How to Get Lost in Bordeaux

It's really very easy. All you have to do is set off in the opposite direction to which you normally go (ie into the suburbs), walk for about 40 minutes, and THEN check your map to see where you are. This is basically what I spent my morning doing.



However, I did go past (okay, and into) a couple of nice shops, some cute little neighbourhood shopping centres, AND I purchased a phone card for calling NZ from one of the numerous 'ring your family for less!' shops. I also saw quite a few things which reminded me of French Club times, back in the day, which I hope to email photos of soon.

Also got to see some political material (Lorenz, lol):



Lunch was back at the hostel... I think! Am struggling to remember this day, to be honest.

Went to see the Art Museum behind the town hall, as the permanent exhibitions were free. Yay! Spent some time contemplating just how old some of the paintings were; it's amazing the history that you can find at some of those places, if you stop to consider it. I mean, paintings from the 1800s... And I still don't understand how painters do it! Getting the shadows on wrinkles of material just right, and stuff like forests. If I tried, it'd just look like blobs of paint and random dashes of colour, but they somehow make it work. Envy.

Spent the arvo combing the shops. Not a huge selection in Saint Gaudens, so was quite enjoying myself. Found a huge mall with an absolutely massive 'Auchan' shop (Vivons mieux, vivons moins cher: Live better, live more cheaply - I think this is their slogan). It had rows of about 15 checkouts on each of its approx 3 levels. Amazing. Also a pretty tasty looking biscuit shop, but I resisted... Best find was on the main shopping street, and the closest thing to NZ's Kathmandu shop that I've found (called Decat). 15E sneakers, and 9E plain, long-sleeved cotton t-shirts. Happy times.

Was too lazy to organise my own dinner at the hostel, so decided to revisit my kebab man. He seemed quite pleased to see me, and we had another long chat. This somehow got onto the topic of marriage, divorce, and how apparently, in Turkish culture, it's ok for a married man to 'have some fun,' but not for a woman. However, it is not ok to divorce because of this. Interesting...



Went for a walk across the Pont de Pierre a) because it had stopped raining and, b), because I could. Couldn't stop myself from taking many, many pictures. Here's one of the better ones.