Bordeaux in January
 

I have booked a five-day trip in January to Bordeaux for Herself and me. The trigger was the availability of cheap flights at a time that we could travel.

I know next to nothing about the place, other than it is a gateway to some of France's finest wine producers -- But I don't particularly want to tour vineyards at that time of year, especially as we will not be able to carry wine home with us. We'll drink some while we are there!

Now I need ideas on
- where to stay: a two-star or better, or maybe a small apartment;
- where to eat: interesting food, price not too great an obstacle, and we are prepared to push the boat out for something memorable;
- what to see and do: we are not into drinking much, clubbing, or youth culture -- otherwise anything considered.

We both speak reasonable, but not fluent, French.

Our preference would be to use public transport for excursions rather than take on the hassle of hiring a car.

Suggestions welcome.

See the city website www.bordeaux-tourisme.com/

Bordeaux is not only about the outlying wine growing areas (a leafless vineyard a very boring sight, in my opinion...) The city in self is well worth a visit, with nice 18th century architecture, a grand theatre, some museums, a recently restored waterfront, the maison du vin, a few good restaurants. Taste the oysters from the nearby Arcachon basin...

You might be interested in the Bordeaux section of this report:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34523592

Friends of mine, who stayed there in October before I met them in the Dordogne, were very happy with the quality Hotel Ste. Catherine in the center of the city. Prices are reasonable.

If you stay in the city of Bordeaux, you definitely do not want to have a car. We drove from the train station to our hotel (or tried to). 10 minutes to get within 100 metres of our hotel. 30 minutes to travel the last 100 metres, via a route that involved perhaps every single street in the city, all of them one-way, several of them pedestrian-only and at least one that was one-way in the other direction ...

You might want to consider staying a few days in a moderately priced hotel the city itself (where I found a lot of the hotels to be overpriced for what you get), and then splurge a little to stay in a Relais associated with a vineyard in the countryside. For that part of the trip, you might want to rent a car for 2 days, so that you can explore.

Thierry Marx's restaurant intrigues me (we watched a documentary about him in my French class - he worked his way to where he is now from a rebellious youth, time in the military in Lebanon during the early 80s, then as a bouncer/security while learning about cooking at night school and through books). His prices seem reasonable for haute cuisine. The hotel associated with the restaurant gets mixed reviews - some think it's trying too hard to be cool - but it might be worth it to stay overnight and eat at the restaurant. Go to http://www.relaischateaux.com/en/sea...nt/cordeillan/

For a real splurge, you could stay at the Caudalie Spa and visit Smythe Haute Lafitte. Go to http://www.sources-caudalie.com/

We organised our own vineyard tours, and it took a fair bit of effort to make appointments and some good French to do it (although the larger vineyards offered tours either in French or English). My husband is allergic to tours. I think you could have a good experience booking something through the Bordeaux tourism site or the Maison du Vin, which also offers some wine-tasting courses. If you don't want to visit the vineyards (and even if it's winter, there are still interesting things to see), the tourism centre and Maison du Vin also organise wine-themed activities in the city itself.

I'd agree with Kate that driving in Bordeaux can be a nightmare - certainly during our Autumn 2004 trip the one way systems were being changed almost every day due to major roadworks in the city and it meant that even the map on the hotel website was of little use.

However, once we did find the hotel and parking the first time it was easier after that and we would not have been without our car for all the touring of the surrounding areas.

Even without visiting lots of vineyards you'll probably want to get out and about as many of the surrounding villages are beautiful and there are wonderful historic sites. The underground church at St Emilion, for example, is well worth a visit.

Public transport won't be easy, from what I could make out.

Within Bordeaux it's easy to get around by bus, tram or on foot.

Our favourite restaurant was Baud et Millet which is both a wine and cheese shop and a wine and cheese restaurant. What they do with cheese is fabulous and we ate their two or three times during our fortnight in Bordeaux. I can recommend both a help-your-self selection from their basement <i>cave</i> and the various hot dishes incorporating various cheeses.
You choose your own wine from the shop and I think they add a corkage charge for serving it to you there and then.
Very good indeed.
There are also many other tasty restaurants around - be sure to ask for recommendations.
Kavita

Thanks, all, for your contributions to our planning. I stll have capacity to deal with more suggestions.

Trudaine, you encourage me. You make it sound as if we would like the city itself, which is what I was hoping for. I had forgotten about the Arcachon oyster production, but then, I don't actually care for oysters!

Michael, I enjoyed your trip report, and it also encourages me, even though I don't expect to do much outdoor eating.

eskcrunchy, thanks for the hotel recommendation. It's on the list of possibles.

Kate, thank you for confirming that I should not want a car. I'll look into the Thierry Marx suggestion.

Kavita, my doctor would want to kill you. A cheese restaurant! Sounds intriguing. Where is it?

Er... can't remember the address - it's in Bordeaux itself.

Googled it and the address is 19 rue Huguerie, Bordeaux which sounds familiar.

We were attending the language school and it wasn't far from that which in itself was very central.

Thanks, Kavita.

You're welcome!