What Not To Wear In The Korean Demilitarised Zone
Ian Mcmillan, the Barnsley Poet, is usually entertaining. Today, on BBC Breakfast, he talked about his visit to the Korean Demilitarised Zone.
For his visit, he was told, he mustn’t wear tight trousers or a low top! The second may make it easier for a sniper to get a heart shot!
But why the first?
Cafe Breizh In Paris
I found Cafe Breizh last time I was in Paris, by searching for “gluten free creperie”. But I couldn’t find it physically.
So this time, as I crossed Paris to get the Eurostar, I just had to visit.
I was not disappointed after a bowl of cider and two gluten-free buckwheat crepes.
It’s a wonderful excuse to go to Paris for the day.
Would I Go Back To Bordeaux?
Bordeaux impressed me. In some ways it was like Paris without the tourists.
It had all the architecture, the shops, the restaurants and the magnificent river Garonne.
The people seemed to have a calmness and politeness that the Parisians lack.
If say, I was indulging in one of my passions and dressing a lady for say an important wedding, I think I might persuade her, to get on a plane to Bordeaux and then come back by TGV and Eurostar. It’s probably a lot easier to come home on the train, than lug everything through the airports.
C would have loved Bordeaux, Just like she loved Paris, Hong Kong, Milan and Florence.
Every real lady deserves to be dressed to the nines, at least a few times in her life. And that means from her toes to her hair and outwards from her skin to what everybody looks at.
But I did love those wireless trams!
If you ever wondered why we dress to the nines, look here!
Experiments With Selfies
I was trying to get a decent picture of myself.
Most seemed to be rubbish, so I only left myself with these. So if I kept these how bad were the others?
Note the Liverpool University Engineering Scarf, I often wear in cold weather.
My Hotel In Bordeaux
I stayed at Le Boutique hotel in Bordeaux.
Le Boutique Hotel In Bordeaux
It was OK and they found me a very good restaurant for supper on Thursday.
But I wouldn’t stay there again, as the lift to get to my room was not to my taste. I can think of some, who would have used it once and left the hotel.
Le Petit Commerce, Bordeaux
The hotel recommended this restaurant for my supper.
Any time I’m in Bordeaux, all other places where I eat will be judged against this restaurant.
It would also have been a place that C would have adored. Like me, she loved to eat fish and that was the bulk of the menu.
So in some ways it was fitting that I ate there six years and a day after she died.
Trams and The Place De La Bourse
I think that this set of pictures show how you can run trams through areas of architectural importance.
Bordeaux is actually a World Heritage Site. The citation states.
an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble
So you don’t really want tram wires all over the place! But then Bordeaux’s trams are trams without wires. Surely the trams in Edinburgh should have been designed without them.
Note too, that there is a tram stop here called Bourse, but the only things you notice are the slightly raised paving and the fact that trams stop and open their doors to let people on and off.
Exploring Bordeaux
These are some of the pictures I took walking around Bordeaux.
It is an easy city to navigate, although a few more maps would help. But there is always a small one at evrery tram stop.
Would I Go Back To Biarritz Again?
Of course I would!
Especially, if I could be guaranteed some weather like I had just experienced. The temperature had been about 14 °C with a humidity of over 50%
I do wonder about my father’s health. He suffered from a similar catarrh to that I’ve suffered for the last couple of years and he had lots of skin problems. He always put the latter down to the solvents he used in his printing business. I’m pretty certain he was a coeliac too, as I must have got the genes from somewhere.
I also remember him saying once that he had been to Biarritz. So did he go because he felt healthy there, as I just had?
I don’t know and there’s no-one I can ask who knew him, who’s still alive.
But as I seem to feel better in Biarritz, if I think I need a break in the winter, I think I’ll go.
Trains seem to take between five and six hours from Paris and there seems to be at least one train every hour.
A Strange Bottle Of Evian Water
I bought this bottle of Evian at Biarritz station.
Note that is says Live Young on one side and something in Dutch on the other.
Strange for a product made in France and sold on a French station.
The Anonymous Widower 