Curious Traveler

Its history goes back to 300 BC, it's the largest city in the Aquitaine, and even though Parisians don't like me saying it, this is where Parisian architecture came from. Bienvenue a Bordeaux. Remember when you were a child and all you asked was why, why, why? Well, I never quite outgrew that whole quest for knowledge phase.

In fact, I've made a career out of asking who, what, where, why, and how, as an arts and travel journalist for the past 20 years. (bright piano music) So if I have an insatiable curiosity about the exciting, inspiring, beautiful world of art, architecture, and hidden history all around us, I bet you do too. This isn't your typical what to do on a vacation travel show, oh no, this is your all access pass to a deeper understanding of the world's great art and architecture, people and places, history, and how-do-they-do-thats. So come along on our educational journey, our field trip for grown ups who have never quite grown up, and learn on Curious Traveler.

From an ancient village known as Burdigala along the Garonne River, ruled for centuries by the Celts, the Romans, the English, and then finally, the French. Known around the world for its fine wines and its joie de vivre, Bordeaux has so much to be curious about. (bright orchestral music) Ah, belle Bordeaux, known by many names from Burdigala and Little Rome during ancient times, then the Pearl of the Aquitaine, when it became part of the Aquitaine region of France, to Sleeping Beauty when its walls were black with pollution. (man yelling) But today, it's sparkling clean and has always been on the port de la lune or Port of the Moon.

-

Man

Ah. -

Christine

And somewhere in all that history, Bordeaux gets captured by King Clovis of the Franks. (laughing) Which is where we get the name France, and then the French nickname, (speaking in foreign language) meaning along the waters, which when you say it real fast, sounds a whole lot like Bordeaux. -

Man

Ooh. -

Christine

No matter which name you use, here's what I'm curious about in Bordeaux. (bright guitar music) Why is this teenage girl so important to Bordeaux's history? What's so gross about this clock? Why is this square so bare?

But this square so overdressed? -

Man

Huh? -

Christine

Why is this the symbol of Bordeaux? Why is this lady holding a duck? And of course, why is Bordeaux so known for fine wines? We begin our curious journey into Bordeaux in the 12th century when France as we know it today didn't quite exist quite just yet, so Bordeaux was only part of the Aquitaine region.

This is where we meet a young duchess named Eleanor, who will become pretty much the mother of all European royalty. -

Man

Hmm? -

Christine

So, back in the 1100s, there's a 14 year old girl named Eleanor. Her father is the Duke of Aquitaine. (playful string music) Sadly, her brother dies, then her father dies, (speaking in foreign language) so she's married off, yes at the age of 14 or 15, to the heir of the French crown, Louis VII. -

Man

Yes! -

Christine

Here in beautiful Bordeaux Cathedral. (bright piano music) And Eleanor becomes the queen consort of the Franks. Eleanor from Aquitaine, when she was only 15, she got married to this prince, he was 17. A week later they became king and queen of France because the father of Louis, Louis the Fat, (laughing) died and maybe of cholesterol, who knows.

Who knows, who knows. (bright orchestral music) Eleanor of Aquitaine was considered one of the most beautiful women of her time. She was very headstrong and rebellious. In fact there were rumors of infidelity with her own uncle.

-

Man

Yikes! -

Christine

The king and queen had two daughters together, which you would think would be a marvelous thing, but being the Middle Ages, not being able to produce a male heir was so obviously Eleanor's fault. So for this and many other reasons, let's just say that that marriage didn't work out too well. So after 15 miserable years, they get an annulment, and here's where the fun part starts. When she was 32 she got married to the 17 year old Henry Plantagenet.

17. Yes. - 17. (laughing) But she was a queen before, she was the queen of the French before.

And she got queened when she was 15, she got married here in Bordeaux, and this beautiful Eleanor divorced, got married to this beautiful young man, and became the Queen of England. (royal horn music) -

Christine

How many people do you know that get to be queens of one kingdom in their lifetime, let alone two, but the saga continues. To expand the kingdom, one must create heirs, lots and lots of heirs, like eight. -

Man

Yippee! -

Christine

Yes, Eleanor and Henry had eight children together. That is a lot of royal diapers. (babies cooing) -

Astrid

And you know, two are very well known, we all know Robin Hood. -

Christine

Right. -

Astrid

One is Richard Lionheart, and the other one John Lackland. And she married all her kids so well so the kingdom of England, kingdom of France, kingdom of Spain, of Germany, of Denmark and so on, half Europe. (metal clanking) -

Christine

Now what does Eleanor's saga have to do with Bordeaux? A whole lot. She is the reason why Bordeaux becomes English. That's right, English, not French, for about 300 years.

From the mid 12th until the mid 15th centuries. -

Man

Hello. -

Christine

Under the English, citizens of Bordeaux were given unusual freedoms including being able to elect their own mayors. -

Man

Yes, quite, hmm. -

Christine

This union also brought about great prosperity, and Bordeaux's golden age, partly thanks to some great Bordeaux wine, which we'll get to in a minute. (glass clanking) (bright orchestral music) But first, more English French curiosities to explore on this bizarre coat of arms on a gross clock. -

Man

Huh? This is the Grosse Cloche, not because it's gross but because grosse means big and cloche means bell. Below that we see this really neat coat of arms. It has symbols for both England and for France because of course both countries ruled over Bordeaux during different time periods.

And below that, here is the best part. The archway you see here, that's only one of two left in the entire city that were original gates with the medieval wall that used to circle the town. And these medieval remnants, although beautiful today, stand as reminders of an unfortunate time period for Bordeaux, the plague, when infested rats were invading through these gates instead of happy tourists. Now that is really gross.

-

Man

Yikes! -

Christine

Germophobia aside, this bell tower and gate is all that's left of Bordeaux's medieval (speaking in foreign language) or city hall which you can see a cute little picture of under the bell on the coat of arms. But who's that little kitty? And these floating flowers and a floating moon? -

Man

Huh? -

Christine

Well, from the top, we have the fleur de lis, a symbol of the French royal family. And the kitty, well he is the English leopard, a symbol of the English royal family. -

Man

Ooh. -

Christine

The castle, well that is this city hall. Well, what it looked like before everything but the center was torn down. (sad trombone music) But down at the bottom is the most curious part. See that little crescent moon at the bottom?

Why is it floating in the river? -

Man

Hmm. -

Christine

Because it is the river. One of Bordeaux's nicknames is port de la lune because of the crescent moon shape of the Garonne River, the river that gave the city such prosperity. (bright orchestral music) And here's where it gets even better. In later years, that crescent moon was lifted off the medieval coat of arms and becomes its own city logo.

See the three crescent moons intertwined here, on the fountain and all over Bordeaux? Well why three? Some say it's because of the three ancient rivers of Bordeaux, which we'll get to later. -

Man

Hmm. (dramatic music) -

Christine

Let's continue our curious exploration and decode more Bordeaux symbols. (bright piano music) This English French feud time period is also the reason why the square in the center of town is so, well, empty. So in 1453, under the rule of King Charles VII, the Hundred Years War comes to an end and Bordeaux is surrendered to the French. (clanking) -

Woman

Mine. (laughing) We were English for 300 years and they had so many privileges from the English kings, and when the French came and finally took over, they lost a lot of their privileges, so they didn't like it and the trade went down and everything, so they didn't like so much the kings. -

Christine

Thousands of Bordeauxlais who consider themselves English hightailed it to England. -

Man

Hello. -

Christine

Those who stayed in Bordeaux were rewarded by something called Chateau Trompette. -

Man

Hmm? Something very important was torn down in order to have this public space. What was here before? You are right, because here before we had a fortress.

It was even more fortified during Louis XIV, you know the Sun King, and (speaking in foreign language), the purpose of this one was not to protect people of Bordeaux against invaders from the river. But to protect the king against the inhabitants of Bordeaux. -

Christine

Yeah, that definitely didn't fly with the Bordeauxlais. Chateau Trompette was later torn down and this space left wide open for all to enjoy. -

Man

Woo hoo! -

Christine

The park is called Place de Quinconces, one of the largest public squares in Europe. But why is it called Quinconces, as in the number five? Well because the trees were laid out in a five point pattern. -

Man

Ooh. -

Christine

But that's just the beginning of the curiosities here, like this column, with a statue of Liberty at the top, a rooster at the bottom, a giggling lady holding a duck, and do those horses have webbed feet? (playful music) -

Man

Huh? -

Christine

Well it has something to do with why these guys are here too, Montaigne and Montesquieu, the legendary French philosophers whose ideas helped to bring about the French Revolution. (heroic trumpeting) And the French Revolution is the reason for this statue. It's called the (speaking in foreign language). We had some people here during the French Revolution, very mild politicians and they were not that mean and they wanted to have a more soft revolution.

They were (mumbling) and they all lost their lives, you can imagine, so we put the statue here to honor those eight people. -

Christine

So it is fitting that at the top of the (speaking in foreign language) we have a winged Lady Liberty, breaking free from the oppression with a broken chain in one hand, and a symbol of victory, the laurel branch, in the other. -

Man

Oh! -

Christine

But she's not the only gal in town. At the base, there are three more ladies, sitting in a pyramid shape. The lovely lady at the top of the triangle symbolizes Bordeaux with her cornucopia to symbolize abundance. She looks quite regal in her little post, but who are these other two ladies at the bottom?

One with a swan, and the other with a duck. -

Man

Quack. The two other ones, giggling and-- Yes. - Like us, and talking to each other and smiling to each other, one is the Garonne River, which is here, and she has a beautiful, proud sword in her arms. -

Christine

And the last one? And the last one, (laughing) she's just got a little duck, and she's symbolizing Libourne and the Dordogne River. So what does Libourne think of that? Not that there's anything wrong with ducks, but you have a swan, and you have a duck.

Yeah, because this is all the problem they had because Libourne, they produce very good wines, the (speaking in foreign language) wines, great wines, but they couldn't develop, their river was not deep enough for the big ocean cruisers to come, ocean ships. - Ah, okay. And load up the barrel. -

Christine

It keeps coming back to that wine, doesn't it? Now in order to move those huge barrels of wine, you're gonna need some horsepower, right? Well how about some web footed horsepower? That brings us to the triumph of Concorde.

-

Man

What? All kinds of fun symbols to talk about here at the fountain. At the very top, of course, we have the symbol of France, Concorde, holding up the olive branch. Over on this side, you may notice the horses here are a little bit different.

Instead of hooves, they have either claws or fins. -

Man

Huh? -

Christine

Those four horses pulling Concorde's chariot form a quadriga, an ancient Roman symbol of the chariot of the gods, just like the ones you see in Venice. But why the webbed feet on the horses here in Bordeaux? One theory says they're ancient mythological symbols of peace and happiness. Another theory says they simply symbolize the power of Bordeaux's rivers, and webbed feet are better than hooves for swimming.

(laughing) (bright fiddle music) And finally, what about that rooster? That's the Gallic rooster or French cockerel, the symbol of France since the middle ages. (rooster crowing) (bright orchestral music) From roosters, swimming horses, and three naked ladies, we now go to another curious square with scary faces, a missing statue of a king, and of course three more naked ladies. (man laughing) This is Place de la Bourse, a beautiful example of identical buildings that form a unified wall, almost a curtain, you might say.

-

Man

Huh? But this wasn't always here and it's actually here for a very important historic reason. Yeah, Bordeaux was a town of the Middle Ages, like all the towns in France, surrounded by a big wall. And the idea was to show Bordeaux to people to make a commerce, better commerce.

So here they destroyed the walls, eight meters high, I don't know, four meters thick, but they destroyed the walls to build this, which is absolutely gorgeous. (bright orchestral music) -

Christine

But if it was built for Louis XV, where's his statue? It's right here in the center of the square, don't you see it? -

Man

No. -

Christine

Oh yeah, that's right, a little thing called the French Revolution took care of that. Louis's statue used to be here but the people tore it down. Later it was replaced by a fountain, and then the Three Graces were added. (laughing) But why is it called Place de la Bourse?

Well bourse simply means stock exchange, and what better building to show off your city's prosperity than having a thriving stock exchange right at your city's front door? (cash register jangling) Next, why is this royal square in the shape of a crescent moon? -

Man

Hmm. -

Christine

Well as we've learned, the crescent moon is the nod to the port de la lune, Bordeaux's moon shaped port. But there's another legend as to why Place de la Bourse is shaped like this, some say the architects built just enough new buildings to make a good impression on visiting guests and it also served as a curtain to hide the crumbling medieval city behind it. -

Man

Yikes. -

Christine

It's kind of like throwing all your junk in the closet when guests arrive unannounced. (laughing) But today, everything is sparkling clean, of course, including the Miroir d'eau, built in 2006, touted as the largest reflecting pool in the world, but I wouldn't recommend diving into this pool, it's only an inch deep. (crashing) And to adorn this regal square, what better than a bunch of scary faces everywhere? Ever feel like you're being watched?

-

Man

Yikes. All around Place de la Bourse you will see these wonderful little faces built right into the architecture. Those are called mascarone, it's an Italian word for mask, and the idea is it could be anybody, from the owners to a couple of little symbolic ones like this guy, that's Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, which is just perfect for Bordeaux. Hmm, wine you say?

Yeah, wine is kind of important to the history of Bordeaux. So let's continue our journey through Bordeaux to find out how wine shaped Bordeaux's history. (glass clanking) But first, how 'bout a little music to go with our wine? (epic operatic music) So just as Place de la Bourse was a symbol of Bordeaux's prosperity in the mid 1700s, so was the Grande Theater, completed in 1780, built to be a temple of the arts and light.

The opera was imagined by (speaking in foreign language). The little nephew for (speaking in foreign language), not the one with the Musketeers, so the other one, his little nephew, and he was the attendant of Bordeaux in 1778, and he wanted to leave something behind him, something great, and he needed a theater, so his idea as you know, it was a Roman town, and there was a big Roman building, they destroyed this and they built the opera. The Grand Theater was designed to be quite grand indeed, with 12 Corinthian columns and ancient Greek goddesses and muses representing the different arts. But it's not all Greek to me.

Built by Freemasons, legend says there's hidden Freemason symbols everywhere in the theater. And inside is where we find the grand staircase, which later inspired the one at the Paris Opera House, which later inspired the one at New York's Grand Central Terminal, but I digress. (playful music) Back outside is the Place de la Comedie, which is where we find our next curiosity. Because if you're headed to the opera, you need to dress for it.

Fortunately one of the longest pedestrian shopping streets in Europe is right next to the opera house, Rue Sainte Catherine. Saint Catherine's Street is one of the busiest shopping streets in all of Europe today, but back in ancient Roman times, it was one of the original roads. In fact most of Bordeaux still runs along that ancient Roman street plan, so when you're shopping here, you're walking through history. But did you know that you're also walking on water?

-

Man

Ooh. -

Christine

That's right, there are ancient underground rivers here. Now that was great for the thirsty Celts and Romans of Burdigala, but it wasn't so swell for 18th century Bordeaux architects. They had big difficulties when they built the opera, suddenly they found water because we are so close to the river, big problem, half of the opera is built on pillars, wooden pillars, it's a floating opera, as a matter of fact. That's amazing because most of the town is actually still on pillars.

Ah, because why did the Celts or the Romans settle down here? Because we had not only one river, we had three rivers, which are now underground rivers, but in old days, already in the antique time, the harbor was in the center of town, and this is why we have water absolutely everywhere. People think of Venice as a floating city because it's small islands, and you see that, I don't think really realize that Bordeaux is originally built on these posts. Yeah, that's the same, maybe not as much.

Feels pretty sturdy, doesn't feel like we're floating. I think we're okay. (bright guitar music) Now we go from Place de la Comedie, with pretty Parisian buildings, we swing by Place de la Bourse, with more pretty Parisian buildings, and back to (speaking in foreign language), with even more pretty Parisian buildings. I'm starting to detect a theme around here.

Look at this beautiful street here in Paris. Well the only problem is we're not in Paris. We're in Bordeaux. Now Parisians may not like this part of the story, but their beloved Baron Haussmann lived and worked here in Bordeaux amongst buildings like these before he was asked by Napoleon III to modernize Paris.

And in Paris of course is where he created those grand boulevards and a whole lot of buildings that look a little bit like this. So the question is did he copy Bordeaux to create the Paris that we know? Well this is an argument I want no part of. (laughing) Yup, many of these beautiful, homogenous buildings are from Bordeaux's second golden age in the 18th century, when about 5,000 of these buildings were put up here in beautiful Bordeaux.

And I'll give you three guesses as to why Bordeaux had such prosperity back then. (glass clanking) Okay, maybe one. (bright fiddle music) Yep, where else but Bordeaux would you have an entire museum dedicated to the history of wine? The history of wine has always been intertwined with the history of man and the history of religion.

From offering wine to the gods during pagan times to incorporating wine into Christian rituals and traditions. But of course there's the art. Back to ancient Roman, ancient Greek, through the Renaissance and even in modern art today, there is always art dedicated to sacred wine. (bright fiddle music) And that sacred Bordeaux wine history starts with its divine climate and geography, with those three ancient rivers that made conditions perfect here for those ancient Romans of Burdigala.

They were the ones who planted the very first vineyards here. Good thinking, guys. (glass clanking) (bright string music) Then in the Middle Ages, the marriage of our old buddy Eleanor and King Henry ensured that the wine trade with England, and then around the world, would prosper. -

Man

Yippee! -

Christine

And then we get to another crucial stage in Bordeaux's wine history, but it's not French. -

Man

Huh? So why is Bordeaux so known for its wines? Well it all has something to do with this neighborhood called the Chartrons, named after the (speaking in foreign language) which was a monastery back in the 1400s. Now around that time, nobody wanted to live here, other than the monks, because the entire area was a swamp.

That was until about the 17th century, when the Dutch arrived and said hey, we know how to drain the swamp, and started Bordeaux's first wine business by selling and exporting the local wines grown here. And basically today when you're drinking that fine French wine, you have the Dutch, and a swamp, to thank for it. And finally in the mid 1800s, the Bordeaux Chateau were classified, and that same wine classification is still used today. (glass clanking) (bright orchestral music) So from ancient Burdigala along the waters of three ancient rivers, which today allow you to walk on water on a very long pedestrian street, next to a grand theater dedicated to ancient Romans and Greeks, to a place dedicated to a French king who got knocked down during the French Revolution and got replaced by even more ancient muses.

(laughing) Surrounded by a wall of glorious architecture, greeting guests arriving at la port de la lune, which gives us the city's symbol, here on our gross clock, and back here on the fountain. (heroic trumpeting) To a giant but bare square dedicated to more French revolutionaries, named after the number five, with four horses, three giggling ladies, two fat birds, and one soaring Lady Liberty. (woman singing) But we can't forget the soaring cathedral on another place where the first wedding of a fiery local gal took place, and while that marriage didn't stick, her second one sure did, and led to a crucial union with England and a golden age of prosperity for Bordeaux which of course, brings us right back to its sweet, sweet wines made possible by those rivers. (glass clinking) Bordeaux has so much to be curious about.

Thank you for joining us on our educational journey, and hopefully now you're even more curious about the who, what, where, why, and how of Bordeaux. As they say here in Bordeaux, (speaking in foreign language). (bright orchestral music) -

Christine

Still curious? Go to curioustravelertv.com and follow us on Facebook at CuriousTravelerTV, on Twitter at @CuriousTravTV, and on Instagram at @CuriousTravelerTV.