Mardi, Septembre 28, 1993. Il pleut.
It was raining when we woke up and this put us in a rather gloomy mood. Who’s idea was this? This was a phrase we repeated many times in the days to come. Virginia did her laundry and after we had our petite dejeuner we went off to explore the city.
We went down to the water front to see the Garonne river, passing by the impressive Monument aux Girondins and through the Esplandes des Quincones.
We journeyed up through the narrow streets of the city to St Andrews church.
The camera did not pick up the church because we were in such deep shadow.
A gingo tree we were told
We had to be back at the hotel Clemaceaux to check out at noon. The Clemenceau was full for mardi soir, so we had booked another hotel through the Office de Tourisme.
Before leaving Le Clemaceaux, we had a nice conversation with the lady who ran the hotel. although she did not speak much English and we do not speak much French, we seemed to communicate quite well. When we were leaving there was a demonstration going on at Place Gambetta. The march was to protest the high unemployment rate, close to 12% in France. It was very organized but a little disturbing none the less as there was some shouting and firing of guns.
We picked up our bicycles at Le Boite and continued our search for the Victoria Gardens our next home away from home. We were pleased to find it was nice and near Place de la Victoire which was a central area of the city, close to the university and very busy with students. Price 309.90 francs for three.
After settling in and having our nightly toast at cinq heures to the coffee group back at St Mary,s of the Lake, where we worked, and where it was 12:00 clock noon , we went to the Place de la Victoire and had a lovely pasta dinner. The food is very good so far. It was served by a friendly waiter who spoke quite good English. This is nice and makes life easier for us but you do not learn much French this way.
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El Camino de Santiago, Spain
Ecuador and Peru adventures
Trekking in Nepal