January 26, 2026 - A quiet day

This morning, we took our time getting up after yesterday’s exercise on the dune. While a load of laundry was going, we went next door to buy bread for breakfast. We have been buying a fresh baguette (only 1.10) every morning. Today we asked the baker to suggest a bread for breakfast rather than a baguette. She named them all but it’s all names that we have never heard of, so we went with the multigrain. It was good and made a nice change. 

Since we arrived Jacques had been wanting to try a restaurant that always has a long line of people waiting to get in, called l’entrecôte. We were in line at 11:15 for their 12:00 opening. They don’t ask you want you want. There is only one thing, the question asked is how would you like your meat cooked. Everyone gets a salad as first course, which had an amazing dressing. Then they serve a huge amount of tiny fries with a few slices of beef in a butter sauce. This is followed by a platter of thinly sliced meat on a stand heated by a candle. While you are eating, they walk around with huge trays of fries offering seconds and thirds. It was a delicious meal and well worth the time in line. Two ladies sitting at the table next to us told us that it is a chain with many cities having the same restaurant but the only one with long lineups is the one in Bordeaux.

Jacques' kind of place

After that meal we needed to burn off a few calories, so we took the tram that crosses the bridge on to Darwin and we went to do a few caches. The first series took us to a farm where we saw horses, hens, lambs and 3 roosters that were showing off their feathers. From there we followed a trail in the woods that took us to 3 very nice viewpoints of the Garonne and Bordeaux. It’s too bad it was a bit foggy because it would have made nice pictures. We walked a ways to do another series in another wooded section but it was muddy and not good walking terrain, so we took the tram back to the apartment.

Église Sainte-Marie-de-la-Bastide Bordeaux

Maison Cantonale de la Bastide - Performing Arts Theater 

Château des Iris

Turkeys showing off

Our geocaching outing today brought us to this great lookoff point.

The people of Bordeaux are all extremely polite. We have never gone anywhere where everyone you see says hello, good evening, have a nice day… It’s kind of nice. We have seen and experienced many young people getting up and offering their seats to older people when all the seats are taken.