(That's proper French, right?)
We roll out of bed today at 0900 to blazing heat and the unfortunate realization that the campsite bakery (well, they have a small stand that sells bread from bakeries in town) is devoid of tasty things. While getting ourselves ready in the reception area at the campsite, we notice a listing for guided tours of the city centre; since Bordeaux has recently been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, we set aside our general disdain of guided tours long enough to book it to the tourism office for 1000.
What follows is a monotonous spewing of centuries and kings from an almost completely disinterested balding middle-age dude aboard a bus that whizzes past nearly everything of interest. So much for guided tours. We do come across the old German submarine bays (see the photos!) and a number of older religious edifices of various description. All in all, though, not worth the 8€ a head - Bordeaux is best enjoyed on foot or bike!
We then promptly head out to lift our spirits after the lackluster tour - and what better than wine? For 15€ per person, you get a wine glass complete with its own holder pouch and 12 dégustations from the different regional and vintage stands set up along the riverside. Since it's still incredibly hot - it seems we crossed the magic latitude line a few days ago, and are now into blazing midday heat territory - we limit ourselves to one tasting each and seek refuge from the sun in a nice (but, as you might expect, wildly overpriced) tea house under Passage Sarget before heading to a local cybercafé to catch up on our respective emails. (Yes, it is still hard to find decent wifi! This is apparently not something that impeccably cultured France believes in.)
After our siesta, we drop the bikes back at the campsite and head back in to seriously check out the wine-based festivities. What follows is about 9000 deliciousness units of wine (and wine cocktails! (and mushroom omelettes!)); I even get to help make a white wine cocktail at the École du Vin tent. Yum!
The festival is enormous; several hundred thousand people visit the Bordeaux river promenade during the four-day-long shindig, which is more than enough to thoroughly pack the area with nearly unnavigable crowds.
Bordeaux is our last major stop before the Pyrénées and the crossing into Spain. According to the Camino de Santiago map we picked up on the ferry, it's a pretty serious climb over the mountains. Are we ready? I suppose we had better be...