This morning I got up and took a walk along the riverside promenade and had a fresh croissant and an orange juice while I waited for the Bordeaux Wine Museum to open at 10:00. This is the Bordeaux Wine Museum.
When I got there at 10:00 I saw this sign at the entrance.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe this sign says that Today there will be a guided tour of the museum in English at 11:30. I assumed that Today meant today and that 11:30 meant 11:30, so I took another stroll and came back a little before 11:30 anxious to start the museum tour in English that was clearly scheduled to begin at 11:30 TODAY!! I spent a considerable amount of time with the young man selling tickets at the entrance to the Wine Museum trying to convince him that he should sell me a ticket to the 11:30 museum tour in English. He spent a considerable amount of time trying to convince me that there was no 11:30 museum tour in English TODAY! He wanted to sell me a ticket for an 11:30 museum tour in French, but I declined his generous offer for obvious reasons. After much Gallic hemming and hawing he finally admitted that the Today on the sign actually meant yesterday and that they hadn’t gotten around to changing yesterday’s sign. So, he said I was actually 24 hours late for the 11:30 museum tour in English. I asked him if the Parisians put him up to this and he acted like he didn’t understand my question, although I know he did. You always need to be on your toes when you are dealing with these wiley Frenchies. I finally gave up and bought a ticket to the Wine Museum that included an audio guide in English. It turned out to be a great museum. I spent 4 hours there learning just about everything there is to know about wine and the Bordeaux wine region.
This was one of my favorite parts of the museum.
This was the “nose” and color of wine section of the museum. They had at least 50 stations where you could smell different smells such as leather, black licorice, coriander, and try to remember wines that had these smells in their “nose.” They also had a color palette to demonstrate the almost unlimited color variations of red and white wines.
My favorite part of the tour was the end where they had a tasting room. I continue to have problems with the Frenchies, but even I have to admit that they do a heck of a job when it comes to making wine.
This is a bicycle rack in Denmark.
This is a bicycle rack in Bordeaux. You would starve if you tried to run a bicycle shop in Bordeaux.
And this is a motorcycle parking corral in Bordeaux.
Motorcycles seem to be very popular in Bordeaux. And it appears that the motorcyclists in Bordeaux clearly favor great big hulking high horsepower motorcycles over small Vespa like motor scooters.
This is the elevator at the Radisson where I am staying in Bordeaux. Notice the elevator buttons. In America the ground floor is the first floor. In Europe the ground floor is the zero floor. I am not quite sure how you have a zero floor, but the European hotels all have a zero floor. So the ground floor is the zero floor and the second floor becomes the first floor. It sounds confusing because it is confusing, purposely so I believe. Try figuring this out when you check into a hotel late at night after a long travel day and you don’t understand a word of whatever language the guy at the front desk is speaking. Nobody ever said that traveling in Europe was going to be easy.
Look what I found as I was strolling around Bordeaux. 
That is a scallop shell pavement marker for a Camino! Apparently one of the seven Caminos runs through Bordeaux. You can follow these scallop shell trail markers from Bordeaux to St. Jean Pied de Port and then on to Santiago. While I lost weight walking the Way in Spain, I imagine that you would gain weight walking the Way in France.
This is part of the medieval wall that at one time surrounded and protected the town of Bordeaux.
This is a concrete building that the Germans built during World War Two. They called these buildings submarine pens because they used them to service and repair their submarines. These submarine pens are made of reinforced concrete many feet thick so they could withstand the Allied attempts to put them out out of commission by dropping bombs on them. After the War the French worked feverishly to destroy and/or remove any and all German installations from the sacred soil of France. These submarine pens were so thick and so indestructible that the French did not even attempt to tear them down after the War.
This is an interesting restaurant I found during my perambulations around Bordeaux.
This doesn’t exactly look like gourmet food to me. But what do I know? I think Steak N Shake is gourmet food.
I met John and Jan at their apartment at 5:00 PM for a glass of wine 🍷 before dinner. At 6:30 we strolled down the street to have dinner at a local brassiere. John had the salmon and Jan and I had the Italian salad. We also had a very nice bottle of the local red wine. The food, wine and company were superb and we spent a very pleasant three hours enjoying our dinner. John and Jan have been such gracious and generous hosts during my short stay in Bordeaux. I can’t even begin to tell you how nice it has been to see them and not only talk about old times but also discuss current events. They are such great people.
That’s it for today.
I hope everyone had a great Monday.
Good evening from Bordeaux, France.
AbeAndMarkontheCamino 