Day 9 - Meze to Bordeaux

Well it's been a long day and I'm a bit knackered, so it will be a short one tonight. A fab day though of course.

We left Meze at about 8:30 this morning and headed north to Carcassonne. What a place! Although the streets are now flanked by tourist shops, there is plenty that are the original fortifications, restored to the way they were in the 12th century. The city actually goes back well before then, but when it was restored in the 1800s they chose that period to model the restorations on. We took an audio tour through the ramparts and by the time we had done that and fossicked through the shops, 3 hours had gone by in a flash. The big mission for the day was to find a Templar Knight ring for Al - and success! Just the one he was after apparently and we haven't seen any others like it anywhere, so he is a very happy camper.  Make sure you ask him where he got it, because he has been practising telling you all about it lol.

Up the road we went, planning to detour off the motorway about halfway between Carcassonne and Bordeaux to visit another of :Frances Most Beautiful Villages" - Auvillar. Unfortunately, the route chosen by the GPS was closed for roadworks and we had no idea how far out of the way the detour would take us so we headed back to the motorway and on to Bordeaux.

As we came into Bordeaux, we all felt very disappointed. It looked like just another big city, with nothing much of interest. Then suddenly, voila! A glorious, beautiful and ornate city laid out along the river. I haven't managed to take any pictures that do it justice, so you will have to wait until tomorrow for some glimpses.

We met Tony and Toni at the hotel and after a couple of drinks - served by yet another cheeky Frenchman, one who gave us a hard time about our accent (we now know how to pronounce 'bourbon' with a french accent) - we headed into the restaurant area and had a fabulous dinner in a cobbled street just off a church square. Musicians played and the meal was fab. So good in fact that we had to walk back to the hotel rather than tram in order to work some of it off.  So much for the diet, we can't understand why the French aren't enormous!

It is now really late and we have an early start tomorrow for a tour of Bordeaux and the Saint Emilion wine area. So a bien tot, I will catch you tomorrow!