To see more photos and highlights of our trip, please visit our Instagram account sylstevetravels. Sweet because this city was a wonderful way to the end of our 6 month European tour but bitter because we realize that our journey will be over in a matter of days. Yet we are excited about the prospect of soon returning home to our family, friends, and our Toronto lives and routines. Bordeaux is the 6th largest city in France with an incredible history, architecture and energy.
Click here for a detailed tourist map of the city part screenshot below. As with most public transportation in France, there seems to be an honour system where you are supposed to buy and tap in with your ticket. Side note: This, in fact, happened to us later in Bordeaux when we tried to use train tickets a day earlier than intended. We were fiercely reprimanded by the train conductor who demanded that we pay him 50eu on the spot.
No one was waiting for us and we bolted away on our bikes as fast as we could. The day after we arrived in Bordeaux we rented bikes from Pierre qui Roule which was right around the corner from our Airbnb. We figured the best place to start exploring the city would be along the Garonne river so off we went.
We cycled all along the west side of the Garonne, crossed the Pont Jacques Chaban Delmas , then cycled on the east side of the river to Pont Pierre , a beautiful pedestrian-only stone bridge. We were very happy to have bikes because Bordeaux is a large city! We were also thrilled to discover that Bordeaux is very biker-friendly with many bike lanes around the city.
In general drivers are respectful towards bikers and we feel very safe cycling everywhere. However, at this time of year the roads and bike paths are often heavily congested with people and cars especially in the afternoon and evenings so cycling becomes a bit of an obstacle course as you weave around trying to avoid hitting people and things.
