Day 35 - Bordeaux- Nante - Daniel’s Birthday

August 5th, 2018. Sunday

I like to set up the alarm early on the day that we travel. Even if our train tickets were for 1:00pm, I like to make sure we have enough time to finish packing, which we didn’t have to do since we never unpacked in the hotel. I prepared breakfast and decided to use all the eggs for our lunch sandwiches. We checked out at 11:00am. We decided to sit in the lobby with air conditioning and wait to book an Uber but the more we waited, the more the price went up.

We then decided to take the bus since we still had the tickets. We walked with our suitcases to the bus stop and waited while we melted. I got nervous at noon and told Gregory that it was time to get an Uber or we would risk missing our train. He did and when it arrived, the driver got out, saw our luggage, and immediately said, no, I can’t take you, I’m not a delivery van! How rude! I got upset and told him that we normally fit 3 suitcases in the trunk and one in our laps! He didn't care and drove away, even when Gregory said that we had a train to catch!

 "Qu'il est con," I wanted to yell but that would not have helped anyone, so Gregory tried to request another Uber. He couldn’t because the driver hadn’t canceled (he wanted us to cancel so we would have to pay a fee). Finally, the driver canceled. When we were about to request another ride, the bus arrived. We decided to risk it. We got on the bus with our suitcases and made it to the train station with 25 minutes to spare. We then sat in the (non air-conditioned) waiting room for the screen to display the platform. So it doesn’t help much to arrive early anyway. Finally, we got our platform into and we had to climb upstairs. Once again, I struggled with my heavy suitcase. We all agreed that we need to lose a lot of extra clothes and stuff that we don’t need!

Inside the train, I almost had a heart attack because when we were all finally settled in our seats, I realized I didn’t have my purse! Oh, I wanted to cry, I jumped out of my seat and went back to where we had put our suitcases. There it was, on a seat. I had put it aside when I tried to help a lady with her suitcase. Ok, this confirmed that I need to simplify my packing!

The ride to Nantes took five hours in a nice, modern, comfortable train. I slept and enjoyed the book that Gregory downloaded to my laptop. I had to send back the Kindle my book club friends gave because it wouldn't hold a charge. We arrived in Nantes at 6:30pm. We had to ask for a second Uber because the first one, couldn't fit all our suitcases. We finally made to our apartment which is spacious although a little dated. It is funny how I want to remodel every place we get to. I should have a show on the HGTV channel looking to improve Airbnb rentals!

We got settled and then we walked to a Chinese restaurant. That's right, Chinese food in France! Well, that's what the birthday boy wanted for dinner We were lucky that it was near our place and the chef was very accommodating because when we saw the menu, there wasn't much my picky eater liked. They finally made him a dish of sweet and sour tofu et voila! We had a good time. The chef/owner spoke only French to us but with a very strong Chinese accent so it was very hard to understand him which was unfortunate because he was very talkative. He told us about how he came to France when he was 15 years old and found work cleaning a restaurant and now he was the owner and chef of his own. 

We sang Happy Birthday to Daniel with a scoop of ice cream. They even found a candle for him! I'm sure it wasn't what he had in mind but I reminded him that the important part of the trip is that we were all together. Knowing we had a place to stay for a week took a lot of stress away, plus my friend Bree told me that there is an amazing park for the kids!


Looking at the Chinese menu.

Notre Dame, close to the Chinese restaurant!









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