Our arrival to Bordeaux was rather stretching. The French seem to favour shoving as many trains as possible on one platform leaving you in a constant state of anxiety that you are on the wrong train until the train guard comes round and you can finally relax. Stepping out from the station into Bordeaux I knew immediately I would like it. The buildings are almost uniformally 18th century mansions, shiny white in the sunshine. We decided to walk into town (bad move, it was FAR!) as we couldn't make head nor tail of how the tram ticket machines worked but finally, sweaty and with very swollen feet, we arrived at our little B&B where we sat on the bed and shovelled crisps and muffins into our mouths, we know how to live!

By that evening all the hard word had paid off however as we found ourselves enjoying a glass of Bordeaux's finest red at a street side cafe. The wine list was the biggest I had ever seen and the waiters kind and attentive, like all those we have had in France, bearing with our stuttered French and vacant expressions. Je ne comprend pas is pretty much our staple phrase!

The lady, Leena, who ran our guest house, a beach themed town house where breakfast is served around a big oak family table, gave us some background on Bordeaux. We were struck on every corner how utterly beautiful it is, more so than any other city I have been to. According to Leena this is a new development of the last five to ten years. The buildings were dark, hidden below a layer of grime and the river front plain and dotted with disreputable industries - if you get what I mean! Leena credited the Mayor of Bordeaux for the transformation and now Bordeaux is the second favourite city in France for quality of life after Paris. I can quite believe it. Oddly enough it was British for 300 years though there is limited evidence of that now except a couple of statues in honour of Bordeaux being reclaimed by France. One features an englishman being trampled by a horse lead chariot! Luckily the perception of the english seems to have improved somewhat!

Of course no trip to Bordeaux is complete without a visit to the vineyards so we spent our second day visiting a number of Chateaux. The land around the city is vines, mostly cabernet savignon and merlot, as far as the eye can see. Naturally we did some tasting and finished the day in an Italian restaurant in one of Bordeaux's many pretty squares.

From here we are off to Spain, to the Basque region no less. We are currently awaiting our delayed train, hopefully San Sebastian saves some sunshine for us! Being Spain not much gets going before nine at night so we're enjoying some extra reading time and a couple of legendary French baguettes.

All our love!

Nikki and Ben x