Bordeaux tourism stakeholders did not wait for the Covid-19 crisis to influence a number of initiatives towards an eco-responsible approach. But, curiously, it is in full deconfinement that these take relief. The tourist office is due to unveil its new website on June 28. A tree leaf, which you click on, will allow you to switch to a 100% ecological proposal, where more than 140 different addresses, hotels, restaurants, activities are listed.
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In an exhilarating convergence, one has the impression that all the actors of the city have gone green to celebrate the reunion with life. An urban hike, unprecedented in France, connects the city to the vineyard, the new Maritime Museum brings a final touch to its space dedicated to the protection of the oceans, while the Frac Nouvelle Aquitaine displays, in superb architecture, the look that contemporary artists have on the flower. Even the ghost ship of the submarine base, an enormous black mass reminiscent of the dark days of the city's history, has been colored for a few days by the spectacle of the Bassins of Lights.
GUSTAV KLIMT WITH BORDELA SAUCE ...
The submarine base hosts the Bassins de Lumières show highlighting Klimt. UGO AMEZ / SIPA / UGO AMEZ / SIPA
For years, the future of the submarine base of Bordeaux, built during the Second World War by the Germans was the object of lusts. The building, made up of a reinforced concrete block 245 meters long by 162 meters wide and 20 meters high, is a kind of bunker deemed indestructible. Eleven cells 100 meters long, the operator Culture et Espace now occupies four, arranged to accommodate immense projections of digital images: the Light Basins. Proven process at Carrières de Lumières in Baux-de-Provence and L'Atelier des Lumières in Paris.
For Bordeaux, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, among other artists from the Vienna Secession, invaded the old German submarine base. A strange program, the artists having no link with Bordeaux. Some would have preferred Toulouse-Lautrec, who died next door to the Château de Malromé. Also, when the first grandiose notes of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser sound through eighty pregnant , then, printed on the concrete walls, the face of Adele Bloch-Bauer, La Femme au collier , famous painting by Klimt , you can't help but feel discomfort.
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In this sanctuary of the Occupation, the choice of a painter hated by the Nazi regime and of looted works appears awkward. "You shouldn't see politics everywhere ..." argues Augustin de Cointet, director of the site. Certainly ... Long minutes are necessary for the misunderstanding to dissipate. There is still much to be said about the digital processing of works. Klimt's gold and flowers flow, a little like at L'Atelier des Lumières in Paris, in exaggerated geometric shapes and end up on the walls and the floor, in carpet and wallpaper. However, there remains the technical performance, the enchantment and the poetry of what becomes "the largest digital art center in the world".
Phone: 05 35 00 00 90; culturespaces.com
A NEW MUSEUM FOR THE SEA
In the Bassins à flot district, the Mer Marine museum and its superb model ships. Teddy Verneuil - lezbroz
In the same area of Bassins à flot rises, for a few months, the Marine Museum, private initiative of Norbert Fradin, Bordeaux collector passionate about the subject: "The city has always lived with an intense port activity of which it has been deprived physically in the 1930s , explains the museum's creator. Suddenly the Bordelais obscured it for a long time until Alain Juppe, then mayor of Bordeaux, broke down the barriers and made it possible to access it again. ” But the museum avoided the trap of an egocentric reading of “Bordeaux sur mer”, by proposing the opposite.
On 6000 m2 and three floors, in a superb museography, the subject takes off carried by models, paintings, prototypes of everything that can navigate, from the origins to today. We see some rarities like a moon boat, one of the only boats still used today for fishing (in Bangladesh) and whose form and construction technique have never varied in a thousand years. The top floor is entirely devoted to the protection of the oceans, occupied in its center by a bronze turtle caught in a net, a contemporary work by Philippe Pasqua.
89, rue des Étrangers, tel .: 05 57 19 77 73; mmmbordeaux.com
THE FIRST METROPOLITAN GR OF FRANCE
The Nicolas Duffaure Angelic Park
Inaugurated this fall, the GR Bordeaux Métropole, a 125 km loop (160 km if there are a few detours), crosses 17 municipalities. " The landscapes that we are invited to explore the route are marked by extreme diversity," explains Laurent Hodebar, the project manager, who wishes to "promote gentle roaming, an alternative to discovering monumental Bordeaux by Unesco" . White water streams in the Eau Bourde valley, vines in the Pessac-Léognan appellation, or maritime pines in the town of Haillan are crossed by the GR Métropole, including the guidebook, delayed by the Covid crisis- 19, will be out in a few weeks. To wait and get oriented, the tourist offices and town halls of the metropolis issue a free document. Connected to the tram, bus and Bat3 (hybrid river transport), the perfectly marked GR can also be done by section, departing from Bordeaux. Accommodation in peri-urban shelters (free) has been set up: 12 eco-friendly cabins for 6 to 8 people, on the principle of a mountain refuge.
unairdebordeaux.com
THE FLOWERS OF FRAC
The House of Creative Economy and Culture, otherwise known as Meca, the work of Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, inaugurated last June, houses the collections of the regional fund for contemporary art (Frac). Huge stepped stairs allow you to climb on your roof and appreciate the full extent of this major architectural gesture, the spearhead of the new Euratlantic district, near Saint-Jean station. An exhibition, "Narcissus or the flowering of the worlds", is on display there until August 22.
Welcomed by a touching child from Tangier wearing an Iris crown, a work by Yto Barrada, this presentation renews the artists' view of the flower, "a powerful matrix that makes up three quarters of plant biodiversity" . A point carried by works of Suzanne Husky, Pierre and Gilles, Pierre Molinier or Jeff Koons… This exhibition is the occasion to also appreciate the interior architecture of the museum space, broken lines and points of view cut out in broad bays in the oblique of the walls. The 5th floor terrace finally reveals an unprecedented panorama of Bordeaux.
5, forecourt Corto Maltese, tel .: 05 56 24 71 36; la-meca.com
DARWIN AS A PIONEER
The best student, in terms of eco-responsibility, the first, remains the Darwin eco-neighborhood, whose reputation exceeds Bordeaux and which has managed to install in the landscape of the city, an alternative place that some will describe as boho. Qualifier that makes its artistic director, Tristan Barroso, smile. "We are not in revolt against a system, but we are accompanying a transition to new models," he says. Located in the former Niel barracks, the site brings together in one place, restaurant, grocery store, farm, business incubator, skateboard park, bicycle repair workshop, and artists' residence among other nuggets (87, quai des Queyries; darwin.camp).
Right next to it, in this same Bastide district, Eklo, classified as the greenest hotel in Bordeaux, bordered by an urban vegetable patch, concentrates a number of ecological initiatives: recovery of urban heat by geothermal energy, photovoltaic panel , energy-saving in the rooms… Halfway between the youth hostel (with bed-boxes at 20 € per night) and individual rooms, whose comfort and design aesthetics are particularly successful. The price is impressive: 45 € for a double room. A series of initiatives which now place the city at the forefront of eco-responsible international destinations, from which it should in a few months win the label.
Travelogue
Sunrise on the quays Teddy Verneuil -lezbroz
GO
We come to Bordeaux by TGV from Paris in 2 hours, from Toulouse in 1 hour 30 minutes.
TO SLEEP
The luxury of the Bordeaux hotel is embodied in the Intercontinental Bordeaux Grand Hotel , a must-see icon of the city which reopens on June 26 with a new spa signed Guerlain. Around 300 €. 6-night “Tour de France” offer in the 3 Intercontinental hotels in Lyon and Marseille: € 1,990 for a double room.
2-5, place de la Comédie, tel .: 05 57 30 43 46; intercontinental.com/bordeaux
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Very committed to sustainable tourism, the Hôtel de Tourny is a luxury designer boutique hotel in the heart of historic Bordeaux. It doubles as a second address, in the same street, (n ° 26), making a total of fifteen rooms from € 130 to € 350.
16, rue Huguerie, tel .: 05 56 81 56 73; hotel-de-tourny.com
In the rather remote Bastide district, Eklo rhymes with ecology, of which he is a concentrate of initiatives. Rooms at 45 €. 10, rue de la Gare-d'Orléans, tel .: 05 35 54 52 54; eklohotels.com
GOOD TABLES
Lauza is one of those addresses where you feel at home. Comfortable benches, refined decor, and good table layout. The young chef, Romain Schlumberger, very attentive to short circuits, does the rest, with sincere and inventive cuisine. Lunch menu at 23 €, discovery dinner at 48 €.
5, rue du Hâ; phone: 05 56 52 76 59.
Cent33 is the good surprise of Bordeaux, entirely dedicated to tasting plates to share. Gourmet tapas prepared by chef Fabien Beaufour. On the way for a Michelin Macaron?
133, rue du Jardin-Public; tel .: 05 56 15 90 40; cent33.com
The Avant-Comptoir du Palais , opposite Porte Cailheau, an emblematic monument of Bordeaux life, brilliantly revisits the spirit of the wine bar, with more than 200 references and original and small appetizer plates price. Around 7 €.
2, place du Palais, tel .: 05 57 14 94 05 .
Tutiac , an initiative of the Tutiac winegrowers' cooperative, combines wine bars and a bistro. Excellent short circuit cuisine served in a warm contemporary setting. 10, place du Palais, tel .: 05 57 88 22 42; tutiac.com
UNUSUAL TOUR
In a convertible Morgan, thematic tour with Bruno Beurrier, atypical guide. bcommebordeaux.com
ASK ABOUT
bordeaux-tourisme.comand unairdebordeaux.com
Teddy Verneuil water mirror - lezbroz
