Bordeaux

Friday 7/23 (cont'd) - I believe I wound up falling asleep on the bus because I woke up when we stopped at a toll booth with a big traffic jam. That was the first really big traffic jam we encountered during the whole trip. It probably took about a half hour to clear and then not too long after we arrived in Bordeaux (about 6:30pm). Bordeaux is a beautiful city, second largest city after Paris. What we saw of it in our two day stay was a city of 12th, 13th and 14th century architecture intermixed with modern buildings and rail transportation. Where we stayed was just off the main boulevard that ran along the canal. I think it was probably Bordeaux's version of 5th Avenue and Times Square. There were restaurants and hotels pretty much all around us intermixed with an old opera house and just across from green space area complete with skate park and other retail that ran along the canal/river. The Individual Time Trial scheduled the next day would start within easy walking distance of our hotel. When we crossed the canal into Bordeaux we were stopped because they had closed the main road to set up the time trial barriers and start area. After about a half hour of sitting on the bus about half of us got out a walked the mile or so to the hotel. It was a beautiful early evening and Bordeaux is a really interesting and pretty city. After checking into the hotel and to my surprise my own room with no roomate, we were free to explore the city and restaurants for the evening. The Hotel Normandie was very nice, pretty modern with balcony windows straight out of Romeo and Juliet and the much appreciated AC. It wasn't that hot in France but I like sleeping when it's cool to moderately cold in the room. I hooked up with three other guys and we headed out to find a place for dinner. Just a little over a block away on the square we found a nice sidewalk cafe where we ate outside. The food and wine were great and the scenery (ahem) was great as well. There was a french girl with her boyfriend we presume sitting just behind me and thankfully so. I say thankfully because she was a classic stunning french beauty and it probably would have been difficult for me not to stare. As it was, John who sat across from me developed quite the crush. We wound up spending three hours or so at the restaurant, drank three bottles of wine and our bill came to with tip about 260 Euro's. I didn't really sit down and calculate it out but I think we were looking at about $320 or so American. This was going to be my big splurge meal so I didn't mind and the food was terrific. When the young french girl (probably late 20's) go up to leave, she waved to us; What a sweetheart. After settling up with the waiter and he was excellent we headed out for a quick lap around the square and then back to the hotel for the night. The next day we planned to do a ride, hopefully on the time trial course, watch some of the riders and do more exploring. I mentioned the waiter because the tab as far as I could tell in pretty much everywhere we went included a 10% gratuity. This was not the first time that we would try and leave a tip in excess of the pre-determined amount which was understood and met with confusion. I think the french think that great service is just a part of a good meal and don't look at it as anything special. Imagine that.