A Year Abroad: Mum comes to visit.

So the fun police arrived. And much fun was not to be had.

FRIDAY

Mum arrived on Friday mid-afternoon all the way from Australia! It’s a good thing it doesn’t get dark here until about 10pm, so we had plenty of time to do stuff! Her flight was about half an hour late, which gave me time to grab something to eat at the airport after ‘cleaning’ all morning. We then headed back into town on the bus, which is a good first introduction to Bordeaux. When we arrived at Quinconces, where we were supposed to take the tram home, we hadn’t bought mum’s ticket yet when the tram arrived. I saw a ticket inspector get on, so instead of waiting the 8 minutes for the next one, we just walked home. I took mum down the main street with all of her luggage, and it just started spit rain as we arrived home.

After settling in, we headed back out into the town. Le fete le fleuve (or Bordeaux’s annual river festival/boat show) is on at the moment, so we hopped onto some massive, old Mexican navy boat and explored that for a while. Then just walked around Bordeaux a bit. For dinner, we went to a nice restaurant. Looovveelllyyy.

Mum arrives in her harem pants!

Exploring the streets

On the Mexican boat

Ring my bell

I'm the new captain of the ship

View of Bordeaux from the ship

On the boat

One very nice boat

The Mexican boat

Cafés and bars galore

Mum at Place de la Bourse

SATURDAY

Today was another day of walking around the sights of Bordeaux. We actually bought tram tickets today, so we headed first over the other side of the bridge where you get a nice view of Bordeaux quays. Then back again and into the centre of the town. I took mum to the church that I go to, Saint-André, and into Saint-Michel church as well. We ended up at Mollat, the largest independent bookstore in Europe, and to Auchan. I don’t really know how to describe Auchan, other than they sell everything. Literally everything.

That night, I cooked dinner as I had vegies and stuff I needed to get rid of. We then ventured back out for just more walking around the sights and more river festivaling.

More exploring for mum

Ma house!

On the other side of the river

In Saint-André

Mum at l'Opéra

Bordeaux wine in Auchan

SUNDAY

You can’t come to Bordeaux without going to a winery. Or many wineries. There are stacks close to Bordeaux centre, but if you want award winning, grand cru wine, you can go to either Medoc or Saint-Emilion. We chose Saint-Emilion as it’s a bit closer, only 40 minutes by train. We left at 8am, with my housemate Léa coming along. The train station is a 20 minute walk out of the main town, I guess to preserve the integrity of the town (it’s a medieval town),but what a walk it is. You’re basically just walking through vineyards and chateaux. First stop, the tourist office. Heading up to the top of the village, we walked up a narrow, and very steep, cobble stone road. One can only imagine what it would have been like carrying heavy loads up and down in the Middle Ages.

We booked ourselves into the 10:30am train ride and winery tour, which was a nice 6,50euros. While we waited, we explored the collegial church. Built between the 12^th and 15^th centuries, there are still remnants of the original paintings on the walls, most of which were destroyed during the revolution. The train ride was amazing. Circling the village for 35 minutes, passing through hectares and hectares of vineyards, we stopped off at Chateau Rocheville. We were given a tour of their underground cellars, which are kept at a constant temperature of 12 degrees, and 85 percent humidity. They are only a grand cru winery (French wine rating based on the quality of different criteria) as they only have 3.5 hectares of vineyards. To be a premier grand cru, you must have at least 7 hectares.

When we got back to the main town, we climbed the bell tower of the underground Monolithic church. Unfortunately, the church is privately owned, and tours were only in the afternoon, so we couldn’t go in, but the bell tower was worth it all the same. It’s 197 steps to the top and has a spectacular view of the surrounding village and vineyards. The underground church was once the 8^th century home of a Breton monk, Emilion, who fled to the South of France to escape persecution by the Benedictine order. Next, we grabbed lunch at a bakery, and sat on a bench next to the village entrance road. There were heaps of cycle tours that went past with one stopping next to us. An old man had a bit of a fall on his bike and didn’t look very well. They spoke Dutch, but a little bit of English, so mum used her powers of being a nurse, and solved the problem. Eventually he got back on his bike and we left too.

We headed for the kings tower. Constructed in the 13^th century, it looks old and impressive, but no one knows for whom or why it was constructed. You can climb it, but as we had already done the bell tower, we chose otherwise. Instead, we headed up a cobblestone path to the ruins of a convent from the 17^th century, where the nuns apparently left a great recipe for macarons!

We kind of meandered a bit now, and found our way to the ruins of a monastery from the 14^th century. This was a pretty impressive structure and really cool to explore. The fact that it has also been turned into a café now made it even cooler.

We then headed back down the train station and caught the 3pm train home.

I had some other stuff I needed to get rid of, e.g. pita bread and salad stuff, so I made dinner again. Then mum and I headed to a choirboys concert at Saint-André church, which was cool.

I then came home and packed for our trip. I’m becoming an incredibly light and efficient packer. Three quarters of my suitcase is stuff that mum can take home with her when she goes. The other is stuff that I need on my trip. Mum’s now snoring away next to me whilst I write this!