We packed up yet again, and headed out toward Bordeaux. Staying two nights anywhere is just enough time to be a total pain in the butt, and exhausting. We just have way too much stuff to stay anywhere 2 nights--that was a bad idea. I think 5 nights is probably perfect, but it's risky because 5 nights is a long time in a place that isn't great. The town can be great, but if the house or apartment isn't great it's still a major damper. We are getting better and better at picking places on Airbnb, and we've learned from a lot of mistakes, but we are still nervous to rent 5 nights because we've had enough misses to know that we still don't catch things that can end up being deal breakers for comfort. I do like the new Airbnb Plus that they've started though, that sounds like a good way to get some assurance you are committing to a great place that has already been vetted.
We couldn't check in until 3:30-4:00 and it was only a 2.5 hour drive so we decided to detour to Biarritz which is just across the border between Spain and France along the water. San Sebastian is very close to France, I don't think we drove more than 30 minutes and we were there. The scenery was very similar, but everything was about 40% more expensive. Biarritz is a high end coastal vacation destination and it's super cute right along the water much like San Sebastian. It was a cooler day, with grey clouds but even so it was bustling for a Sunday morning and there already were lots of people on the beach and all the stores were open (defying the "closed on Sunday" European norm--like a tourist town always does.) I'm sure in August it's wall to wall people. We parked, strolled around, got a coffee and some nibbles and then eventually shoved off.
It was a fairly uneventful drive, the usual amount of complaining, "I've got to pee", "I'm sick of driving" and "when are we going to be there?" The damper on the day though was knowing that John would be departing on an 8:30 pm flight to Amsterdam, to catch a flight the following morning to LA. I've been trying to block out the fact that he's got to go back to work for a week, but the day had finally come.
We arrived in Bordeaux too early to check in, so we parked in the center and walked around a bit, and stopped briefly for a crappy lunch of individual wok bowls which sounds good, but it was a confusing mess after which no one really got what they wanted (and they even remade my bowl once). File that under bad lunches. Bordeaux looks to be a beautiful city though--and big. The center was full of people and action.
We checked into our great apartment after that which is about a 15 minute walk from center proper. You walk in from the street, it's a fairly typical old sandstone front, but the interior of the building is super eclectic and shabby looking. Peeling paint, rustic and old everything....but a super cool in contrast to the apartment that you ultimately walk into which is modern and stylish. We loved the contrast, and the little city haven hideaway tucked at the top of a scrappy stairway. The apartment is very modern, but they kept a few of the rustic touches, like an old door on the bathroom, and these gorgeous stainglass doors that lead into a bedroom. Old pieces that they must have salvaged when they did the remodel. It's plenty big enough, and has a good kitchen and laundry area. Basically it will be easy to be here and it was a big thumbs up. Sad part is that John won't be here to enjoy it with us since he'll now meet us in Paris on Saturday.
I drove John to the airport around 6:30, got over my driving nerves (I've managed to escape any driving these last 3 weeks and it's been a year since I've driven stick shift.) I did fine though, even with Gia and Romeo bouncing off the wall in the back. Everyone was sad to have one of the family gone--didn't feel right, so we'll have to settle into our party of 5 and try to make it feel ok this week. We know we shouldn't complain, he's so lucky to have the type of job that allows him to do this kind of trip in the first place. His departure got a little wonky when he called me while I was still driving home to announce that he had screwed up, bought a ticket for the wrong date for his Bordeaux-Amsterdam leg. He apparently had bought if for 7/9, which is when his flight from Amsterdam to LA took off. His words, "Can you believe I did that?" Uhm, yeah kind of. That sounds like a repeat of our intra-Thailand tickets in April where he bought Ava, Lucia and I tickets from Bangkok to Chiang Mai for two weeks later than we were even going to be in Thailand. He got lucky though and they got him on standby, but. not before they made him sweat it out for an hour.
First day in Bordeaux tomorrow and it's the hottest day of almost the entire trip for us (since we've largely side stepped the huge European heat wave). It's suppose to be 91 degrees tomorrow, so hopefully it doesn't slow us down too much.
Signed, ME {lv}
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