Ibis Bordeaux Centre Meriadeck

... Tabernacles and then a sermon on the deep significance of marriage. We finished in time to get everything ready for the wedding. We had a scheduled beginning time of 4:10 pm, because Helen's congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan wanted to listen to the ceremony over the phone. The wedding had originally been planned to take place in Michigan, but due to the US State Departments refusal of an engagement visa ...

I had needed to get out...

I was starting to get a little antsy with things in Paris...Needless to say, one of my classes are really starting to get on my nerves, and it's not just because of the kids...

Aaaaaaaaaaaaanyways...I went on a whim and bought a ticket to Bordeaux to visit a friend out here.

Get out, get out right now!!!

Bordeaux is really nice (change of scenery). I ...

This morning I worked in the hotel room, and then drove to the Audoins' home again where I had been invited for lunch along with Hervé Dubois and Helen Hayes who will be married tomorrow. Helen doesn’t speak French, and the Audoins don’t speak English, so Hervé and I did a lot of translating during the meal, which was very enjoyable once again.

After lunch Hervé and Helen and I went through the details of the wedding arrangements and agreed to have a brief ...

... Mr. Mrs. Bernal were there too, we had a very enjoyable evening, catching up on news, comparing notes about the recent convention we had in Normandy and planning for the future. French dinner can last quite a while, but several of us were tired from the day's activities so we finished the meal at around 9:00 pm, and went our separate ways; looking forward to meeting again soon.

We spent our first day in Bordeaux relaxing and wandering around the city. Ate a few baguettes.

The next day we caught a train to St Emilion to check out the beautiful little village.

On our last day we did a wine tour of Medoc ...

... the city. We toured around the loveliest park where we drank milkshakes. Then we decided it would be fun to try to bike to the vineyard area. We failed miserably and rode our bikes home.

Yesterday was the highlight of Bordeaux. In the early morning we caught a bus to St. Emilion. We weren`t sure at which point we entered into a fairytale. Imagine walking through cobblestone streets, hearing classical opera, and seeing doves flying around church bell towers. Every ...

... night snack. March 7- It was raining when we woke up (rather late) but still a lovely temperature, especially coming from Glasgow. We proceeded back into the city centre for a specially made Knipper walking tour of Bordeaux. We saw Notre Dame, a gorgeous church tucked away near the Passage Sarget, the Marche et Galerie Grands Hommes, bought a canele (a specialty of the region and quite delicious), place Gambetta, hotel de ville, wandered around a bookstore and explored Rue St ...

... of the sweet wines. Château Clos Haut-Peyraguey is also classified as first class, but by that time I was sweet right to the back of my teeth and could not really appreciate the wines on offer. We did pass the Château d'Yquem, classified as the best first class Château and the tour guide made quite a fuss of them, so I guess they're very prestigious (read: with wines probably too expensive for us).IMH Day two we both went on a walking tour along the Garonne River and ...

... the ferry this time the twelve of us all seemed to wander around the boat in our separate ways while exchanging a few pleasantries as we passed each other. We spent the first night at a nice campground a short distance from the ferry terminal and not far from the main beach in Calais. "Don't get too used to these nice European camping facilities; they're not going to last", the drivers warned us, as we spent the afternoon going over such truck life formalities as ...