Vin de Pays

Bordeaux is down in the south-west of France, not quite on the coast but on a big river. The hostel there, a big modern empty thing, was a significant change-up from the small, all-action Village in Paris. And the weather, naturally, got hotter again as well.

Most important was the first night's activity - football! Bordeaux playing Toulouse in the South-West derby, and I really hoped I could score a ticket. (For some reason, Ligue 1 hasn't caught up with all-electronic ticketing so you can only buy tickets in the town of the game. Very 20th century.)

I was surprised, though, how easy it was. Bordeaux are a big team, they finished second behind Lyon last season and are playing Champion's League this year. It was the opening game of the new season, a derby, and because Toulouse finished sixteenth last year (just safe from relegation), Bordeaux were seriously expected to win. But I basically wandered up to the stadium an hour or so before the game and paid my twelve euros for a ticket. Simple.

There were 30000 there but the stadium wasn't full; I imagine you could squeeze in almost 40k. My seat was in the cheap section, at the away end near the corner flag, but still with a fair view. It's a nice old ground, flat and pretty, and it was T-shirt weather even at 9pm so the perfect night for a game. The atmosphere was maybe a little lacking, not like in Britain apparently, there was some singing and pretty big cheers when the goals came but in between it was a low simmer. And the goals did come, in the second half, two for Bordeaux as expected. They didn't play especially well, I don't think, but the Toulouse keeper was good and Bordeaux were missing Johan Micoud and Vladimir Smicer, two walk-up starts, so not a bad sign for the club.

So that was one of my goals for the trip achieved, though more games would be great.

Went to the Musée des Beaux Arts with a German guy staying in my room, the usual assemblage of old paintings but very well presented and with a good written commentary (in French) on some of the more important pieces. Some context seriously helps the appreciation. Hung around for some of the time with a couple of humourous Brits, Ed and Steve, who live and teach English in Bilbao. We cooked a damn good meal in the hostel kitchen, tuna, tomato, beans, on rice. Excellent and cheap.

Bordeaux town centre is really nice, big and old and clean, and with a nice modern tram system which really made me feel at home. Another highlight was the great arthouse cinema, the Utopia, where I saw Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, in VOSTF form which means in English! The cinema, I have to say, had Nova cold, plush seats, ornate trimmings, small cinemas but big screens, and all in a building older than Melbourne. The movie itself was pretty funny, full of English comedy royalty: Steve Coogan, Dylan Moran, David Walliams, Stephen Fry. And Gillian Anderson in a bizarrely small role.

But Bordeaux only got a couple of days, and then closer to the beach, to La Rochelle.