Bordeaux

16 - 18 November 2015

Bordeaux is a lovely city with a fantastic public transport network linking neighbouring suburbs (which were probably once small towns).

We had our first Picard experience. It's a frozen food store with aisles and aisles of meals and ingredients. It's good quality, and really delicious. We had so much fun just looking at everything in the freezers... and then buying enough food to last us a day or two. We prefer fresh food, but we came to the conclusion that it's a good way to cater a large meal, or to have a healthy option in the freezer for when you don't feel like cooking.

On the way into Carrefour, a bigger supermarket (which is basically a small mall), we were stopped and had our bags checked. The security guard seemed surprised that they were already full of food. I'm not sure if this is heightened security following the attacks in Paris last week.

Anyway, some photos from our wanderings:

We didn't actually eat here but we appreciated it anyway

Monument to the victims of the Terreur, a period during the French Revolution when many people were executed

Pont de Pierre

One of the gates to the city

A map of the central city (the gate above is on the left. but a bit bendy)

The place where we had dinner - all our burritos are prepared with love :-)

Turtles!

Someone's memorial to the Paris victims

The theatre (and on the right, a sculpture. Part of a series that were proposed to the city, but she's one of only two that were realised)

The bridge at night

The same gate when lit at night looks quite eery

The view across the river

Even the crane is lit up!

Angoulême

14 - 16 November 2015

Angoulême is home to the largest comic book festival in Europe, so naturally, art is central to the city's identity. The street art is incredible.

Hergé (Georges Prosper Remi), author of Tintin, nose covered in pigeon poo

In case you don't know what to do

Palais de justice (i.e. court). Apparently even the modern ones are built in the same style.

A beautiful flowery fountain

All the street names had captions - Henri Dunant was the founder of the Red Cross.

  

The city is built on a hill, so there are stunning views from the edges of the city centre

This Romanesque-Byzantine cathedral was built in the 11th C

And the other side

The carved organ

And of course the posters are beautiful - it's a city full of graphic designers and artists

Why would you only have information when you can have art, too?

According to our host, the most beautiful wall in Angoulême. 

And don't miss the reflection of the angel on a building on the other side of the square

Dogs need art too

Autumn art!

Leaf punk

Our host's dog

Obelix is hungry!

A garden box outside the indoor market

Another wall (and don't miss the kid in the window!)

Angoulême's buses

The second most beautiful wall in Angoulême. Apparently it looks better without the scaffolding, but I think it looks like a puzzle someone's put together,

A wall next to a clothing store

Finn's favourite wall

I thought it was quite rebellious to graffiti in words with no pictures!

I was captivated by the layers on this wall

The view from the edge of the city

Poitiers

12 - 14 November 2015

We arrived in Poiters with our backpacks and several hours to go before we'd meet our host after work.

La mairie

A building

This is one of the oldest Christian buildings in France, the Baptistère de Saint Jean. The central building was constructed approx. 360.

The gate to the cathedral

The cathedral, constructed approx. 1162. 

The incredible detail over the doors

Although imposing, I was surprise at how bright it was inside this cathedral.

Ornate thrones for the statues, wooden chairs for the congregation.

This organ was reconstructed in the 17th C following the destruction of the 14th C organ.

Although a bit dark, this photo shows the beautiful colours of the windows.

I didn't understand the details, but apparently during the revolution abbeys and convents were shut, and the cathedral was allowed to remain open, so it has many altars, statues etc rescued from other religious institutions.

The museum full of super interesting local history dating back to prehistoric times right through to modern art.

A beautiful boulangerie with flowers hanging from the window above.

We spent quite a bit of time in Biblio Café, which is full of books and board games, and has a rabbit visit at the weekends.

Finn's chocolat viennois was super rich!

On the Saturday we visited the market with our host and his friends, then all went back to his place to share a lovely meal.

One side of the market

This stall sells goat cheese

The lovely woman rolling out pastry for börek

And cooking them

The Paris attacks occurred while we were eating kebabs in Poitiers with our host and his friends. One of them was a philosophy teacher at a high school, who was suspended and eventually left his job after encouraging his students to think critically about the Charlie Hebdo attacks and the potential causes of terrorism. While he was telling us about it all, we didn't know that more murders were occurring 300km away.

It was very sad, and we had some serious conversations about it all, but we were also surprised that while national days of mourning and states of urgency were being declared, everyone was going about their lives at the market. Then again, in the afternoon everyone gathered for speeches and silent moments outside the town hall.