Past Again - Bordeaux first Night Revisited

Tuesday 22nd December, 2009
Because of icy conditions on the road, we all had decided it best if I took the local train into Zurich in the morning so that I could catch my TGV to Paris. But this meant waking up at 5 in the morning to catch a 5:30 am train into Zurich. Oh well! We woke up early and prepared to go into town. Sue and Fritz dropped me off at the train station and waited for the train to come with me. It was so sad to be leaving them after such a short time – but it was time to move on and go collect my mom at the airport in Paris. So I got on the train, then arrived in Zurich and was waiting around for my train into Paris. I must have looked like I knew what I was doing because a couple people asked me where the TGV was (because there was a local train on the tracks where the TGV was supposed to be!). They soon moved the train and we were able to get on board. The train ride into Paris was uneventful, except for the fact I was seated next to a woman traveling with a baby. And I mean a real baby. She had the car seat balanced on the table in front of her so she looked so squished, and it was almost impossible for me to be able to get out, and to move around the train.
But it was only a couple hours, and we were only a half hour late so it was ok. My train pulled in about a half hour after my mom had already landed, so I was trying to hurry to get out to the airport so she wouldn’t freak out. Unfortunately I had to wait in a really long line to get tickets to get out to the airport because I don’t have a French bank card (which seems to throw everyone off in restaurants, shops or wherever I try to use it!). But after watching a scene with a guy who could barely speak English (and not a word of French) banging on the counter windows, demanding they sell him tickets to get on the metro. After this all happened, I was able to get tickets and get on my way out to the airport. The metros weren’t busy – but boy, they aren’t fun with luggage! After finding out my mom’s flight had been moved to a different terminal, finding the new terminal and finding her trying to figure out how to dial me on her Italian phone that she borrowed from a neighbor. We got back on the RER and another metro line to get down to the TGV train station together. We arrived at the train station about an hour early and got lunch. After her first experience with French bread, some coffee and a little less time, we found our TGV and got on the train. My mom was really impressed with how fast the trains in Europe go – but anything is fast compared to Amtrak which ambles down the track! We arrived in Bordeaux without a hitch and got on the tram lines to get to our hotel in the center city. It was a much larger city than my mom or I expected, but beautiful at night!
We finally got to our hotel, got into our room, and went out to dinner before we were too tired to leave again. I saw in a guide book an oyster bar right around the corner from our hotel and we decided to give it a try on our first night. It was less than a block away, and there were only a handful of other people in the restaurant. We ordered fish soup for the both of us to start and a sampler plate of 14 oysters for the main course. The boy who served us was nice and explained where the oysters were from while his dad was behind the bar shucking the oysters for the other tables. We also got a bottle of white wine from the region – nothing fabulous, but it complemented the oysters very well. The fish soup was delicious, if not a little rich. But the oysters were defiantly the hit of the night! They all had a very different taste and it was cool to be able to compare them all. It seemed like everyone ordered the same dish that we did in the restaurant. After eating we were exhausted, I had been up almost 20 hours and my mom was up 36 hours --- we got the bill and left for the hotel where we quickly fell asleep after catching up some more on photos together.