1st stop: BORDEAUX. Yup, as in the wine.
Bordeaux is gorgeous. We got out the train station and immediately I had to remove sock/sweater layers that Paris stiiiill required. The sun was strong, the boardwalks hot, the walk to the hostel not very far. We dropped off our backpacks and headed out on the town. My God, it was beautiful. There's a river that crosses through the city that adds to beauty. As do the 400 year old buildings.
And the super friendly people. And the ability to wear sandals after three months of boots in Paris!
As we were walking through the old village area, we happened upon a certain stone in the ground:
We were standing just in front of the house where Montaigne's Essays were printed! T'was very cool. Meanwhile, as I was standing upon this stone, my friend happened upon one of the prettiest little coffee shops I've ever seen. We had a cup of coffee while talking to the friendly owner and his wife. Just to give you an idea, here's a piece of the store's back wall:
Roughly translated as: "Nobles and traders are all here welcome, and can sit together without offense [...] to have a coffee far from noise and from blame.
Extract of the rules of coffee houses, beginning of 20th century"
!! What fun.
The auberge (hostel) was great - we met a really nice group of Brazilians (who have a special place in my heart from here on out, thanks to Aline). Shabbat was really nice - it was amazing to have walked around a city that didn't feel particularly Jewish and then to open a synagogue door to the sound of a room full of Jews singing Lechah Dodi. Moments like these have been among the most moving and impression-making. The locals welcomed us delightfully and it was fun getting to know some of the youth as well as the adults.
On Sunday we went to Saint Emilion, a gorgeous wine village whose first grapes grew in the 2nd century CE, and whose history begins in pre-historic times. Incroyable.
IRUN/ SAINT SEBASTIAN
So apparently while we were squishing grapes in Bordeaux, someone was doing the same with the Earth and a volcano happened. We met people on the train who were traveling from Paris to Madrid in order to get home to the U.S. Oh, but that's because in conjunction with the volcano (say Eyjafjallajökull 10 time fast, or once), the French trains decided to go on strike. Luckily, M and I were headed to Barcelona. The only disruption we experienced was having to stop in Irun/ Saint Sebastian for a night. Considering that some people fly to Europe just to honeymoon in Saint Sebastian, we didn't feel too bad for ourselves. Gorgeous evening, waking up to the Spanish sun, 8am train to Barcelona.
Incidentally, M and I sat across from two primary school teachers. Also incidentally, my friend and I back in Paris were working on a research project on diversity in Parisian primary schools, based largely on interviews with teachers and students. Bingo! The conversation that followed added about two pages to our final paper.
Next stop...
