Question of the day: will we be in Bordeaux, or will Bordeaux be in us? If we are lucky, it will be both!
Not only a very beautiful city, full of parks and fountains, but we also give Bordeaux a big thumbs up for being a bike-friendly town. We were able to ride all over the central city very easily, with well marked lanes, directional signs, and stop lights for bikes.
In fact, we stopped in at Cyvea bicycle shop, and after their excitement in seeing our Bike Friday, they told us the entire central city was transformed in just the last 10 years. Parking was built underground, trams were put in, and many streets were made into pedestrian ways. Even the buildings are being cleaned up from the dark stains of age and pollution.
We did have some trouble with a couple of our GPS points. One Jon was skeptical of was a Roman Amphitheater, which appeared to be in the middle of a residential neighborhood. But we went to find it anyway.
It turned out to be correct. In fact, the place had started to fall apart by the 3rd century, and the neighborhood grew up on top of the ruins just a few centuries later. Only this one gate remains.
We have now started our rail-trail to Lacanau Ocean, and plan to reach the Atlantic tomorrow.