Bordeaux in Passing

On our way to spend three weeks in the Dordogne, we decided to stop over for three days in Bordeaux to get over jet lag and get reacquainted with France.

We’ve been to France a number of times, but never the southwest. We had heard good things about Bordeaux—walkable, big, but not too big, lots of world heritage sights and museums, great architecture, great public transportation, a long and fascinating history, good restaurants and, of course, wine. Wine institutes, wine museums, wine tasting coops, wine schools, wine tours, wine stores and wine bars on every corner.

Yes, three days is really just a passing glance, a superficial look, but enough time to get some initial impressions and one big surprise—finding out Bordeaux was hosting matches for the once every four years Rugby World Cup. A huge deal, similar to the soccer World Cup, the event brings in tens of thousands of crazed rugby fans.

The reality hit home our first dinner in the city. Jet lagged, we were looking for an early dinner around 6:00 pm, and learned very quickly that restaurants opened between 7:00 and 8:00. Worse yet, most were already booked for that evening, largely because of the rugby fans. We finally found a restaurant that was open and had seating called Risotto—which, oddly enough, only served lasagna. And the lasagnas were named after film stars like Lasagna Al Pacino or Lasagna De Niro. Cutesy names aside, the food was really very good. We struck up a conversation with two Aussies and Welshman next to us, who, no surprise, were here for the rugby. The Aussies were traveling all over France to catch the matches. The Welshman was here for one or two matches. For us, the conversation was primer on which teams were favorites and everything rugby. It was a delightful evening and fun to see their passion for the game.

The next day, wandering around the city, the rugby paraphernalia was everywhere—flags of the teams hanging in every square, window displays featuring rugby gear and footballs, pictures of the teams in store fronts. Major tourism dollars were flowing through the rugby pitch into Bordeaux.

As we wandered we had to dodge holes in the sidewalks, construction barricades and detours. We never quite figured out what was going on — a city-wide facelift for the anticipated spillover crowds from next year’s summer Olympics? A post pandemic economic boost for the construction trades? Or just routine late summer repairs? It did give the city a somewhat rough feel until you looked beyond the mess to see through the windows into upscale apartments, fine clothing stores and small artisan shops — or paused to look at the broad avenues and handsome parks.

With limited time in Bordeaux, we chose to focus on food and wine. First stop was a famous wine store, L’Intendant. Know for its spiral staircase and four floors of Bordeaux wines. Quite the temptation, but we resisted, knowing we were headed to the Bergerac region, less well known and similar varietals and much cheaper prices.

We did, however, make time for a food tour of regional specialties. No surprise there for those who know us. And as we have found elsewhere, a food tour often provides a bit of history, a bit of culture as well as a lot of good tastes. Canelés, a rum flavored pastry reflects a bit of the French colonial past in the Caribbean and makes use of the extra yolks when egg whites were used to clarify wine in the 18th century. Some of the food we tried is more modern in origin like the Dunes Blanches, a kind of cream puff filled with “air cream” said the English translation. Both were our kind of sweets — interesting and not cloyingly sweet.

But without a doubt the highlight of the food tour were the slices of cured duck breast we sampled with an array of cheese (a soft goat cheese, a Comte and a walnut washed cheese), bread and wine. Or maybe the jams and jellies created to serve with foie gras and charcuterie plates. (We will be sharing jars of the grape and Sauternes jelly and the fig and walnut jam with our friends in the coming weeks.). Thanks to https://www.bordeaux-foodtour.com/ for a fabulous day!

And probably the most unusual stop on our tour was a small store devoted to canned fish — an international collection of curated tins of fish and jars of rillettes — tuna, sardines, mackerel salmon and more. Our niece back home would love this place.

As we walked around the area the city, our guide pointed out the cathedral where Eleanor of Acqutaine married her first husband in the 12th century, where a statue of Louis XVI had once stood before the revolutionaries tore it down in the 18th century, and where just this year protestors had burned down the centuries old huge wooden gate at the Hotel de Ville (city hall) upset the retirement age was being raised to 62. Such is the history of Bordeaux.

There so much more to see and do in Bordeaux. We only had enough time to scratch the surface in passing, but enough time to add Bordeaux to our “we gotta get back there” list.