4 posts tagged “bordeaux”
Yesterday, I was waiting to meet a friend in Bordeaux. I came earlier, an d walked up and down the rue Sainte Catherine (the longtest pedestraian street of Europe as far as I know). At one end of it, where the street meets the place de la Comédie, you could get free hugs from girls and guys (depending from who you want to give/share/get a hug :) )
How can you resist ? I gave 2 and get two also :) Thank you for doing this with happiness. I saw a lot of people smiling and watching 3 seconds before giving a hug themselves ! :) I had a nice day yesterday !
Day 2 : I woke up early, maybe to too early for me, but I was alread awake.It was 8 am. Ater taking a nice shower, cleaning my car front glass from all the insects and oil, and a pretty complete breakfast, I had 2 hours to drive these 80 km. If yesterday was crap, with rain and lots of cars, today was beautifull, sun and a legere breeze. I arrived in Bourg en Bresse at 11 am, on hour before the meeting. I decided to have a little walk in the city. I park my car near the train station, and looked from the very centre and the tourism office for a city map.
Bourg en Bresse is a nice little town. I was amazed by the country... It's so flat out there. I've the habit, from living in the south west, to always have hill or forest to block your view when looking around.That's not the case in Bourg en Bresse, you can look far away without being block by anything. So an see the flatness of the area surrounded to the east by Jura mountains very far from, and the west by the Massif Central.
I met my friend at noon as we said, for a quick restaurant. He only had one hour pause, but I was glad to see him.
After this.. I planned a 4 hour ride up to my godmother's home, with a pause somewhere in between, after then 2 hour drive. For once, I really like to drive, the rain was gone, and the country was nice to look at ! I targeted to Besançon, the planned pause !
On the road I couldn't help to see a lot of road signs pointing to Genève then to Lausanne, Swizerland... This make me think that I have another friend out there, and that Lausanne is not that far (136km). But, hey, no, this time I'll need to go ! I arrived in Besançon on time, from the supposed south road.
The car tank was half full.. I looked for a hypermark, to fill the car, fill my stomac and get some rest to look for my way to Epinal, my next and final stop. I arrived to Besançon from the south, and needed to go through the city up north. I found a road sign signalling a hypermark, and follow the arrow.... until it disappeared right in the city center ! Bummer.. Where am I ? Hopefully Igot a rather good orientation, and found almost easily my way to the north, even with no signs.... And guess what ? I found the hypermarkt !
30 minutes later, I was back on the road, a hot chocolate in the stomac, and a tank full of gas :)
To be continued
Hey ! Sorry for not writing my thoughts for the last 3 weeks. I've been busy with m summer vacations :)
Yes, Summer is in october for me. Strange and cool, isn't it ? Last may, I've been asked for my summer vacations. didn't know what to answer, having prepared nothing at all, and not wanting to stay at home walking round and round in my room for 2 weeks. That's why I delayed my vacations to october, the first 2 weeks. I had time time to prepare something. Soo, here is how I've used my fre time out of he office.
My godmother told my I could always come and visit her. She's living in the Vosges Mountain in France, that's the north east of the country, at about 850 km.
My sister is living in Germany. I don't see her very much, maybe once a year. We missed each other a lot, hopefully IP Telephone is helping a lot ;) SHe is living 1500 km away from me, not helping us to see each other.
She invited also my godmother to come for a visit.
Day 1 :
So, I had my trip ! And I needed to drive there to bring everbody to Germany. I began my trip on october 4th (my birthday, by the way). That day, a huge hurricane was blowing everything away on the atlantic front. Winds of 160km/h where leaning some trees and removing some roofs in the area. I needed to go as soon as possible, I planned to go to my godmother in 2 days, for a supposed 10 hour drive. Hopefully at 11 am, the winds calmed down and I could begin my journey.
It's wasn't a beautifull day after the hurricane, but good enough to drive without being "burned" by the sun while driving. The weather changed to a grey pouring rain after having droved 200 km. I had the chance to look for a way of the internet (on viamichelin.com) that just used the truck roads.... (stupid of me)
I need to explain a little why : spanish trucks needs to drive through France up to Germany. From Spain to Bordeaux, they are using a speed way. It's well know to be full of trucks. On lane is almost reserved for them, cars being on the second left. But, from Bordeaux to the north, you don't have any free speed way any more, but you get always the same traffic. So get the picture : you got small roads, with lots of trucks, both ways, lots of cars, a rainy day, and almost no way to get around it. So began the journey for approximatively 8 hours.
At 8 pm, I've arrived in Chalon sur Saône a little town north from our Central Mountain (Massif Central), that is almost the half of my planned journey to my godmother. All I wanted was a hotel, a good diner, may be a warm bath and a nice sleep. This is what I did ! Even if I had some difficulties to find a hotel with vacancies... So, people note : in Chalon sur Saône, from the Paris - Lyon speed way, get out at the Chalon Nord station, this is where all the hotels are located.... I was in the south part of the city, and everthing is always booked out.
After diner, and a nice warm bath, I planned my second part of the trip.. And I notice I was only 80 km far away from a friend I never met ! I decided to call him and see if we maybe be could meet each other during the day. The answer was yes, and I planned my little detour !
To be continued...
Well. actually, it's our tram that is desired in Bordeaux !
Yep. We have a tramway, a brand new one, "functionnal" for now 3 years... However, the 3 lines have all days and nights issues. Everyday is an adventure, and you'll will read some of them on this blog, I'll release them pieces after pieces ;)
So today, as usual monday, I'm going to the office. The week end was ok, gone to bed at 4am sunday, and "falled on the floor" at 9h26 am the same day. I thank my sister to have sending me an SMS, that have woke me up. Why ? There was a ceremony at 10am for the 10th birthday of my town's relationship with its german twin city Pfungstadt. I needed to be there and say hello to everyone I met from the last trip I did last may.. in germany.
My breakfast was then at noon, with a glass of not-so-good sangria, and pepperoni, and other basque specialities. The evening lunch was of course with the germans and the whole cityhall people. We ended at about midnight.
So, this morning of monday, was pretty hard to get up. I don't use to have a waker. My intern biological clock is pretty good at telling me when to open my eyes. And this morning, everything went well. The weather forecast predicted clouds, ans rain, so I took my car instead of my bike to reach the nearest tram station.
This station is located right in the middle of the University campus. And no student is to be recognised at this time... The semester should begin in october or so. But... I don't know what happened, the campus was full of people, I could hardly find a place to park my car ! Hopefully, I know the good ol' free places ;)
I ran to reach the station, 200m away from the parking lot, and find even more student waiting. That was really strange, as being on the campus, students should come in the place, not going away, and as the matter of fact, going to Bordeaux centre.
There use to be one tram every 4 to 6 minutes at that time 8h15 am.. I get a look at the display one the key : next tram in 18 minutes ! the next one in 19.... That is strange, and explains everything : there's a "incident" on the way.... Of course the tram company is kind enough not to inform people about the whys and hows. Since the very beginning, the tram has lots and lots of issues, from cars forgetting that a tram may come, to simple an electrical problem in the tram itself. But that's an other story I should tell you once in a while :)
So.. We waited 18 minutes on the key.... patiently.... We get used to it after 3 years, you know ! Of course when "our" tram came, it was already full of passengers... So we just pushed them a little more to get in. My ride is just 20 min long... hum... well.. That may be long when you can kiss the man in front of you, and be crunched in the back by a purse !
Of course, I arrived at me final station, it was about 9am... I usually come at 8h30/8h40. With me a young student (9-10 years old) couldn't wait and ran as much as his feet could, to get on time at school. Poor kid ! I had time to walk the last 100m almost alone as Bordeaux is still sleeping at that time, and alone as we were only 4 to get out of the tram ! I really was exhausted by this ride, but had a smile when I saw all my past colleagues crunched in the tram.. going away to the next station.
