Hello dmjwineworks

dmjwineworks,

I am gratified for all your informative posts on Bordeaux and its surrounding. My wife and I will be visiting your great city soon and would appreciate your time to answer a couple of questions:

1. We will be driving to Bordeaux from Agen on a certain Friday evening (getting to the ring road by 5PM to 7PM). Heading to an area called Quartiers des Chartrons. How is the traffic near Bordeaux like on Firday night? Any precaution (driving wise) that we should take? We will use directions givien by %26lt;viamichelin.com%26gt; to the teeth.

2. What is the car parking (over night parking, as hotel does not have car-park) situation for that area? Safety and fees?

3. Your restaurant recommendations please (prefer regional cuicine, seafood, lamb, veggies...) for 3 days. Not too expensive.

merci

stephanono

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Hello stephano,

Thank you for your kind remarks; I%26#39;m glad that you have found my posts useful. To answer your questions:

1. Traffic in Bordeaux can be extremely difficult at best, horrible at worst. This is partly by design, as the municipality has been redesigning street directions and road access to actively discourage people from bringing their cars into the central city area and encourage them to take the new tram lines and the public buses. On Friday evenings when everyone is in a hurry to get home for the weekend, things are usually worse--if such a thing is possible. (And if it is raining, forget about it....) The Chartrons district is in the very center of Bordeaux, and to make things worse there is major construction going on with the extensions to two of the tram lines. Expect major delays. (I was going to suggest trying to arrive after 8pm, but the night life in town has also become popular these past few years, so although it will be a bit better later in the evening, it still won%26#39;t be ideal. You don%26#39;t mention which Friday evening you%26#39;ll be arriving, but just hope that the local football team is not playing a match that evening--with Friday evening, tramway construction and a night game, you%26#39;ll be hitting the trifecta.

2. For the situation with car parking, there is an underground public garage nearby on the waterfront. For more details on public parking in Bordeaux, see a previous post from March 7 titled %26quot;car parking in Bordeaux%26quot;.

3. It all depends on your budget. You can look at the thread in this forum from February 26, %26quot;Romantic Hotel and/or restaurant in Bordeaux%26quot; for some ideas (La Tupina for regional, l%26#39;Estacade for seafood, for example.)

Hope this helps.

Dewey

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Dewey,

Many thanks for the heads-up. I need to tweek our plan a bit based on your insightful and localized information.

merci