Day 13: New country, new city/Un nouveau pays, une nouvelle ville

Sadly our Portuguese adventure ended this day but of course an exciting new chapter of our travels began. We left cobbled streets, mosaics and tiles, which made this city and Porto very exotic although it does mean you need shoes that are comfortable and have a modicum of support. Also I had just started to have a bit familiarity with the terrain which made navigation much easier.

The trip to the airport was straightforward on the train, however it took a while to figure out that we had to get a bus to go from the main terminal to the low cost terminal where we were to catch our EasyJet flight to Bordeaux. I had an execellent workout carrying two 20 kg bags up a number stairs (they had a few bottles of wine in them for later consumption).

The terminal was very functional, no frippery or other nonsense at this place. Seats for waiting for your flight were at a premium. Fortunately as they board at a particular time it was not a major problem. We queued, we walked, we waited and then we walked to the airplane. No airbridges, it was like being in the 70’s and 80’s again.

I had paid a little more to select our seats and they had marginally more legroom than the TAP flight which made it a bit more comfortable for me. Nothing comes free, no water, no biscuits, rien! The crew looked bored but at least they did not try to strong arm you into buying crappy and expensive food.

We arrived at Bordeaux on time and into yet another very basic terminal. The Location de Voiture (rental car place) was in the main terminal, which we found reasonably easily as it was well signposted.

I did not think I was going to get our diesel car at one point as they said they did not have any. Apparently, soon, they will no longer offer diesel cars at all. We were told that this is something to do with tax and that the petrol cars are almost as economical as diesels. Our car is a sub-compact SUV called a Dacia Sandero. It works but is very basic.

The in-car navigation system would not find our street so I used my Navman instead and it found the location very quickly. Bev eventually had success with the in-car system and then we had both of them working. I decided to stick with the Navman however, because it is on the window and easier to see than looking down at the other one.

Our hosts at the apartment were waiting for us when we arrived and provided us with lots of advice and were very welcoming. The apartment is quite spacious and we found that it is close to the city centre, taking less than 20 minutes by a relatively frequent nearby bus service that costs very little.

After getting ourselves organised and having a quick look around our local village, we decided to try a restaurant in the main part of the city. It was called Le Chien de Pavlov which I had read about in The Guardian. A couple of missed turns and finally we made the restaurant. It had an interesting menu and was a little expensive but the food was very nice and well cooked. The pictures provide an indication of what it looked like and I particularly liked the entrée which was grilled octopus on spinach puree with confit tomato. It was a nice end to a day of change.