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A lot has happened since my last message to all of you and I know that you've been waiting patiently, so let me lay it down.

1. Leaving Paris
I packed up my bags from where I was staying with Matthiew in Les Halles and took the tube to Montparnasse station to grab the 4pm TGV (french for Ludicrus Speed Train) and make my approach into the countryside of France for the first time. The first thing that I can tell you is that the train was beautiful, like the Accela but with an accent. I took my seat and we were off within minutes we had reached warp 5 and I was beginning to get dizzy looking out the window ( just kidding) but the speed of the train does something wonderful and terrible at the same time. Because you are moving at such a terribly fast rate, the gorgeous world outside the double-pained glass looks surreal, almost fake and in that respect you loose some of the elemental beauty of a train ride through the country. There is no glunk-caclunk of the wheels of the train as they pass over the welded gaps in the track, no gentle rocking and no connection with the outside world. That being said I will say the view from my window was spectacular. Large fields of grass, mint green would cover vast areas of lanscape, rolling and undulating with the terrain and then would smothered by a million small sunflowers checkering the view from yellow to green and back again. (there are some shots on flickr that attempt to show this but as you will also see it was difficult to have the proper words for what I was seeing.) I tried to write in my journal, but fell asleep soon afterwards.

2. BORDEAUX - NOTHING TO WHINE ABOUT!
I arrived in Bordeaux under grey skys and a cool breeze that shook the wonderlust right out of me as if it to say, HEY wake up you need to find a place to stay. I was having trouble getting in touch with my contact in Bordeaux and was on my own for the night. I happened upon a hotel near the station and just checked in and dropped my bags off and immediately left in search of a bottle of wine and consumables. I had read in the dead-weight piece of shit book that I bought called Europe on a Shoestring (seriously it should be called, Europe - If you had a time machine! Nothing was where it was supposed to be, and a little genuine brain power could have saved me 50 bucks and about 1.5lbs) said there was a place called Cassoulette which was affordable and good. I stopped over to find it near the Place de Victoires where it was located which essentially was a piazza that housed a university and boarded the good part of town and the not so good part of town. I was a little disoriented, because a part of me expected to find a train station made of grapes or something. I really wasn't expecting so much of a city, but then again, I've never really been anywhere, and I don't think I had any real idea of what to expect. So I found the place and the food good, nothing ground breaking, but solid and good. I had a bacalou which, if Ignacio or anyone from Il Buco reads this, I will tell you it needed salt. I tried to get drunk that night and ended up drinking a whole bottle of some house wine which wasn't bad to tell you the truth. Everything over here tastes different, not always better but different. For example, I have a guilty pleasure, TWIX. I admit it, however, when I tasted the twix here in France, the cookie part tasted like it was just baked. It was amazing! I couldn't believe it. So there you go. I wandered home, succesfully inebriated and with a belly full of typical french food.

3. BORDEAUX PART DEUX - ALEXANDRE THE GREAT

The next morning I met Alexandre, the childhood friend of a friend of mine at the train station. Alex played rugby and as soon as I sat down in his car, I noticed a ring from a Cohiba cigar. I could tell that he was the kind of person who had his passions. He was kind enough to take me for lunch and was letting me sleep at his apartment for a couple of days while I explored the town. As soon as we got into the car, I realized how stupid I was. The town of bordeaux was small, but once you crossed both the proverbial and literal tracks, you found a whole new world of limestone facades and spires and copper fountains spitting in every direction. The weather had changed and the skys had turned from Grey to a powder blue. As Alex and I struggled to understand each other, he not speaking much English, and I not speaking much french. I figured this out early on in my excurtions, that I may have thought that I could speak french, but I cannot. I can however understand 90% of what is being said, which only allows me to point affirmingly at what I want. We parked the car and sat down to a really great bistro right in the middle of the town with Alexandre's wife Nathalie. She is a lovely woman and they immediately made me feel at home in their company. It was easy to feel at home, especially since Nathalie explained how the French love to drink during their lunch. I agreed and took another glass of wine. Its easy to enjoy yourself in France especially when a bottle of Bordeaux is readily available.


This is part one of this post and stay tuned, this friday I will upload the rest of my photos, and finish this blog posting. Sorry everyone to cut it short, but its 80 degrees here in Biaritz, and I'd rather be surfing then typing. I know you'll understand.

Talk soon,

Aaron