We just planned to stop for dinner in Bordeaux, France, but its vortex sucked us in for an overnight.
Prior to our European tour, we researched vegan and macrobiotic restaurants. After a lovely time performing at SOY Festival in Nantes, France, I planned two days off for us in the wine village of St. Emilion. It’s a very small village outside of Bordeaux and when we called ahead to ask about places to eat after dark, the hotel owner suggested we get dinner on the way in because most restaurants would be closed by the time we arrived. Luckily, it was still early enough to stop at this fantastic vegetarian restaurant called, Fast Plantain in Bordeaux.
photo credit: Carlos Jackson
The drive from Nantes was stunning. The November rain was a bit brutal, but the rolling hills, rivers, and wine vines were breathtaking. We needed to pick up a GPS, since we forgot to pick one up in Berlin when we rented the car. Jet-lag brain. We figured Bordeaux was the largest city we’d been in since Paris and we knew a GPS would be especially helpful in Italy.
We learned a difficult lesson. If you rent from Europcar, you cannot add to your rental in any other country. Europcar, does not extend its services outside the country you rent your vehicle in, as the name might suggest. The staff at the Europcar office in the Bordeaux train station said there was nothing they could do and that we should purchase one. We didn’t and forged on with our Google Maps application on my iPhone. This would later get us lost…in Italy.
Chef and owner of Fast Plantain.
My Haitian-inspired vegan meal.
It also got us lost that night, because we could not get out of Bordeuax. After dinner, we kept trying to follow the directions on my iPhone, but with the lag in reception, we repeatedly missed the turn off of the périphérique and France doesn’t have multiple exits and on-ramps the way we do here in the states. We would duplicate this confusing action a number of times before giving up and finding an Ibis hotel room for the night. It was probably best because even in daylight, this was a perplexing maneuver.
We slept well and enjoyed a beautiful lunch at Le Rohan, next to the Hotel de Ville, before a quick shopping trip to H&M. As we left the city over the Garonne river, we knew we’d have to come back someday and explore its romantic beauty.
Le Rohan
photo credit: Carlos Jackson
Hotel de Ville – shot on 35mm film