Friday, September 16. Opted for a third party full day tour, split between a trip to the coast and another tour of the Left Bank. (I had not expected yesterday’s excursion to be so thorough.) With six others, we climbed into a van and took off at the speed of rush hour traffic. Our tour guide was 10% guide and 90% driver, and that’s being generous. Spend 90 minutes getting to our first stop: the largest sand dune in Europe. It was indeed very impressive, with a fantastic view of the Ocean. My dislike of sand was reinforced, though it was a good lesson on the variety of the world’s sand. This was finely ground, where my feet sank inches in. Yearned for the Sahara’s firmness. Thankfully they had stairs for most of the climb. The guide carried up some good wine and very old plastic wine glasses. Buying new cheap glasses every year would have killed him?

Next up was billed to be a trip to an oyster farm, where we’d learn from a farmer. Instead it was a visit to one of dozens of little cafes along the harbor and a serving of four oysters each, plus non-bordeaux white wine (i.e., from the sea of non-descript French wine). I learned nothing about their farming. I was very disappointed. Yoriko enjoyed the oysters, but they weren’t mind-bendingly memorable.

Before the tour continued to the St. Estephe area, we returned to Bordeaux for a picnic lunch, which was in the guide’s dining room. A store-bought sandwich and brownie, with more non-descript wine. At this point we bailed on the remainder of the tour. We walked back towards the ship and stopped at an Irish bar for snacks and a last-chance opportunity to people-watch. It was more satisfying than driving in circles for what would probably be more poor wine and worse guiding.

Following dinner back on board we were entertained by a really fun music group. (Happily, we weren’t among those who had a 4 AM wake up call for their next day departure.) It was a good ending to our trip.