More from Soulac-sur-Mer. This stop may have been my favorite place we visited. As I wandered around the residential area close to the town center, I found all these wonderful houses, and most were named! Pretty cute. Anyway, here's a bunch of examples.
I hope you enjoyed this collection. I loved wandering the streets of Soulac-sur-Mer.
At our next stop, we opted to visit a wonderful seaside (Atlantic, of course) town... Soulac-sur-Mer. This town is a popular vacation spot for the residents of Bordeaux, and many other Europeans as well. Since we were off season (and it was too cold to jump in the ocean!), we could wander freely, and did.
Our first stop was a Romanesque church. I tend to like this style over the gaudy Baroque style that pervades Europe. Romanesque style is simple, even stark, but strangely more spiritual in is basic design. No wild carvings and ornate statues (and massive expense) to interfere with a higher calling outside one's own mind.
Expand the pic and notice the posts. Not a simple, round, mundane post, but something with a bit of design to catch your eye.
The town hall and a couple hotels/shops.
Soulac-sur-Mer is a "protected" town, so with in the central district, there are strong "zoning" laws that restrict what can be done to the buildings and houses. More on this later...
Finally, a war memorial, commemorating the soldiers lost in WWI, WWII, and the Algerian conflict.
More from this town in the next post.
Next stop was the village of Bourg. It's famous for the citadel overlooking the town. We had to climb up to visit it via a cool archway. Again, there is a long history involved here, hopefully the link will provide more info.
Our next stop was Blaye, and we were in luck. The weekend feature a huge wine festival in the old citadel.
Our intrepid duo on the bastions...
Reaching Bordeaux, we immediately boarded the boat (ship?) and began our cruising up and down the Garonde and Dordogne rivers. First stop was Libourne, but St. Emilion was the first tour. We went rogue with Miriam hiring a taxi to take us for lunch at a small cafe she found on a previous trip. Lunch was fine, but it was the desert to die for... Grand Marnier soufflé!
Part of the tour was an underground church. Pics were hard in the dark, but here are a couple signs describing the site, a feature of this medieval, romanesque village.
The next day, we walked around Libourne. Let's start with the town hall.
The city hall is at a large, central square. Below the square is an amazing market. Every kind of food, meats, fish, veggies, baked goods, prepared foods that you can imagine... in this huge, underground space. Way too much to photo, and I couldn't find a good link, but I would have bought one of everything... Wandering around I found a very unusual store front, but a pic of this will have to wait, stay tuned...
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