Shout out to AXA folks!

Hi guys

Here are a few more AXA related pix from Bordeaux. Thinking of you all... hard at work. ;p


The ever-present AXA office.


'Come and play in an AXA agency/ You might win a car!'
I'm not sure if 'play' is the right translation, but that's literally what it says!

Fine, then: Homeward Bound

Last day in Bordeaux: of course, this is when the sun decides to come out. Fortunately, I didn't have to leave until about 4pm.

My room mate from the previous night was a lady from Rouen, who I had a bit of a chat with in the morning, and she kindly gave me her contact details and said I could stay with her if I ever want to go there. Very generous offer! She also tipped me off about the trams. Turns out you could get an hourly or day pass for cheap, and pretty much just sit on them and be carried around the city. Sweet! That suddenly became my day plan.

But, first, tried out my phone card and rang Ma and Pa. First convo since their second visit to Saint Gaudens (ie 2-3 weeks), so nice to talk instead of texting... might have used up the whole phone card in one go...

So, for about NZ$8, I tootled all around Bordeaux in the trams, and quietly wished I'd tried to find out more about them on the wet days... Oh well. Didn't quite get to do all of the lines, but went way out to the suburbs in some directions, which was interesting to see (but not nearly as pretty as central Bordeaux). Check out this cool feature which allows the trams to twist around bends...



One thing I really enjoyed visiting was the public gardens. When I first walked in, I wasn't too impressed, as it was pretty much a big grassy area. However, as I wandered through, I discovered lots of pretty areas and, once again, took lots of photos.



Lunch was not exactly the pinnacle of French food, but it certainly made me happy at the time.



Started to panic a bit at end of the day, as hadn't left myself as much time as I'd have liked to get back to hostel and train station. Ooops. Turned out I was ok, and had about 10mins of sitting on the train before it took off.

Felt quite pleased with myself, as I wandered past an uncertain-looking person on the platform, and he was like "Do you know where you're going? Do you speak English?" Why, yes! Guessing he didn't speak French at all, as he couldn't understand the bits on his ticket which told him which carriage he was in, and what his seat number was. Yay... I'm finally getting familiar enough with something French that I can help someone else!

Lots of camo-clad soldiers (a few with rifles) wandering around at Toulouse Matabiau station, and a few in civvies but with a giveaway issue pack. Not sure why. Think some were going back to base, but the rifle ones were apparently patrolling. Hm. Wonder what the latest threat is?

Last hour on the train seemed much longer, but eventually got back to chez moi (my place). First time I'd travelled away from St Go (except for a day trip to Toulouse) so kinda nice to come back and realise that it's become familiar, and more like home!

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.

Bordeaux: I Went on a Bus, Got Caught In The Rain (And It Felt So Good, I Wanna Do It Again)

Rosie, if you're reading... it's the curse of the musician. I can't help but make jokes with Bachelor Girl's "I walked under a bus, got hit by a train..." song.

On day 2, I decided to do a bus tour, since Mum, Dad, and I had enjoyed many of them during our travels. This one was not such a good call, as it was only an hour long and was not hop-on-hop-off. Plus, it was kinda wet, so the usually open-topped bus had a plastic cover, which meant it wasn't even really worth taking photos 'cos of rain drops, and 'cos it was fogging up a bit. However, did get to relax, out of the rain, for an hour, while seeing sights (many of which I'd already passed on foot) and learning a bit more about them.

After that, decided to take off on foot again, and revisit some of the places the tour had been on, to get better photos.

Cathédral Saint André: one of many impressive churches in the area. Amazing that things like this are just down at the end of a street. Just chillin', casually!

I look fairly serious here, but this is the Place de la Victoire (central square). Thought I'd better take some photos with me in them, so people would believe I was actually here. Hence serious look: trying to decide whether I'd got it well-framed.

Decided to lunch the French way, and headed into a resto that I stumbled across, where I had a very nice Boeuf Bourgignon and chocolate mousse. Very, very tasty. Just as well, as it was about 20E... yeah, that's right. I paid about NZ$40 for lunch. I actually didn't expect it to be that expensive, but hey. It was very nice.



Went wandering again after lunch. Bad call. Or, at least, bad call to try to protect myself from the rain with just a jacket. My pants got soaked through: at the base because I hadn't tucked them into my boots, and at the top because of the water running off my jacket. Then, to top it all off, cars driving past on the Pont de Pierre actually splashed me. Epic fail.

I retreated to the hostel to dry out and try to stop feeling grumpy. Made the most of French tv (another luxury I haven't yet got at my place), and planned some lessons. Met a girl who studies international relations, and spoke very good English.

Ventured out again in the evening, when the rain had eased, and got some nice night-time shots.




That night: luxury. Had the 2-person room to myself. Alriiiiiiiiiight!

Working Hard: Day 1 in Bordeaux

Gotta love the life of an assistant. Not only are we pretty much paid for talking to students in our native language (admittedly, a lot harder than it sounds with some unresponsive classes, but hey), we don't really have any pressure on us in terms of students' performance, and we only work 12 hours per week.
Add to this France's tendency to have lots of holidays... Of course, I had to try to be as French as possible and faire le pont ('make a bridge') between the holiday and my weekend. I have no classes on Wednesday or Friday, and the Thursday was a holiday.
Result: I decide to make a blimmin' big bridge, and go to Bordeaux for about 4 days.


One lady on the train started chatting with me, and I said I'd decided to 'faire le pont,' but that it was a big bride. She suggested that it was more of a viaduct!

This trip was fairly spur-of-the-moment (by my terms anyway) as I just looked at where I could go by train about 4 days before I wanted to go. Booked the train tickets so I couldn't dither, run out of time, and end up staying here and complaining. Internet searched the youth hostel, and emailed them to book. Holiday sorted, all in about an hour!

Wednesday arrived, and I hopped on the train to Toulouse (about an hour) and then swapped trains to get to Bordeaux (a bit over 2 hours). Fairly uneventful, but was a bit sad to watch the good weather disappearing as we approached Bordeaux.



When I arrived, set off to the Youth Hostel, which was only about 800m from the train station. Got in, made bed, left baggage... and went on the net. OMG, free net access with decent speed! And AT the place I was living. Such luxury! But, I know, disgusting to go on the net before going out to see the new place I was in.

Spent the arvo wandering the streets, and loving it! So many beautiful old buildings, churches, classic squares with eateries surrounding... felt a wee bit like I was in 'Allo, 'Allo (in a good way).


Found the very lengthy shopping-central street that one of the surveillantes had told me about.
Also loved the way that the Garonne river runs right through Bordeaux. Apparently, I like being in cities near water. :) Not to mention the FABULOUS views from the Pont de Pierre (stone bridge: Napoleon got it built to make moving his soldiers around easier). I took the photo below on day 2, when the weather was decidedly average.



Had passed SO many kebab places when wandering through town and, while slightly lost at about 7pm, was looking at the menu at one in particular when the owner was like "please, come in." Well, I thought, he's nice, so why not? As I was the only person in the place, we ended up having a big chat, about different cultures, NZ, Turkey... Good times.

It's Hip To Be Square

I've decided that one thing which is really lacking in NZ is town squares. They're awesome... France has got it going on. It's the perfect place to have a market, sit and have a meal or coffee, put a sweet monument, meet up with your friends... or protest (well, we are talking about France, here). And they're particularly cool when they're -um, how to describe?- stone cobbled. If that makes sense.
I guess we have parks and pedestrain streets and stuff, but I can't think off too many places in NZ with an actual focal point square. Could be wrong? The Octagon comes to mind... but, apart from that, our 'town squares' aren't really that lively.
I have many pictures of the squares here in Bordeaux, but sadly can't upload atm. Will do my best to rectify this soon...