Francophile in the West

I had an absolutely fabulous weekend in Bordeaux with the girls!! N., V., C., and I left Nantes after work on Friday and took a leisurely four-hour train ride south to beautiful Bordeaux. I had visited the city before in 2009 on a weekend road trip, but none of the other girls had ever been. I think the city is just lovely, and there are plenty of great things to see and do. I'm so glad the four of us decided to go! One of my friends who also studied abroad in Nantes in 2009 is now a teaching assistant in Bordeaux, so I gave him a call after the gals and I got all settled into our hotel and we met up with him for a drink! He introduced us to a few other teaching assistants at a house party downtown, and then a group of us wandered over to The Charles Dickens, a local pub. They were selling bottles of the craziest beer- Banana Bread Beer! I decided to give it a try, and HOLY CRAP, it was so good!! I'm pretty sure that's now my favorite beer ever (outside of porters). It