Administrative Day (3/7: Toulouse to Bordeaux, France)

Ok, today I was supposed to go to the Chateau Petrus and Chateau Margaux wineries in Bordeaux. However, thanks to the rain, both have called to tell me they have cancelled their tours for the day, and my cell phone battery promptly dies.

I’m disappointed, but this is probably for the best. Because of my delays the day before, I never got to do laundry, I need to get a charger for my phone (using the USB on my computer doesn’t appear to be working), and I need to get better maps.

First things first, head over to the laundromat. I try to follow the 7 instructions line for line, and then find out at the bottom of the sign “don’t forget to perform instruction 6 after instruction 7” Is that a joke? So, now I’m not sure if the detergent I’ve added is actually going to get used. Whatever, I’m off to the internet café to try to find a cell-phone store where I can get a charger, and a bookstore where I can get maps. For both, the closest I can find are in the Toulouse “centre ville” (where I was circling for hours the night before). Screw that. Head back to the laundromat to put my stuff in the dryer, and none of them work. Fantastic. Now I have wet clothes – that may or may not actually be clean – and no way to dry them. I decide, “to hell with this place, I’m leaving”. Get in my car, get on the A62, and head for Bordeaux.

The drive from Toulouse to Bordeaux is beautiful. Early on, it reminds me of driving through New England in the early fall… grass is still green, trees are half bare -- and the leaves that are still there are shades of red into brown – and there are evergreen’s mixed in. As I reach the wine country, the trees give way to sweeping vineyards, villages with either a large central church, or chateaux. It’s like something you would see in the background of some bad movie that's yet another variation of the “The Three Musketeers” story... the movie "The Musketeer" specifically comes to mind.

The city Bordeaux itself is gorgeous. It’s set on a river, and the downtown is small enough that I can pretty much walk from one side to the other in half an hour, or so. But, it’s large enough that it has all kinds of cool buildings, good restaurants, laundromats, book stores, and cell phone stores. I find my hotel (in Place Gambeta), and find everything I need right in that square: get maps at a book store next to my hotel, phone charger at the Orange/France Telecom store across the square, laundry place a block off the square, and dinner at a restaurant called “Le Regent” (which was really, really good). As an added bonus, the restaurant had free wireless, so I was able to post a bunch of blog entries I was behind on, and got all my pictures uploaded (finally!).

Also had the pleasant experience of running into a couple Mormon missionaries while out walking around. They started to talk to me in French, and once I realized what they were doing, I just came out in English with “are you guys from Utah?” One of them was, and so we ended up talking about what we thought of Europe, France, etc. The other tried to get back to the Mormon thing, so I told him “I’ve heard the good news… and I’ve decided it’s really not for me.”

Back in the hotel now, getting ready to go to sleep. Weather permitting, I have a 10:30am appointment at the Lafite-Rothschild winery.