After snacking on crepes, we took a train to Bordeaux, then La Bouheyre, arriving at 10pm, where we were met by our friend Laurent, whom we had met when he visited New York last year. Here he is with one of his paintings:
Laurent drove us back to the house he and Jean share, which has no address; it's just identified as one of the houses in the little neighborhood of "Petitjean" outside of the town of Mimizan. Here's Jean on the hammock in the middle of their living room:
We had a yummy macrobiotic meal of rice, beans, etc., with the obligatory excellent French wine and cheese.
But then I saw a very inviting little mountain bike path branch off a bit, so I took that. It was paved with old stones, as you can see here:
The riding was easy, beautiful, and fun, and I saw almost no one else. The paved path I started on would have taken me to a town where I could have lunch, but I didn't know where this stone path would lead. Eventually, I ended up in a little tiny town, and kept following bike paths to the next town or two. I started having fantasies of continuing my ride all the way to Spain, but I also started getting hungry, and the few stores I saw were closed from 12-2 for lunch. So I turned around in Saint Julien en Born and took a different paved path, following signs for my original beach town destination, where I did find an open snack bar. I sat on the beach and devoured my sandwich, then rode back to Mimizan Plage, returned the bike, and got picked up by Geoff, Laurent and Jean.
Here's a panorama of the whole town, from several photos put together:
Above you can see Geoff in front of the church that dominates the town, and below Craig is closer to it:
Its largest room is carved out of the mountain under it, with modern metal supports to prevent the columns from buckling under the weight of the church tower above:
And below the church are the catacombs, which had this shaft in the ceiling to let the spirits escape to heaven (originally open to the sky):
After an excellent lunch in a sidewalk cafe we visited the champagne-maker Cuvee Saint-Jean des Cordeliers (since this isn't in the Champagne region, they can't officiall call it champagne, so it's called cremant). The champagne is fermented in underground caves from the 14th century. You can see us in front of the entrance, and the inside of the caves below:
Next we paid a surprise visit to Laurent's parents, who live in Bordeaux. They were very sweet, inviting us in for a bottle of white wine (since we'd already sampled a lot of red) and good conversation. Then we drove into the center of Bordeaux and had dinner at a middle-eastern restaurant on a plaza by a church tower. I really enjoyed the neighborhood. The buildings had an old beauty, and the people were largely immigrants; no tourists. Here's the church tower by day and by night:
After dinner we walked through Bordeax a bit. Here Craig is posing for a picture in front of an old city gate. There was a garbage truck passing by, and one of the workers stuck his fingers out in rabbit ears, as you can see on the far right side of the photo:
We had to take a picture of this restaurant, whose name means, "Too beautiful for you"
And here is a streetlight in front of a statue on a pedastal:
On our way back to Mimizan, we stopped to climb a huge sand dune by moonlight; the biggest in Europe. The views from the top of the ocean and nearby towns was lovely. By the time we got back to the house, we all collapsed into bed.