Bordeaux, sort of

Here's a pic of my friend Florence and her family at my last night gig in Paris. Her son was sleepy and not as impressed, but little Cosma on the right, was hyped and screamed the whole show through!
Here's me in Bordeaux proper (I only saw actual Bordeaux for about 45 minutes on the last day, directly before sound check at the venue.) What I saw, was quite nice, but I have no real opinion.

Lacanau Ocean - horses at the hotel/resort

We stayed 2 hours away from Bordeaux this time, only 29 kilometers, but with traffic and a bus with a trailer attached, it took 2 hours. Our hotel was more like a summer camp than resort to me. There were horses, a ping pong table (never got to take advantage of this one), a spa, a pool and bicycle rentals. Since we left so early each day for the gig, we didn't really have much time. But what we all did do several times was to rent a bike for a half day at 6euros, a bargain compared to cabbing it. With the bike, we could ride from the middle of nowhere to the beach which was about a 10-15 minute ride away.

My best tour buds Judith and Bunny at the resto

The first night, upon arriving at 7pm, we went to dinner in town at the beach and rode, 8 deep, to the main strip. We had dinner at this beautiful restaurant with tons of African, Asian, Cuban and Polynesian decoration: basically anything exotic and carved of dark wood. The food took forever, a la France, plus an extra hour, so 3 hours later when dinner was finished a little before midnight, we see lightening through the glass ceiling (we moved from a hut table outdoors to an indoor table once the trees started to sway a la Gilligan's Island.) We wait to try and leave at a strategic time, but the waitress takes another 30 minutes to bring the bill and one coffee for someone (they can't imagine how you wouldn't want a coffee at the end of the meal.)

So now, you've got more than 7 adults trying furiously to unlock our bikes from each other (made a big chain of bikes since there were no posts) and beat the rain. It's barely sprinkling when we start. It's pitch black, and all you can see are these teeny headlights and a bunch of red bicycle brakelights in front of you. We ride in the street, trying to backtrack our way to the city. I remembered very well, having been dubbed by the hotel woman giving us directions as "a serious person" as she thrust a map into my hands which I then crumpled into my backpack purse.

There's a serious electrical storm happening somewhere - lightning lights up the black sky about once every 10-30 seconds, but no thunder noises or much rain. Somewhere about three quarters or halfway through the trip, it starts to pour. We all start to sqeal as everybody pedals faster and you try your best to make sure nobody's being left behind without falling over on your bicycle, looking backwards into the dark. The last couple of yards is seriously steep uphill, so everybody is alternately squealing and/or grunting loudly as we make it back to the gravel driveway of the hotel.

This was one of the most ridiculous things I've done as an adult, and one of the most memorable and fun. Everyone's inner 11 year old was thrilled. Now we're hooked on the bicycles, so for the rest of the stay, everyone uses a bicycle for lunching in the city (the hotel restaurant sort of sucks, and isn't open continually) or going to the beach in the morning before we have to leave for the 8:30 show at 3pm.

Here's more pics of the beach at Lacanau:

A lady who owns a gelato stand with her husband near the beach saw us all separately eating and hanging out and started collecting Sharpie tattoos. Here's my contribution, for which I got a free scoop of mango sorbet: