.  When they opened up his coffin, his head was missing!!  No one knows what happened but there are theories including his head being stolen by art students.

After traveling through some alleys and small streets, we came across another large church, St. Andrew (Andre).  Like a lot of churches in medieval times, it took a very long time to build.  Started in the 9th Century, it was completed in the 15th.  In the 12th, it was the site of the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII, king of France.

They were married for 15 years and had two daughters, no sons, to the disappointment of all.  During their marriage, they lived in a castle near this city gate, which looks like the model for the castle at Disneyland.

The castle, itself, was torn down during the French Revolution as a symbol of the monarchy.

Eleanor later had her marriage to the French king annulled by the Pope because she was related to the king (fifth cousin).  She then married her second cousin, King Henry II of England, and had eight children, two of whom, Richard and John, became kings.

I haven't mentioned yet that it had started to drizzle at the start of the tour.  It looked like it might end, but then it started pouring.  My rain jacket was still sitting in my suitcase, so I got soaked.

I finally gave up and left the tour just before it ended and ran for shelter.  I had lunch in this cute little place with a lot of good-looking young men waiting tables. I had my usual beef and fries, this time entrecote and fries, which is like steak frite, which I love so much in Paris.

Of course, it stopped raining very soon and the sun came out.  I walked around the center for an hour or so and came across the buildings I remember from my short stay here about 10 years ago.

They sit right on the water, the river Gironde.  Bordeaux is a port city, though there are few boats on the river now.

The city's nickname is the Port of the Moon, because of the shape of the river as it passes through the city. There are lots of signs that seem to indicate that the city has a lot of hazardous sites.  But these signs are the symbols of Bordeaux, three crescent moons.

I had a very easy time getting back to the house, now that I kind of know what I'm doing.