생 뱅상 드 폴 최고의 라이딩 경로

An essential starting point for Sunday group outings!

The Burgundy Gate is located at the end of the old Salinières moat, now Cours Victor-Hugo (formerly Rue des Fossés), on the site of the old medieval Salinières Gate. It marks the official entrance to the city on the old road leading to Paris. The Burgundy Gate is located on Place Bir-Hakeim, opposite the stone bridge, and opens onto Cours Victor Hugo. To replace the old rampart, Intendant Tourny decided to encircle the city with tree-lined promenades punctuated by squares adorned with gates (Porte Dijeaux, Porte de Bourgogne, Porte d'Aquitaine, etc.). Tourny wanted it to be an accompaniment to the Place Royale (now Place de la Bourse) and dedicated it to Prince Monseigneur the Duke of Burgundy on January 24, 1757. It was once the Porte Napoléon to celebrate the Emperor's arrival in Bordeaux in 1808.

The view over the Garonne to the bridge is stunning

Formerly Place du Pont, then Place Napoléon in 1843, the mayor of Cenon (at the time, La Bastide had not yet been annexed by Bordeaux) wanted to pay homage to the Emperor, to whom we owe the stone bridge. It became Place du Pont again in 1870. In 1946, Place du Lion was renamed Stalingrad, in memory of the decisive Soviet victory over the Germans, at the cost of terrible fighting in 1942-1943. Initially, it was intended to be monumental. Designed by the architect Claude Deschamps, it was difficult to build. Planned to be round, it was ultimately rectangular, filled in and leveled only in 1840. Of the uniform houses that were to line it, only those framing the beginning of Avenue Thiers remain. Over the years, a square was created there, surrounded by railings. The highly attractive square hosted a flower market on Thursdays, then, around 1860, a food market, and was also home to the popular Alcazar café-concert. In the 20th century, the reign of the automobile brought about a further transformation: from a living and meeting place, the square became a bus station for all buses on the right bank. This was until the renovation carried out at the very beginning of the 21st century by architects Brochet, Lajus, Pueyo, and Fortier, to accommodate the return of the tram in 2003. This was accompanied by the installation in 2005 of the famous Giant Lion, designed by Lyon-based visual artist Xavier Veilhan. The statue is part of the public commission placed by the CUB (Bordeaux Urban Community, now Bordeaux Métropole) for works of art intended to enrich the municipalities of the Bordeaux metropolitan area crossed by the new tramway. The soft blue of the sculpture, visible from the other side, blends, depending on the viewing angle, with the color of the sky. Cast in resin on a metal frame, like a large toy, Veilhan's great beast parodies the tradition of commemorative monuments - the lions of Belfort or the Place Denfert-Rochereau in Paris - but celebrates nothing in particular. On the other hand, it signals the new identity of the square, affirming contemporary art in the city, in a former industrial and working-class district, redeveloped after having been abandoned for a long time.

The Church of Saint-André-du-Nom-de-Dieu includes sections whose construction dates from the 12th to the 19th centuries. It was built by the Benedictines of the Abbey of La Sauve-Majeure and was once used by a priory founded after 1115, dependent on the abbey. The dominant style of this fortified church is Romanesque. Its massive, square-based bell tower is imposing. The building boasts beautiful stained-glass windows and a remarkable organ case. The church was last restored in 1977. The Virgin of Mercy is an alabaster sculpture dating from the 16th century and is a listed historic monument.

The linguistic proximity of the "Pont Eiffel", which spans the Dordogne River here, and the low mountain range "Eifel" in the far west of Germany is no coincidence: The family of the designer - whose world-famous Tower of Paris (named after its builder) is probably known to everyone - has German roots. The ancestors of the Eiffel Tower builder Gustave EIFFEL come from the Eifel town of Marmagen (in the Euskirchen district, North Rhine-Westphalia). The village square there - if you are interested, see the following hiking highlight https://www.komoot.com/de-de/highlight/1830307 - is named after him.

Quiet recovery 🙂

487 meters long, the stone bridge crosses the Garonne to leave the city center of Bordeaux. A place to get off your bike and enjoy the view before getting down to business.