It was time to leave Paris; it was raining as we needed to walk a block from our hotel, the voco Montparnasse, to the Gare Montparnasse. People stand in the main hall waiting for the track number to be posted, often 15 minutes before departure, but we got a little more time than that. The tickets (in our case on my Apple Wallet) were checked as we entered the platform.
We boarded; for my one time on the TGV I booked the best, the full-service Inoui rather than the budget Ouigo, and in first class. I booked the upper level for the view, and the stairs weren’t as shallow with luggage as The Man in Seat 61 (helpful site for rail travel) suggested. We settled in at the seats facing each other at the end of the car, next to the luggage rack.
We took off, the train’s Wi-Fi was spotty and it didn’t work to order from the snack bar on the phone, but I went and got some food and drink as we covered the distance in such a short time, sometimes going over 300 km/h.
A crowded train, and it seemed this dog needed to move
Mustard fields
The speed displayed
On arrival at Bordeaux St-Jean station, we exited and saw the tram lines, but no apparent place to get a taxi. I needed to do some looking, and it seemed we were in front of Hall 1, and to our left we needed to go past a jutting out to Hall 2, where there’s a taxi stand. There were a few people waiting with no taxis, but the cabs came one by one until one was ready for us.
We got to the Quality Hotel in the city’s large pedestrian zone, where the driver needed to ask for the bollards to drop so the cab could enter. The room wasn’t ready even after 2, so we wandered a little, noting how lively the streets are. When the room was ready, we were impressed at how big a room it was, a suite by some definitions. Still the toilet room was separate from the other bathroom, on different sides of the bed.
After a brief rest, to eat early we went to Le Grand Café. A few pictures of crowded streets, prominent squares, and the Miroir d’Eau reflecting pool.
Place de la Bourse
Place du Parlemenr
Porte Cailhou
Miroir d’Eau
These are good impressions of a lively city in a short time, tomorrow we board the cruise, and we look forward to more time in Bordeaux at the end.
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