We loved Mailis's place. Highly recommended. Very clean and orderly. The house was very spacious for 4 people. Each of us having a double bedroom was wonderful. It was very quiet and secure in the small housing estate. The house was easy to warm if we needed to heat it. (this April was still cool - max 14'C) The kitchen was very well equipped, large fridge-freezer, two ovens, dishwasher, microwave, toaster, coffee maker and a good choice of teas and coffee was provided, as well as sugar, oil, salt and pepper. Shower gel and shampoos were provided in the bathroom. The shower is over the bath and takes a little time to adjust to the right temperature, but two basins in the bathroom are great and two separate toilets too!
It was an easy walk (5 mins) to the number 10/43 bus stop with the 10 bus coming frequently, which got us to the efficient tram system very easily (2 stops). We bought a 7 day pass for our four days (bought at the TBM office at Quinconces) which worked out to be very economical as it included the ferry, trams and buses, even to get us to the airport (the A tram to Lycee Merignac and then the Number 1 bus to the airport, or number 1 bus all the way to the airport from Gare Saint-Jean, the main station, approx 1 hr). The tour bus was very informative and gave us a good overview of the City and its history.
Musee des Beaux-Arts and Musee D'Aquitaine were very good: not too large and with good variety of exhibits. You need a lot of time for the Cite du Vin, or alternatively try the Wine and Trade Museum (Musee du Vin et du Negoce). The ferry for a trip on the river Garonne was lovely.
The host and her parents were outstandingly helpful to us. Thank you. Bordeaux is a great city to visit, great transport and not too big and with plenty to see and do, plenty of small and large restaurants. We thought about queueing for the opera on Wednesday night when we could get in for £8 each for the green seats but would have needed to start queuing about 5pm for the 8pm start to be sure to get a ticket (only 150 or so are offered). The electric cars were also something we would have liked to have hired, very reasonably priced and a really good idea for a city to offer.
The house is not very near to a patisserie or shops (though that might be that we didn't find them) but there was a cafe with patisserie and restaurant next door at Forum, where we got the B tram into the City. Both were very good places to eat. The 43 bus terminates at Forum which made it easy to use. And there is a supermarket at Peixotto which was also on the B tram line and number 10 bus stop.