Saintes

Our final day in France dawned somewhat cooler than previous days. We drove up to Saintes, site of a Roman amphitheatre, and explored the ruins, learning about the layout of the theatre, and who sat where and why. When they had wild animals in the arena they closed off the bottom four rows (usually reserved for the richest patrons) and built a fence to ensure they didn’t get into the crowd – early Health and Safety! Presumably (like most H&S regulations) they only did so in response to an earlier incident. There were a number of photos around the outside which documented the archaeological dig in the early 20^th century, and then subsequent events held inside the arena, almost up to date. At the moment, it is being restored/conserved/modified to ensure its continuing safety, and also to help drain it, as it has been subject to flooding during heavy rains during recent years.  

 

Afterwards we wandered around the picturesque town of Saintes, which also contains more Roman ruins including the Arch of Germanicus. Mindful of the time, we stopped for lunch on galetes at Creperie Victor Hugo.

 

We reached Saintes station with 10 minutes to spare before our train left for Bordeaux. The train was packed, and we had to evict a pair of chancers from our seats, which we’d pre-booked. The train journey was about 1½ hours, after which we had to catch a bus for a further half hour to the airport. The bus boasted “free wifi”, but when we tried it, it said “connected without internet”, which is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Still, we were able to recharge our phones en route.

 All this meant that we’d arrived ridiculously early for our flight, which, being Ryanair, was inevitably delayed. We had a drink at the airport whilst waiting for the baggage drop to open (we’d already checked in online to avoid the criminal €55 fee to manually check in). Once our bags were dropped (will we ever see them again?) we headed through security, where we found that we’d been grossly lied to by the Bordeaux Airport website about what facilities were available airside. Basically, it amounted to a café selling baguettes and drinks, a fancy chocolate shop (why?), and the inevitable duty free franchises.

At the moment the flight is delayed by 50 minutes, so we’ll be arriving into Budapest shortly before midnight at this rate.