France City  -  Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city in the south-west of France, with 925,253 inhabitants in the metropolitan area at the 1999 census.

It is the capital of the Aquitaine région, as well as the préfecture (administrative capital) of the Gironde département.

Its inhabitants are called Bordelais. More>>

 
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Local Attractions - places to visit

Bordeaux is classified "City of Art and History". The city is candidate for being included in the UNESCO world heritage list.

• List of Landmarks and Monuments:

  • Esplanade des Quiconces
  • Colonnes des Girondins
  • Grand Théâtre
  • Allées de Tourny
  • Cours de l'Intendance
  • Place du Chapelet
  • Pont de Pierre
    
    
    
    
  • Cathédrale Saint-André
  • Tour Pey-Berland
  • Eglise Sainte-Croix
  • Basilique Saint-Michel
  • Palais Rohan
  • Palais Gallien
  • Porte Cailhau
  • La Grosse Cloche
  • Eglise Saint-Eloi
  • Place de la Bourse
  • Place du Parlement
  • Place Saint-Pierre
  • Rue Sainte-Catherine

• Museums

  • Musée des Beaux Arts
  • Musée d'Aquitaine
  • Musée des Arts Décoratifs
  • Musée D'Histoire Naturelle
  • CAPC
  • Musée National des Doines
  • French Cruiser Colbert
  • Vinorama
  • Musée Goupil
  • Casa de Goya
  • Cap Sciences
  • Centre Jean Moulin

• Festivals
  The city also offers festivals troughout the year : Novart, Mira, Wine festival...

• Cinema, Theatre and Music
  Bordeaux offers a large number of cinemas, theatres and is the home of the National Opera of Bordeaux. There are a lot of music venues of different sizes.

• Media

  • Sud Ouest is the regional daily newspaper.
  • TV7 is the local TV channel.
  • Wit FM and Blackbox are local radio stations.

Recreation - sports, outdoor, leisure    

The Stade Chaban-Delmas is the largest stadium. It can host 35000 spectators. There are two major sport teams in Bordeaux:

• Girondins de Bordeaux is the football team. It is part of the League 1 in the French football championship.

• The Stade Bordelais team is part of the Second League in the French rugby league championship.

• Bordeaux is the home of one of the strongest cricket teams in France, "Bordeaux-La Brède".

Access / Local Transportation    

• Map of region (thumbnail on main page)

• Road
  Bordeaux is an important road and motorway junction. The city is connected to Paris with the A10 motorway, with Lyon with the A89, with Toulouse with the A62, and with Spain with the A63. There is a ring motorway called "Rocade" which is often saturated. The project of another ring road is being discussed.

• Train
  The main railway station, the Gare St-Jean near the centre of the city, welcomes 4 million passengers a year.

• Plane
  Bordeaux is served by an international airport, located 8km from downtown in the suburban city of Mérignac.

• Port
  The port lies on the Atlantic Ocean and the Gironde estuary.

• Public Transport
  Bordeaux has an important public transport system called TBC. This company is run by the Connex group.

Culture    

Bordeaux is home to one of Europe's biggest 18th century architectural urban areas, making it a sought-after destination for tourists and cinema production crews.  More>>

Economy    

Bordeaux economy includes Wine, Laser, Aeronautics and Tourism. Bordeaux is the largest wine region in the world, with an annual production of over 700 million bottles. More>>

Education    

University of Bordeaux is one of the largest campuses of Europe, accomodating around 70,000 students. Bordeaux also has numerous public and private schools offering undergraduate and postgraduate programs. More>>

Geography    

Bordeaux is located near the European Atlantic coast, in the south west of France and in the north of the Aquitaine region. The city is built on an arc of the river Garonne, and is thus divided into two parts.

Population    

As of February 2004 estimates, the population of the city reached 229,500 inhabitants.The city contains a diverse range of people. Much of the population is French, but other sizable White groups are Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, and German.

Famous People    

Bordeaux is a birth place for many famous people. Some of the people who born in Bordeaux are listed below:

• Decimus Magnus Ausonius (c. 310-395), Roman poet and Rhetorician
• Bertrand Andrieu (1761-1822), Engraver
• Jean Anouilh (1910-1987), Dramatist
• Yvonne Arnaud (1892-1958), Actress
• François Bigot (1703-1788), Last Intendant of New France
• René Clément (1913-1996), Actor, Director, Writer
• Damia (1899-1978), Singer
• Lili Damita (1901-1994), Actress
• Danielle Darrieux (born 1917), Actress
• Eugène Goossens (1867-1958) Conductor, Violinist
• François Mauriac (1885-1970), Writer, Nobel laureate ]
• Édouard Molinaro (born 1928), Film director, Producer
• Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), Philosopher
• St. Paulinus of Nola (354-431), Educator, Religious figure
• Pierre Rode (1774-1830), Violinist
• Jean-Jacques Sempé (born 1932), Cartoonist
• Richard II of England (1367- 1400)
• Jacques Ellul (1912–1994), Sociologist, Theologian, 
• Georges Antoine Pons Rayet (1839–1906), Astronomer,

Credits : This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bordeaux".