My New-Found Appreciation for Utah and Bordeaux Round-2

Prior to my coming out here, in my naive fashion I figured it would be easy to get to an LDS meetinghouse on Sunday thanks to prevalent public transportation. Oh boy, was I wrong. What started as a simple plan to take the train on Sunday morning turned into a four-week-long quest to find and attend meetings. It turns out the trains don't leave early enough on Sunday. So, I tried calling members and bishops and left a lot of messages. Conference came up, so no one called back since it was more reasonable to watch it online. The messages I left got misplaced and I even attempted to bike to the nearest branch on a broken bike, followed by a failed attempt to walk thirty kilometers when I gave up on the gimp cycling gear. Finally, my friend and I gave in, went to Bordeaux the night before and got a hotel room. Then, the next day we walked two and a half miles-ish (I was wearing heels...) and ended up yelling at each other on the street out of frustration before strolling into a sacrament meeting that had already started in the chapel. Luckily, the members fed us at a potluck dinner afterwards and took care of us from there. Our moods drastically improved.

I now, more than ever, have a deep and fond appreciation of having a church meetinghouse on every corner in Utah. And I also have a newly acquired love for hotels that are named after me and also affordably priced (we stayed in the Hotel Regina across from the Bordeaux train station).

The day before church, we did stroll around and do some shopping/site-seeing. I shopped on the Rue Ste. Catherine, which is the biggest street of shops in the world. HAHA!! We also saw a street performer who can sing like a female opera singer, which was a shock, because when you first see him, he's this big burly dude. Needless to say, I bought his CD. We also road the Ferris Wheel at the Esplanade fair, and noticed that French carnies have totally ripped off the Disney trademark...

Previous to Bordeaux, I also visited Nérac: the birthplace of Maguerite de Navarre (who I'm researching) and summer home of King Henry IV and his wife Margot. The town is very quaint and pretty with a lot of good photo ops. It also has a church dedicated to Santa. I left my wish list on the altar where they prepare the Eucharist. I hope he finds it.