Thursday, June 10, 2010

Au Revoir France!

There will be many more posts about my adventures in France this last week, these pictures below are an attempt to give you some sense of the old city of Bordeaux.
A view of Bordeaux from across the river Gironde (which Wikipedia tells me is actually not a river, but an estuary, but everyone calls it a river).
I'm begging to think I have a transportation fetish. Bordeaux has a very high tech new tram system that is very stylish (bien sur!) quiet and beautiful. I love the contrast of the thousand year old cathedral and twenty first century tram.

This bistro is made all the more special because of the awesome building it's in.
These two pictures (above and below) are for my brother David who loves street art and is obsessed (can I say obsessed or maybe really interested in is better?) the Masons. The symbol on the iron work is a masonic symbol.
Quite by accident I stumbled upon this beautiful old synagogue.

Bordeaux was a major port for transporting slaves from Africa to the new world and returning with spices. All over the old city are decorative faces on the facades of all the buildings(I should know the correct name, but it eludes me at the moment) men women children animals and every so often the picture of an African person. A ghost like reminder of their troubled past.
There are several old historic Gate/Arches/Bell/Clock towers in town, I don't even know the name of this one, but it was pretty and I had a camera!
This is the iconic image so often used in tourist brochures, it's the old Royal Palace, the building in the center is now a very posh restaurant called Gabriel, we were taken for lunch there and it was by far the culinary highlight of our stay.
And finally the cliched sunset picture, taken on top of the largest sand dune in Europe (the Pyla) in Arcachon.

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