Soaking up cafe culture on the leafy streets of beautiful Bordeaux, just steps from our hotel

Our hotel was an imposssibly elegant restored mansion

Bordeaux is kind of a stopover for us — to break up the trip down the west coast of France to Biarritz. But it’s a darn nice place to stop for a couple days. We’ve been here twice before, and it just might be one of our favorite cities in France.

What makes Bordeaux such a great place? It might be the super elegant neo-classical palaces that line the river Garonne. It might be the energy in the sprawling pedestrianized city center — one of the world’s largest. It might be the prevalence of great food, bustling cafes, and lively bars. And it certainly has to do with the wine culture that overlays everything in this city and the region.

Oddly, following our first visit to Bordeaux 10 years ago, we wrote that “We just didn’t get it” when it came to drinking Bordeaux wines. We loved the city and maybe even the presence of wine culture, but we just didn’t appreciate the wines themselves when we tried them. For many years, I’ve said that red Bordeaux wines taste like licking a Band-Aid.

But this time was different! Over the past decade we’ve both learned to appreciate the blends that make up Bordeaux wines a bit more, particularly the reds. And earlier in this trip we’ve begun dabbling a bit in some of the Bordeaux whites. And here in Bordeaux this time we learned a bit more about the geography, the grapes, and the wines by visiting the Cité du Vin, a huge museum about all things wine. All of this has enhanced our love for this beautiful city and its great wine tradition.

We had a lovely dinner just underneath the 11th century Cathedral of Saint André

A tour of the Cité du Vin wine museum helped enhance our appreciation for the local hooch

We’ve also come to appreciate the super plump and mildly briny Gillardeau oysters from the West coast of France

This amazing park was about a block from our hotel

Another world class dinner in Bordeaux

A grand fountain on the way home from dinner

We watched some of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics with locals in an atmospheric pub

A gorgeous street scape in Bordeaux, including our Olympics pub on the right

The Hotel de Ville (city hall) at the monumental core of Rennes

A funny thing happened when we arrived in Rennes. It became summer! Rennes is the capital of Brittany, and unlike everyplace else we’ve been in the region, it’s inland. That means goodbye to rocky coastlines, moody weather, and screeching seagulls. And hello to warm sunny weather for the first time. We really enjoyed the cool weather the last three weeks, but it’s nice to feel some sunshine again.

Rennes has a nice blend of the things we love about cities all over France — grand monumental architecture in the civic center, a medieval quarter of crooked wooden buildings, a grand cathedral, lively stretches of outdoor restaurants and cafes. The place had a very nice feel for a couple of days.

The best part of our arrival was ditching the car. And now we’ll be traveling by public transportation again, probably for about a month. From here we’ll take trains south, roughly along the Western coast of France. Next stop: Nantes.

The opera sits across the main square from the Hotel de Ville

Shopping in the colorful and interestingly named Rue le Bastard

Our room came with an amazing terrace to enjoy the summery weather

Soaking up the atmosphere

People around here make some beautiful food

The medieval quarter

On Saturdays, Rennes boasts the second largest public market in France

More market splendor

The stunning Neo-classical interior of the 17th century Cathédrale St-Pierre

Jim insisted on getting his picture with this cobbler. Or wait, is it possible I insisted on this, expressly against his will?

The 16th century church Eglise Notre-Dame de Croaz Batz overlooks Roscoff and its harbor

Our next stop, Roscoff, is on the northern coast of Finistère (roughly, “end of the earth”), the westernmost department of Brittany. Finistère has the longest coastline of any department in mainland France, and it’s the kind of rugged, moody coast that we expected of Brittany. Dramatic tides sweep in and out of these beaches. Seagulls squawk and swoop above. And the long summer days produce big flowers and lush foliage.

The weather is also pretty rough and moody. Cool, gloomy mornings have been yielding to a little sun by mid-day and high temperatures in the low 60s. It’s really not bad touring weather at all, but it’s just not what we expected in mid-July. My mostly summer wardrobe has been packed away for over two weeks in favor of the jeans and sweaters I brought in case it got cold.

The pretty town of Roscoff

Choucroute de la mer — sauerkraut with a pile of local seafood

We went past the church just as a wedding party was entering

And there go the final entrants

Our hotel had a restaurant with a Michelin star. We dressed up a bit and enjoyed a fancier meal than usual.

We don’t have dessert very often. Jim went full on strawberries.

The days are long here, so we had to stay up pretty late to catch the Bastille Day fireworks. It’s even still a bit light, though it’s well after 11:00 pm.

We made one momentous decision here about the rest of our summer in France. We had expected to take a drive outside of Roscoff to see a coastal area known as the Pink Granite Coast. But once we’ve arrived here and parked our car, we can’t stand the thought of getting back into it until we have to. A similar thing happened earlier in Dinard when we wanted to do a day trip to Dinan. We ended up taking an hour-long bus ride to Dinan instead of a half-hour drive with our own car. We so much more enjoy the adventure and relaxation of taking a train or a bus someplace than the ordeal or driving and parking.

We already have plans to return the car we have in a few more days. Then we’d planned to pick up another one 10 days later for the entire month of August. After discussing how much we loathe dealing with the car, we canceled our month-long reservation for August. I think we can swing trains and buses for most of that period, even though it will sometimes add a few hours here and there. We’ll probably need a car for a week or so in the French Alps, but we are thrilled to have knocked off a few weeks of car travel!

Unable to bring ourselves to drive to the Pink Granite Coast, we instead decided to take a ferry to Ile de Batz, just off the coast of Roscoff for the day. The island is home to just 449 residents and is free of motorized vehicles. I was mildly worried about the amount of walking we’d have to do to get around the island, since my knees have degenerated to such a state that walking is very painful. (Not to fear, readers, I have knee replacements scheduled for this fall; this is my last major trip with messed up knees!) But quickly after we arrived we walked past a bike rental place. It is amazing how joyful it is for me to see places from a bicycle. You move a little faster than walking, and it is totally pain free for me.

This turned out to be a perfect day. The was the Brittany that we were seeking — the rugged coastlines, hardy and industrious people, houses and fences made of stone, perfectly manicured gardens. Followed by a lovely lunch at a friendly cafe overlooking the beach.

Our summer in France has been wonderful so far, and it promises to get even better — with less car and more bikes, buses, and trains. That suits us very well.

One of many beautiful stone houses on Ile de Batz

Biking past the lighthouse on Ile de Batz

What a beautiful place

This is how I love to see places — pain free!

Jim looks out at the beach, contemplating whether this is the right take to take a swim in the icy cold La Manche (known on the other side as the English Channel)

He goes for it!