| Bordeaux and Toulouse. One Of Them Wins, The Other Is Toulouse. |
| Written by Brendon Green |
| Thursday, 18 February 2010 10:11 |
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You can’t make cities compete against each other, it just isn’t fair. But I can’t help framing my last stops in France as a win/lose competition to be judged purely by my opinion. And in that sense, one city was a clear winner, although certain circumstances did act as possibly underhanded influencing of the judge… I arrived in Bordeaux (South-West of France) on a train travelling 1st class (3 Euro upgrade? Heck Yeah!) - and it quickly established itself as an early favourite. This is an ideal place to go if you’re doing the tourist thing, which is the gear I have changed into. Stunningly beautiful in it’s own right, I also had some very good luck with my timing. What’s that? There’s a circus in town and I can go look at their exotic animals when they’re not performing? Cheers bro, but I’ll only go in if there’s Camels. BAM! CAMELS! And Donkeys, Elephants, Tigers and Zebras! Yes, looking at caged wild animals is depressing (the Elephants were the most heartbreaking), but I wasn’t going to be the one to let a couple of White Tigers free to meet the Ostrich for dinner. I was wondering why there weren’t too many people around, until I found them. It was the last day of a special 3-day street market spanning 5 whole blocks, and everybody was there making the most of the splendid day. I was blessed with perfect weather (it was even a bit warm) to walk around town in, so I did walk. I walked by the river, I walked through gardens, down esplanades, to a cemetery, and I stopped at many of the hundreds of squares. I didn’t take the trams, I just walked. Too much apparently. My shoes finally started giving out, and I injured my left knee (which to save face I will now claim is an old sporting injury from when I was hooliganing around doing shenanigans with ‘the boys’), and it was there that I left my little tourist heaven to meet its competitor, Toulouse. I feel bad for Toulouse. It had to compete with a Paris - Bordeaux combination, I was injured, and I didn’t research my hotel AT ALL so was in a terrible position. I really didn’t vibe with Toulouse at all. I’m sure it’s a great city, and some other tourist will be lucky to find it, but let’s just say that I won’t be calling for a second visit. I mean it didn’t even pay for dinner. I did get some sweet new shoes though, so there’s a good thing. You’re welcome, local economy. Unfortunately, that’s me done in France for the time being. I really would love to see more of it, especially the smaller cities like Bordeaux. I will try not compare and pit each new city against each other from now on, but in this case the winner of the South-West of France is clearly Bordeaux. |
