Up an alley without a bus

We assembled at Southampton “airport” although it was so small that the train could stop outside. We were flying there ostensibly to save money but I think it would have been cheaper to fly from Luton. I had applied to go to Bordeaux for 14 weeks to improve my French, with expenses covered by the European Union. A week of French lessons and 13 weeks of work in the hospitality industry. There were 10 of us at the airport. 5 pathfinders had flown out a week earlier. Most were pre- or at university students. Only a few were old enough to have proper jobs. Many were going to or were already studying French at university.

Our flight was uneventful on a BAe 146, rather than one of airline’s propeller driven antiques.

We were told we were being shuttled bused to our accommodation but on arrival in Bordeaux we found this wasn’t the case – we had to get taxis. The 3 taxis travelled in convoy but they didn’t know where they were going. After 5 min, we had arrived. We were staying at serviced apartments near the airport, over 10 km from Bordeaux. We had to share single beds!! We were promised fold out beds. Later that evening we began to get our own rooms but mine had no hot water.

We tried to get the last day bus to Bordeaux’s wine festival but failed due to an uncharacteristic act of French hyper-efficiency, I had been looking at the summer timetable for 5 July onwards. We walked for 30 min to the town to find food but only found closed bars and restaurants. Finally, we found an open petrol-station and a pizza takeaway with al fresco tables. The pizza man took one order at a time, made the pizza, waited for it to be cooked and then took another order. With 10 of us, it took over an hour for us to get fed. I had a pizza with an egg on it that was like an omelette. My hunger made it taste fabulous.