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.
Trams Without Wires
This set of pictures, shows trams running in the city centre and the unique ground level power system called APS.
APS or a system like it, should have been used in Edinburgh to avoid putting up unsightly wires.
Bordeaux’s Trams
Bordeaux has three tram lines that cross in various places in the city centre.
They are larger beasts than typically and in the city centre they run using a ground current collection system, so that there are no unsightly wires.
Every tram stop seems to havce a local map, but these could show a larger area, as two or three times, the place I needed was just off the map.
Greeted By A Map In Bordeaux
Virtually without exception at any London station, you get greeted by a map on a lith.
Greeted By A Map In Bordeaux
It was a surprise to be greeted in the same manner as I exited Bordeaux station.
Unfortunately, the detail was a bit fine and I couldn’t find the road, where my hotel was located.
But I was put right by the girls in the Tourist Office nearby and quickly bought a ticket for the trams and was on one to Quinconces near to the hotel.
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.
Through The Fog To Bordeaux
The train was a TGV Atlantique, which had started at Hendaye and after Bordeaux, it would be on its way to Paris. The visibility wasn’t good.
Through The Fog To Bordeaux
We also arrived in Bordeaux a few minutes late. But the train wasn’t at anyway near the speed it would attain on the high speed line; LGV Atlantique to Paris.
It was a typical boring and professional train ride, that is becoming common all over Europe.
An Early Start From Biarritz
I had intended to leave Biarritz at about mid-morning to travel to Bordeaux, but then I hadn’t planned for the French rail unions, who decided the twelfth would be a good day for a strike.
I found out in the afternoon, when I went to the SNCF Boutique in the centre of Biarritz to get a ticket. There were just two trains on the Thursday; one at seven in the morning and one at six in the evening. Much, as I had enjoyed Biarritz, I wanted to get to Bordeaux at a sensible time.
So it had to be the 07:13 train. But this meant that I had to leave the hotel at six without any breakfast.
I would have to have my sumptuous meal later!
The station was surprisingly warm at about fourteen degrees.
But I certainly didn’t have a warm feeling towards the French rail unions. I had planned to buy myself a sumptuous supper last night to mark six years since the death of my wife, C. But instead, I just had a reasonable steak in the hotel.
So my plans had been totally ruined.
A Walk By A Wild Sea
I came back to the hotel the long way, by walking along the coast road and then climbing a zig-zag path up the cliffs.
It certainly opened up my breathing.
The Anonymous Widower 