Bordeaux, the other choice.

bordeaux was the city that i knew i was going to have to visit. there was just no way i was going to leave france without checking out the city that i could have chosen to make my home if i hadn't chosen lyon. i was curious where other eap students were spending there year, what their city was like. and i was even more curious whether or not i would get there and realize i had made the wrong decision a year and a half ago when i applied for the lyon program in the first place (not that this was a big possibility considering how much i love lyon).

we arrived sunday morning. it had obviously been raining a little, and the sunshine and warmth we had embraced the last two days in toulouse seemed to have disappeared. i realized in my comparisons between bordeaux and lyon, i was going to have to try not to be too biased based on the weather or the emptyness simply because we happened to not pick the most perfect day to be there.
we found our hotel immediately seeing as we knew it was right across the street from the gare, and went up to our room to drop things off. a bit cheaper than our toulouse hotel, it definitely wasn't as nice. this time much more reminiscent of a hostel. but it was fine, and i guess you get what you pay for.

as usual, lunch was our first priority. since it was sunday though, it was a little more complicated to find food. luckily though, we found a paul that was open, and then took our food back to a statue we had passed during our search.

the weather got kind of funny as we ate, sprinkling for about 2 minutes then getting super sunny for a little bit before turning back to overcast. but it was a nice place to sit and eat. plus we got to watch the guys filming a movie we believed. one guy had a bike and kept moving it. it was rather amusing to watch, though we had no idea what was going on.

after we had finished our lunch. we headed to the park (which of course is a necessity in every city that has a park, which essentially means every city). i think this park was my favorite part of bordeaux though. it was really pretty with a little river running through it. it reminded me a lot of parc de la tete d'or, but smaller, and different.

plus, it had a little play area!

next we made our way to saint-michel tower because we wanted to climb the massive number of steps to see a panoramic view of the city. first though, in the square right next to it, we saw a cart selling cheap wine, so we stopped buy and bought a liter plus of wine for 2.50. in a water bottle. we are classy people. but later when we drank it, it was actually quite good!

but anyways, back to the tower. we climbed all the way up to the top using a ridiculously tiny staircase (which at least spiraled in the correct direction) in order to see the panoramic view of the city.

getting back down the tower got interesting when another group was trying to come up at the same time.
we also decided to take a look inside the church.

and saw the outside of hotel de ville.

then took our usual cafe break at a cafe that happened to be named cafe rohan, which i thought was funny.

we found musee des beaux arts next and decided to take a look inside. only after seeing a large alligator (crocodile?) statue in the front which we really didnt understand.

we soon found ourselves at yet another small park, where we decided to eat our baguette snacks and break open our very classy wine.

since we still had time before we wanted to eat, we went to find the university. we aren't sure if it is the actual campus other eap students are at, but it was the only one we could find.

then, coolest of all, we found a sign with my name on it!

and finally we decided we needed to get some food in us again. we ended up eating at an italien place that was actually quite good, but the entree was massive. i reallyyy liked my salad though :) and the desserts were a little funny. i have to say i liked my panna cotta better in beaune than in bordeaux.

for the end of our evening we made our way back to the quai and sat down on the steps in front of the miroir d'eau. it was such a beautiful night and we were so full we just wanted to be outside but sitting for a little while.

we knew we wouldn't be staying up excessively late that night because we would have to get up at 6 the following morning in order to get to the airport to get us back to lyon in time to have a productive day.

but it was a very successful weekend and i was glad to have gotten to see more new french cities and enjoy them so much.

but moral of the story: bordeaux is a beautiful city, but there is no doubt in my mind that i made the right decision when i chose lyon :)