Arrived in Bordeaux

19th September. Another wet trip, this time under power as the mast is
down, took us to Bordeaux today. The current was much stronger than we
expected from the tidal diamonds in the chart of the Gironde and Garonne
(in places about 4 knots instead of the expected 2 or so as this was a
smallish neap tide) so it took us much less time than we expected and we
were in good time for lunch.
We moored to the Ponton de l'honor which is a new pontoon on the left
bank downstream of the pont de pierre and is very handy for the centre
of the town. The harbour master in Pauillac had made a reservation for
us but actually there was no other boats on the pontoon other than an
excursion boats until 2 boats travelling downstream arrived on the ebb.
As it was very wet we did not take any pictures, but the scenery we
passed on the way was a mixture of very rural (complete with fishing
huts), large docks, power stations and other industrial sites and the
odd chateau and ruin. The Vauban fort at Port Medoc was just a green
mound and we were too far away to see what Blaye was like.
This afternoon we had a walk round the centre of Bordeaux and got some
information from the tourist office on things we can go and see
tomorrow. Our first impressions of Bordeaux were very favourable,
though we noticed that it does not have the architectural variety of,
say, London and I suspect that a lot of it was built in a relatively
short space of time or the builders were constrained to match the
original style; we may find out tomorrow!