FRIDAY 8th JUNE 2012

BORDEAUX

Said farewell to Paris and the crap hotel Apogia! Victor was most apologetic about the place and I don't reckon Trafalgar will have that place on the list again!
It took and hour to get out of the ridiculous Parisian traffic and then we were into glorious farmland as far as the eye good see! Very open flat country with thousands of wind turbines dominating the skyline - wind energy is the way to go in Europe that's for sure!
We passed lots of beaut little villages, many of them very old with big church spires and narrow streets, before stopping in Tours for lunch!
Had a tour of St Martins Bassilica church, a look at the ancient square in the city and then had time to wander off and get some lunch. My by now, very fluent French - NOT - enabled me to order two omelets, a beer and and Kir Royale for us, the Kir being a bubbly with berry juice which Sue said was delicious!
After a good stroll about, we boarded the bus again, hit the very smooth freeway and again passed through open, sprinkler irrigated farmland and then into the Bordeaux wine region! This area was a fair bit drier than we have previously, lots of centre pivot sprinklers watering potatoes, asparagus and cereal crops!
We got into Bordeaux very late, with an hour spent getting into the city and then after quickly freshening up we had gathered in the dining room of the Ibis hotel for a dinner! The meal was lovely and we spent some time with a "getting to know everyone" exercise, introducing another couple who we had "interviewed" during the bus ride! An excellent and fun way to find out more about our travel companions!
Our hotel is quite nice, no air conditioning though, and the rooms are very stuffy - making a good nights sleep pretty difficult! We are all feeling quite tired after the long days in the bus - hope we get some free time to relax a bit soon!
Bordeaux is again a very old place, but we do not have time to see a great deal, with a short orientation drive this evening our only views!
Off to Spain tomorrow. We return to France on the south coast, but I have been most impressed with the countryside and the scope of agriculture and even more so the manufacturing industries! Lots of products are made here in France, many motor vehicles, trucks, tractors and ag machinery and well as engineering etc.
Although all these things are great for the economy, it is easy to see why France is like many other countries and nearly broke! Their productivity is hampered by workers having six weeks holiday per year, twenty five sick days (which they all take, apparently) and you can have five days off before producing a doctors certificate!!!!!!
There are millions out of work and not interested in working! Society is based on having fun and relaxing as much as possible! The number of times we heard the phrase "it is the French way" to describe all these things suggests that laziness is ingrained into people!!