Last spring I took advantage of a favorable calendar to make a half-cultural, half-gastronomic getaway to Bordeaux. Here’s how I organized it.

When the fine weather arrives and public holidays multiply (funny how the two often go together), it’s always tempting to take advantage of taking days off between bank holidays to get some fresh air. That’s how I came to spend ten days in Bordeaux… well, 6 days on vacation and 4 on remote work, which is a good balance.

Choice of destination

Bordeaux was a natural choice: in France and easily accessible from Paris without having to optimize my transport., the weather is generally fine at Easter, or rather the risk of bad weather is lower than in other parts of France at this time of year, and I had a whole list of restaurants I wanted to discover or rediscover there, including one where I’d never been in good timing to find a table on my previous visits.

Added to this was the fact that I’d been in Portugal a few weeks earlier and the idea of going to France (which isn’t that common for me) seemed attractive at the time, especially as it’s a city where I have many friends.

So off to Bordeaux.

Transportation

I booked a round trip in Economy on Air France to get there. Nothing more to add since I (wrongly?) expected nothing from this experience apart from the fact that arriving at Mérignac airport and not at the station if I’d taken the TGV also had an advantage: to test a newly opened hotel on the platform.

For local transportation, I used my feet, Uber and the excellent Bordeaux streetcar. Something anecdotal? Not so much. Advertisements on the streetcar show that while some people are putting obstacles in Air France’s way on routes between Paris and the French regions, others see this as an opportunity to attract local customers to feed their hubs.

Hotels

This trip was also an opportunity to do a “mattress run“, in other words to accumulate nights in order to maintain my status with Marriott. At the time, there was a promotion whereby for every night spent, two were credited to the loyalty program.

So I went shopping at Marriott:

At Roissy the Moxy Roissy for what will certainly be my last stay here after one disappointment too many.

In Bordeaux, I had two options that I had already tried out: the Renaissance Bordeaux and the Moxy Bordeaux. I’ll be choosing the Moxy for budget reasons, as it’s a long stay.

I mentioned above the advantages of arriving in Mérignac: as I was preparing my trip, I realized that a Sheraton had just opened at the airport. Arriving in the afternoon, I spent the first night there before heading back to the city center, and it was a real pleasant surprise.

Restaurants

Well, I cheated a little: having lived in Bordeaux for nearly 10 years in the past, I was on familiar ground.

So I went back to two restaurants that are a bit like “Proust’s madeleines” from that era: La Tupina and l’Entrecote.

I’ve added Maison Nouvelle, Chef Philippe Etchebest’s new Michelin-starred restaurant, where I hadn’t been able to find a place on my previous visits, because I hadn’t booked far enough in advance. An opportunity to compare it with Gordon Ramsay’s Pressoir d’Argent, which delighted us on each of our visits.

I also relied on my local insiders Anne from Papilles & Pupilles, who doesn’t need any introduction, and Jacques Froissant from Altaide, who is as good at finding good restaurants as he is at finding digital talent for your business. The result will be a Michelin-starred (Tentazioni) and one that will surely be one day (Cromagnon).

I’d add Un Soir à Shibuya, a simple Japanese restaurant I’d already discovered on a previous trip, and L’Embarcadère, perhaps my only disappointment of the trip.

Tourism

Having lived in Bordeaux for several years, I didn’t have much to discover, but as we don’t take the time to document the places we live in as much as those we visit, this trip was finally the opportunity to put together a little travel guide for those wishing to discover the city.

Bottom line

This leads to the following program and future articles.

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