It has been a very French weekend.

I’ve been in Bordeaux since Friday. After a train journey in several parts (Wuppertal to Cologne, time to gasp at the cathedral in Cologne, Cologne to Paris, cross Paris, time to get some food in Paris, then Paris to Bordeaux), I arrived on Friday evening, found hotel-apartment, dashed out to the launderette and went to bed.

Saturday was a day to explore Bordeaux and also my first experience of Bastille Day. Bastille Day is a public holiday in France, even when it’s on a weekend. The morning felt like a bank holiday and I was expecting a lot of things to be shut for the day; the hotel reception was closed, for example, and a number of shops and public services were closed or running reduced services. The Tourist Information Office and the Fine Art Museum were both open, so I went to both. The art collection at the museum is excellent and well worth a visit. There are some fantastic Italian and Flemish masters paintings as well as French 19th century and Cubist paintings.

It is super-hot here, as I know it is all over Europe at the moment. I was glad to find this at the riverside:

It’s a giant water fountain that covers a good part of the old dock-side. It runs on a programme to become a paddling pool, then cool spray, then repeat. It’s like the fountains in Hull’s Victoria Square but much bigger. I waded through and cooled down on the way through, and went back for a return splash later.

After walking around the UNESCO Heritage sights (cathedral, city gates, monestry church), it was evening time and I went for a run through the city. The whole of the riverside in the city centre has been turned in to things – 1km is a sports park with all-weather pitches for all sorts of sports, with floodlights and just open the pubic for general use. Further on is a long stretch of parkland, which included some big screens and temporary food and drink places for the football and general summertime joy. It was also where people were starting to congregate for Bastille Day. As far as I could tell, the riverside is the place to hang out in any case on an evening, but on Bastille Day in particular.

After finishing the run and grabbing a quick shower, I headed out too. I picked the main bridge between the two sides of the river as a viewing spot and was very pleased to do so, for the Bastille Day fireworks, which take place in many, many towns across France. The fireworks here were set off from a barge in the middle of the river and the bridge made an excellent viewing platform.

Yesterday, I did what sensible people do in a heat wave and went to the seaside. I had seen that there were some summer holiday train tickets available, one of which was from Bordeaux to the Basque coast. This meant I could get to Biarritz for half price, so I did.

Biarritz is lovely – a bit glam in places and it helps if you have money to live there, but I didn’t feel out of place. There were plenty of day trippers like me enjoying the sunshine and the laid back feel. The beach is brilliant – the tide was going out in the early afternoon as I got there. It is well managed in terms of flagged areas for swimmers and for surfers, and lifeguards across the stretch of the beach, and showers on the beach, too. The water was warm enough to spend a long time in – a new experience for me, as I have only swum off the British coast or in the north sea in France, where it is a wee bit cooler! I also had time for a potter about the town – the seafront is a mixture of hotels and apartments, some in prettier buildings than others. There is an old fishing port, which has some cottage restaurants serving up today’s catch. There are hills – true to infrastructure form, the railway station is at the bottom of a hill to be on the flat land. You then have to go up and over the hill to drop down to the sea front. It’s a pleasant walk and it is one that I might have taken Betty, the Brompton bike, for, but then, I’ve never been good with hills on a bike. David Millar, the cycling pro, used to live here as it was a good training ground. I’m not a cycling pro.

Here are some photos of Bordeaux and Biarritz:

And true to my love of automation, here is a baguette vending machine, as seen in Biarritz:

I was on the train back to Bordeaux during the World Cup Final. It was a fun way to experience the match second-hand. Firstly, there was a Smartphone on the station café bar for anyone who wanted to watch the match while waiting for the train. There had been a power failure on the train line in the afternoon and meant that a number of trains were cancelled or disrupted. The train I was meant to catch was cancelled so I waited for the next one an hour later. Not only were two trains of Bordeaux passengers getting on, but a TGV to Paris-worth of passengers too. whose TGV was so late in getting down from Paris that it was held in Dax (45 minutes north of Biarritz) for them to catch the same connecting service to. This made a lot of sense and meant that they were delayed for the minimum possible, but it was a tight squeeze on the train for 45 minutes until getting to Dax. In the meantime, those with live commentary on their phones were keeping other passengers updated with the match. As I was getting in to Bordeaux, France were confirmed as the winners and everyone with a car and a hooter was very busy celebrating. Handy that it had been Bastille Day the day before – it meant that the same flags and Red-White-Blue lighting on public buildings could be used for a second day running. Good fun.

Now, packing and setting off for Toulouse.