Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Coups de Coeur: Balade à Bordeaux

After a phenomenal day on the beach at Cap Ferret I spent the rest of the weekend in beautiful Bordeaux. Since all my pals had to work or study on Saturday morning, I took my camera on a little stroll to all my beloved places around Bordeaux I used to hang out at when living in Bordeaux four years ago ( I simply cannot believe it has been so long...).

I started off with a short stroll over Marché aux Capucins where a lot of autumn produce like pumpkin and chestnuts were on offer. Although being there quite early, around 11 am, it was already "l'heure pour un premier verre de vin avec des hûitres" ;-)
From 11 am on, the French love to have a glass of white wine with some seafood while they do their grocery shopping on the market on a regular saturday morning. Savoir vivre like the French do. This is exactlx why I love this place so much!

I continued my way through the quartier Saint Michel that has seen some major changes since my last visit with a lot of new cafés and restaurants, the flea market around the cathedral has also been updated, from offering mostly pieces of rubbish in the old days one can now browse through racks of clothes and antiques. Down at the Garonne I passed by the beautiful Miroir d' Eau in front of the Place de la Bourse and cycled along the quais to my old neighborhood in Chartrons. Cours Xavier Arnozan, the most luxurious street I have ever lived on. Even if it was only a house on the second row but the marble staircase was still such a treat every day (although i had to pass by its side to access a small stone staircase, l'entrée de la bonne, that led up to my apartment at the back of the glorious building).

It was so good to be back...later in the afternoon Amélie joined me for a stroll through the quartier Saint Pierre with Place Camille-Julien and Place du Parlement, where we peeked into our favorite stores and boutiques and also discovered some new gems. Bordeaux is changing a lot recently, with lots of independent cafés and boutiques, change in a good way.

We spent the night celebrating Amélie's birthday, Bordeaux style, after some beers at a local bar we went on the Iboat for some dancing to finally get back home by seven in the morning, exhausted and hungry, so we put some pasta on the stove and continued the party with some fine vinyls and some well-deserved pasta before hitting bed by 8 am. Love my French friends. Always so much fun!

When we finally crawled out of bed on Sunday afternoon, we went on the other side of the Garonne to a new-to-me art space called L' space Darwin for some coffee. All in all, it was a perfect weekend and exactly what I needed after a long summer at work and some new challenges ahead...


























Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Coup de Coeur: Cap Ferret

After two years I eventually found time again to make the trip down to Bordeaux and meet up with my wonderful friends to enjoy a few sunny and relaxed days. Upon arrival, it took us half the night to update each other on important happenings of the last two years, however, a few hours into our conversation, it felt like I had never left Bordeaux....
I do feel really blessed to have found such wonderful friends while studying in Bordeaux.

So, one of my and Agathe's favorite traditions is a little escape to the beautiful Cap Ferret for a day and treating ourselves to a bottle of wine and some seafood on the beach. I do admit that this is quite a luxurious treat, however, oysters and other seafood are a lot more accessible along the coast in Southern France and are not quite as expensive and exclusive as in Germany. As always, it was divine. We were lucky enough to have chosen a day with clear blue skies and a strong sun so we ended up sitting in a little restaurant on the beach for a good few hours with our vin blanc and some oysters and prawns. The views on the bay of Arcachon were breathtaking, with the little boats dancing in the sea with the tide rising and the dunes of Pyla set a beautiful backdrop.

Since we went out there on a weekday we almost had the place to ourselves so we enjoyed the serenity for a nice walk around the bay and even a glimpse of the ocean. We even tipped our toes in the sea for a last bit of summer feeling.

Simply perfection, and a wonderful start to my Bordeaux weekend trip.