The city is a series of half-rings in a crescent shape hugging the Garonne, shaped much like New Orleans. Its location since ancient times provided stragegic and economic advantages throughout the region. More on that later.

The natives call the wine regions here 'between the two seas' because the Garonne and the Gironde Rivers both empty within miles of Bordeaux into the Atlantic.

A Night or Two at the Opera

Hurriedly drank and snacked across from the Bordeaux Opera House, then I looked at the calendar. Our tickets were for the following night!

All dressed up and no where to go but back to the hotel. Enjoyed another day of seeing parts of the old walled city and a monument to fallen French patriots. Finally, L'Elisir d'Amour, The Elixer of Love, by Doinizetti. Farmer loves girl, but can't win her over. Meets a traveling magician who gives him a potion to make him attractive to her. He thinks it works because it makes him carefree. When he wants more, he can't pay for it and has to get money by joining the army, under a commander who also loves the girl. Of course, it all works out in the end. And, the elixir? Bordeaux wine!

The opera house is one of the oldest in Europe; it's interior stairwell was apparently copied by the Paris Opera House. The ceiling is a baroque tribute to the economy of the region and its place in world trade. Grapes aplenty, but also links to the slave trade. Like much art we will see on our travels, places don't shy away from unsavory depictions or paint over them, but describe them factually in site literature or art notes.