Fountains, fireworks and frothy coffee

Happy October everyone! We’re just back from a little mini-break in Bordeaux.

“Mini-break?!” I hear you cry, “But you’re already on a sabbatical, isn’t that like a maxi-break?!”

Well, technically, yes, but we take our rôle as “Guardians of the Château” very seriously and we genuinely want to do a good job here so it did feel like a break away from our ‘normal’ routine.

So we hopped in the car and headed down to Bordeaux (about a 2 hour drive away). We stopped in Saintes for a coffee on the way (always on the lookout for my frothy coffee) and had a lovely hour wandering the streets and lapping up the atmosphere of this quaint market town on the banks of the Charente river.

It would have been slightly more peaceful if there hadn’t been a big noisy demonstration marching up the main street. On closer inspection, it turned out that these were disgruntled retirees which begged the question, if marching doesn’t achieve their aim, what’s their next course of action? Going back to work in protest?

We carried on our journey to Bordeaux and settled into our airbnb before strolling into the city to get a feel for the place. We were not disappointed. Bordeaux is a beautiful city with stunning architecture at every turn. We had a wonderful couple of days exploring the main tourist spots then meandering through the streets finding hidden squares and quirky corners.

Yes, that’s me posing in front of the Miroir d’eau or Water Mirror, a fountain in front of the Place de la Bourse. It’s the world’s largest reflecting pool and sends up a misty fog every quarter of an hour then returns to calm waters (which everyone paddles in so not really that calm)!

After 2 days of walking further than I’ve walked since I got my FitBit (not to mention shopping ’til we were dropping to prepare ourselves for the winter months) we drove back to Aulnay via Saintes again. This time we spent longer in Saintes and visited the large Roman amphitheatre and wandered along the Charente river.

Yes, I did also continue my coffee quest and chanced upon the most magnificent frothy coffee which defies description so just feast your eyes on this:

We got home absolutely shattered and were glad to flop into bed for a well-earned rest (after our exhausting mini-break)!

But what about the fireworks?

Well, we were jolted awake at around 11pm by a loud BOOM so had to investigate. We saw lots of villagers parading past the château with lanterns then, to our delight, a firework display began in the field opposite. In true Hong Kong style, there were plenty of oohs and aahs and I tried to get a good photo but, in the end, just gave up and enjoyed the moment. Hope my Hong Kong family enjoy the National Day fireworks and the half term break and think of us in our château watching fireworks in the field opposite!

À bientôt, bisous.