Day 22 - Bordeaux

From Lyon to Bordeaux

Athena Part-Dieu Hotel in Lyon became very familiar after ten nights but it was good to move on. The staff there are particularly nice and after a bit of confusion finding how much had already been paid - as dear Rory booked the accommodation months ago - I settled the rest of the bill of which they kindly let me off the parking aspect. I went down to the car park, loaded up, set the SatNav to Bordeaux and set off.

I left at about 10:30 am and arrived in Bordeaux about 6 pm, with a couple of quite short stops in between. It was a long drive and was quite tiring but I really loved the beautiful scenery that I passed through. I listed to music for the first half of the journey and podcasts for the second. In particular I wanted to catch up with the news on the "Brexit" poll.

6 hour drive across France

Approaching Clermont Ferrand

Thursday, 23rd June was an historic day for the UK. As I drove across France, millions of people in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were voting in the EU referendum. I posted on Facebook... "Please, please, please... Vote Remain."

Journey from Lyon to Bordeaux

As I got closer to Bordeaux I got in touch with my nephew, Darry Perier, who had arranged somewhere for me to stay and advised me to park in a very busy city which is currently celebrating their famous wine festival.

Darry is an artist with a growing reputation who has beautified many of the ugly beach bunkers built by Hitler's Germany during the war.

An example of Darry's art

It was great to catch up with Darry. We walked around the city center, had a beer and then a very nice meal complimented by a bottle of St Emillion. 

We watched the end of the laser show and then the fireworks at the end of day one of the wine festival before Darry guided me through the old town of Bordeaux to the suburb of Eysines to my room (house, actually!) for the night.

Eysines

No football today, or tomorrow, as I continue on to San Sebastian in Spain.

Aljice

Eysines, Bordeaux