Day 33 - Heat Wave in Bordeaux

Friday, August 3rd, 2018.

We woke up in our tiny studio at 10:00am, had a small breakfast of leftovers from yesterday's lunch and hung around, catching up with emails and looking for a new place to stay in Bordeaux. We spend most of the day in the studio because it was too hot outside. I felt like I was wasting a day, but the heat was unbearable so I decided to take a long nap while everyone else read or watched movies. We went out for groceries around 5:00pm, and discovered a beautiful church Notre Dame. We tried to stay in the shade but even there, the air was just too hot.

After leaving the groceries at home, we left around 6:00pm to explore the city a little bit. On our way, we stopped at the Place Quinconces and admired the monument aux Girondins which was built to commemorate the lives lost during the revolution. Then we walked to the Place de la Comedie and saw the Grand Theatre, walked some more to the Place du Chapelet, all full of outdoor cafes and restaurants. We continued towards the Palais du Justice and then to the Place Pey Berland. We stopped in a bar because we all needed a drink. I didn't think they were going to let us in with children in the bar but hey, it's France! The kids were disappointed that we didn't buy them a Starbucks instead.  Gregory ordered them grenadine which is syrup in mineral water and I had a glass of wine. Gregory had his beer.

 The impressive cathedral, St. Andre, is located at Place Pey Berland. I wanted to go inside but at that moment, Gregory got a phone call from Airbnb saying that we couldn’t stay any longer in the studio that we needed to find another place to spend the night. Of course, I panicked because everything in our budget was booked. We kept going higher and higher but still couldn't find a single apartment with AC. It was 8:30pm, we were far away from the studio, hungry and tired with no place to spend the night.

I made a quick salad and cooked pasta while Gregory tried to find a hotel for the night. I was worried that our host would arrive any minute and kick us out because we had canceled the reservation. We finished packing, we ate and we left the house in a hurry. Finally, Gregory found a double room at the Appart'City hotel. It wasn’t luxury, but it was simple and clean. Most importantly, it had air conditioning!

That night I told Gregory that perhaps we should book another night and have the whole day to get another Airbnb to stay for the rest of the week. However, there was no guarantee that we would find anything -- everything we had looked at was already booked. 

Roasting at home!


No, that's the kitchen.

Touring the city 

Monument aux Girondins

It was so hot, people were bathing in the fountain!

The Grand Theatre. Note that we are standing in the shade.






The cathedral


Poor Gregorio spend all day trying to find a place to stay!

St Catherine, the longest pedestrian street in Europe.

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