La beauté du sud de la France

Day 4 and 5 on our adventures through France, we traveled and stayed in France’s Wine Capital, Bordeaux. We got to Bordeaux by the famous bullet train that could have easily been mistaken for the train that took Harry Potter to Hogwarts. It traveled at what felt like lighting speed, getting us to Bordeaux from Paris in a mere 3 hours. One of the best part about traveling throughout our trip was the time we got to spend playing cards, telling jokes, and getting to know our fellow Gusties on the trip.

After arriving in Bordeaux we set off to see all of the highlights it had to offer. We started the day seeing the Cathedral of Saint Andrew of Bordeaux where we learned that it was consecrated in 1096 but most of the construction is from the 14-15^th centuries. It was a staggering monument that was hard to believe was even real while looking at it.  

Along with the cathedral we walked around the city taking in all of the beautiful gardens and buildings that lined the streets of Bordeaux. 

We ended our tour at the Place de la Bourse which was a huge royal square that is located on the edge of the Garonne River. It was lined with little shops and people meandering about probably trying to avoid the obvious tourists speaking english and pointing out how amazing everything was to us. 

Ending our tour and saying "au revoir"  to our local guide, we headed off to our hotel so the mens team could get ready for their first match of the trip. It is always great when we have the  chance to support each other in Minnesota and what could be better than supporting each other while abroad?! 

During their game we actually had the opportunity to meet some of the women on the team that we were playing the next day. Through some translating, we got to get to know some of the players and even talk through the differences between soccer in the United States and soccer in France. It was so cool to be able to talk about our different experiences and learn some French along the way!

Our second and final day in Bordeaux we started off at the Chaban-Delmas Stadium which is known for hosting the Girondins Soccer Team and now also the Bordeaux Belges professional Rugby club. After getting to tour the stadium we set off for the great Dune of Pilat. 

The Dune of Pilat is the biggest sand dune in Europe. We may or may not all have ruined our calf muscles after climbing to the top, but the view was worth it. The Dune stands 110 meters above sea level. It is right on the Atlantic ocean and is around 500 meters traveling from east to west. We spent around 2 hours exploring the dune and walking down to the ocean which was super fun.. until we had to climb back up it to get to the other side where our bus was. It was a great way to spend the day before we headed back to our hotel to get ready for our own game against the #4 team in France. Yes you read that right.. Tune into our blog post about our games while abroad to see just how we did!