Jet Lag (Yawn)

Our flights over from Seattle to London to Paris were uneventful (Thank God!), and we arrived at our hotel (The Paris Marriott Opera Ambassador) around 5:30PM on Wednesday, 26 March.

Although we were (and still are) jet lagged, we took a long walk south to the Tuileries Garden and then west toward  Place de Concorde and the Champs Elysees before heading back to the hotel.

A relatively quick dinner at the hotel bar and we were ready for bed by 8PM!  We managed to stay awake until 9, but barely.

After a few hours of deep sleep, we were wide awake at 4AM!  Dang it!  By 6AM we were both showered and ready to face the day...Breakfast at 7AM and at 8AM we were ready for a nap.  Ugh.

Au revoir to Paris - we'll be back in May at the end of our trip.  On to Bordeaux!

The train to Bordeaux left Gare Montparnasse in Paris at 10:45AM and we arrived in Bordeaux about 2:30PM.  We enjoyed watching the countryside roll by on the way south -- it went from flat, to rolling hills and eventually vineyards...lots and lots of vineyards, with very old vines (extremely thick trunks).

Caught a taxi to our hotel (The Grand Hotel de Bordeaux), checked in, and then took a walk around town.  Found our River Cruise boat was docked and walked by to get a first hand look at it.  It looks very comfortable and we are getting excited for that leg of our trip.

In our walk around Bordeaux, we found a specialty shop that sold gluten free items!  I bought some bread and crackers and will take them on the cruise.  We also stopped at a market and bought a couple bottles of wine since the wine here is fairly cheap ... unless you purchase the one that they place in your room, then it's very expensive! The 1/2 bottle in our room is 35 Euros -- I bought a bottle of Chardonnay at the store for about 5 Euros!

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant.  They opened at 7PM and we were the first customers.  :-)  We had to eat early because we were having trouble staying awake!  The food was excellent.  They even had a gluten free bread basket for me!  If you look carefully in this photo...you might see a 'photo bomb'...

Our hotel from across the square.

The view from our room.

Today we will explore one section of Bordeaux.  We will be back here for a day at the end of our cruise so we will get another day of sight seeing in then.

I've been awake since 3AM (GRRRRR!) and it's now 7:30AM and Arne is still asleep!  No fair!