We woke up to sunshine our last day on the River Royale. Early next morning we would be on our way to our replacement cruise which started in Lyon, not Budapest this time. Today’s Bordeaux excursion was to be a walking tour of the city, but even the Rambler had little desire to stroll around the city of Bordeaux, despite the nice weather.
We would take time to carefully pack our cases and then lounge about on the sun deck people watching on the promenade alongside the Quai des Chartrons.
The Ramblers were disappointed that there weren’t any tours of the WWII sites in and around the city. Indeed the famous German submarine pens, I learned later, were not that far from where the River Royale was docked and it would have been an easy walk to at least see that grim concrete structure. Unfortunately I didn’t realize this until we were back in Georgia.
Actually there was a lot of information about the submarine pens online, and many photos The Bordeaux sub base was one of a dozen facilities the Germans built on the French coast between 1941 and 1943. Made of concrete and steel to withstand allied bombing, according to local legend the concrete walls hold the bodies of 20 French workmen who had protested working on the base for the Germans. It is an absolutely huge facility, of 43,000 sq. meters which translates to 462,848 sq. ft. In a way, I am glad we didn’t try to find it as we would have been exhausted from such a long walk. Today the city of Bordeaux uses it as a multidisciplinary event space for art, concerts, opera, theater and dance. It is a very successful use of a somewhat grim and forbidding space, although I expect when you are inside, you can never quite forget what it once was.
On this last day, Uniworld had scheduled another Masterpiece event. This was titled an 1890’s sidecar tour of the city. The Ramblers were about the most retro folks on the cruise but the thought of getting into those sidecar seats and bouncing over the bumpy streets of Bordeaux was not a pleasant one, I think only one or two couples went on this tour from our ship, yet it gets good reviews on Tripadvisor. I think by the afternoon of the last day, most of the people on the cruise were ready to move on, and it was quite expensive, 69 Euros per person for an hour tour. Yet again, in checking online reviews, the response was overwhelmingly positive, so I thing many would enjoy the ride.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the final excursion that was available to us; a visit to the Cite du Vin. Anyone who wanted to tour this unusual building which celebrates wine in many ways could pick up a complementary ticket at the reservation desk. The Ramblers were not sure how many people actually visited the unusual building but somehow it didn’t even intrigue wine loving me, perhaps I was tapped out on wine just for the moment. Checked the reviews recently and most visitors seemed to have enjoyed it, although one called it a giant tourist trap. Perhaps it might have been better to visit the Cite on our first day in Bordeaux, to set the scene for the cruise.
Our cases packed, Sharon helped me print out our EasyJet tickets, and now everything was in order for our early departure. We then spent time talking to friends we had made on the cruise, either on the sun deck or in the lounge until it was time for the Farewell Cocktail Reception. This always precedes the Farewell Dinner on every Uniworld cruise and the Captain and crew don their best uniforms for the event. This time the Farewell Dinner was on our last night aboard; quite often it is on the next to last night because of activities scheduled for the last full day of cruising. the food is always special and this time the Rambler really enjoyed her appetizer, fresh oysters Rockefeller from nearby Arcachon, supposedly the best in France. The senior Rambler gladly gave me his as he is no oyster fan. They were delicious!
After an excellent meal, completed with equally tasty wines, we adjourned to the lounge. Nathalie’s playing was as enjoyable as ever but we would have a very early morning the next day. After saying goodbye to many shipboard friends, we headed back to our suite for our last night aboard. Can’t leave the River Royale, without mentioning a little about our suite. We got a good bit of razzing from our travel agent friends about staying in a suite with a butler. In truth, our butler was wonderful but we didn’t eat many of the apps he served us and I certainly didn’t do justice to the carafes of liquor in the room. Neither did we want breakfast in bed. I think he was actually disappointed in the Ramblers because we didn’t take full advantage of his many services. Guess the suite life just isn’t for us!
Four AM came before we knew it, as we expected it would. We hastily got up, dressed, washed up and put our toiletries and PJ’s in our bags. Uniworld has a pretty good system for disembarkation but it is hard on those poor souls who had early flights. One gets colored plastic ribbons to attach on all one’s bags. The color denotes the time the bags have to be outside the cabin door. This is usually about an hour before your bus leaves for the air port. The crew then schleps them onboard the bus for you. After checking our cabin to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind, the Ramblers headed for the coffee bar to wait until it was time to board our bus.
As soon as we left our cabin, the housekeeping staff would be stripping and cleaning our suite, actually a very small suite, but bigger than the cabins, and then making it up for the next group of guests. I didn’t envy them their task, but every crew member we met was friendly and smiling on duty despite the hard work and sometimes demanding guests. The service is always wonderful on a Uniworld boat,
The bus arrived on time, The Ramblers boarded along with one of the travel agents who was worried about her friend who was having a hard time waking up. She finally made it, looking very bleary eyed, just before the bus left. It would not have been a good thing if she had missed the first leg of her connector for the long flight to South Africa. Before long we arrived at our destination, Billi, the economy terminal. It didn’t look so bad at night.
One thing about flying economy in Bordeaux and a few other mid-sized French towns, they have built special economy terminals for economy service. Sharon, our wonderful cruise manager, told us to be sure to get off at the Billi terminal, as that was where we would find the EasyJet counter. We have been in quite a few airports, large and small; usually they are build to show off the city to travelers. This was not the case with Billi; it looked like a large unfinished hanger, nothing glitzy about it. Later I found that the French have been complaining about the furnishings of Bilii and lack of necessary facilities like adequate bathrooms and seating. However the Ramblers were happy to see the EasyJet counter ahead of us, with a few people already waiting.
At 6AM, two smiling EasyJet employees started checking people in. The process went smoothly and our checked bag disappeared, hopefully onto our plane. We then waited in the boarding area until it was boarding time; being seniors we were the first to board and also had a place to sit while waiting. It looked to be a full plane, as a number of family groups waited with us. Everyone was very quiet and I suspect not quite awake. While we waited we could watch the sometimes very funny attempts of passengers to stuff all their belongings into just one of their bags beause of EasyJet’s one bag rule. For some it was an impossible task and they had no choice but to pay the extra bag fee.
Although EasyJet planes are not noted for their comfort, no cushy upholstery here, they were clean and the flight attendants were very pleasant and helpful. However, I admit there were moments when I thought longingly of the first class flight to Budapest we had to give up. However, the Ramblers decided that we would fly EasyJet again if we ever needed a short connecting flight in Europe. Believe me there are lots of those orange and silver planes carrying travelers around Europe. Just a note here. During the Pandemic, EasyJet has grounded all its planes for commercial flights but carried over 40,000 stranded travelers back to their home destinations.
As the flight was only an hour in length, before long we had touched down in Lyon to bright sunshine. Now we had to get off the plane and of course, there was no Jetway for us in Lyon’s economy terminal. The Ramblers no longer scamper up and down steps, and we had no idea how we were going to manage the stairs with our carry ons. However, the flight attendants solved this problem by taking our bags off the plane for us and which allowed us to grip the railing with two hands. They also provided us with transport to the terminal. While this was very nice, they dropped us off at the main terminal instead of economy. Although this was where Uniworld would pick up us, our checked bag was happily riding the carousel in the economy terminal.
The Rambler finally got directions to economy baggage, and leaving the senior Rambler to wait for Uniworld, trudged over to the EasyJet Bordeaux carousel. By the time I got there, our bag was the only one left. I breathed a sigh of relief as the exit was right next to the carousel and anyone could easily have taken it, or even worse, airport staff might have removed it and taken it to unclaimed baggage. You will know what I mean if you have ever lost a bag at a French airport.
Finally, hot and somewhat flustered, I found the senior Rambler patiently waiting, and together we headed out the door to look for the Uniworld bus. Fortunately, the Lyon airport is also a small one and it was relatively easy to locate our ride. Hopefully despite, all the problems so far, the Provence cruise would be a good one!