Travel to Bordeaux with Scenic

 Cruise Day Minus 1 – 16AUG22 Tuesday - Travel to Bordeaux

Travel from home to Heathrow airport was included. Scenic had booked a 09:00 departure to Paris where we had to connect with another Air France flight to Bordeaux. The driver came for a 05:00 departure, and the motorway that early was fast moving. Despite all the bad news in the media, we quickly checked in and passed through security, getting into the departure hall by 06:10 and had an early breakfast.

The plane was late departing (due to late inbound arrival), and there was a very long line at Charles De Gaulle airport for immigration and we thought we’d miss the connection. But even though we had to queue again for security we just managed to get to the departure gate by ‘gate-closed’ time.

But the incoming plane hadn’t arrived, so we had to wait. However, our plan to grab a quick lunch at CDG was not possible. Air France fed us with a biscuit and paper cup of water.

The good news was our hold luggage was booked through to Bordeaux. At Bordeaux we saw no customs officers and easily met the Scenic rep. There was one other Scenic couple on that flight, so we were quickly taken to a people carrier for the 30-minute drive to the Intercontinental Bordeaux Grand Hotel where we were to spend the night.

Why Scenic had booked an indirect flight when there are non-stop flights to Bordeaux from London I don’t know, neither do I know why they flew us out a day early.

We were aggrieved with Scenic for putting us through the stress of making a tight connection and making our journey so much longer.

The hotel was very nice; the room was well equipped and quiet. The hotel is centrally located, opposite the Grand Théâtre, adjacent to the pedestrianised Rue St Christiane, the longest shopping street in Europe, and a very short walk to the river.

I asked the concierge to make a dinner booking at Les Nouilles and we decided to have a glass of Champagne while we waited.

As we approached it a table became free right at the very front of a pavement cafe next to the hotel so we took it and watched the people passing by while we had a glass of Champagne which came with olives and pickled garlic cloves. Since we'd missed lunch, these were soon eaten.

We had dinner in Le Noailles, a brasserie we’d been to before that’s two minutes' walk from the hotel. There, after a long and stressful day we had a good meal and an excellent bottle of wine, the fifth growth Ch Batailley 2007, followed tarte tatin and a glass of Sauternes.

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