The opening of the New Bridge in Bordeaux
Last weekend a special event was held in Bordeaux – the
opening of the Jacques Chaban-Delmas Bridge. This brand new modern lift bridge
connects the Bacalan and the Bastide sections of Bordeaux. With growth in Bordeaux, this bridge has been
long needed in order to ease mobility, traffic and access to the downtown
center from the newer suburbs on the right side of the Garonne. The only other bridge in downtown Bordeaux is
the historic Pont Pierre – which heads directly out of downtown, but is not a
lift bridge. There was a lot of thought
and research that went into this bridge – from location on the Garonne, style
so it blends with the cityscape and functionality – still allowing access to
the historic downtown by larger boats and ships.
The Bacalan-Bastide bridge – now named the Jacques Chaban-Delmas
Bridge, named after the former mayor of Bordeaux, is a lift bridge with a 100m
long lifting span which gives talls ships access to the City center and
historic port. Work on this bridge was
begun in 2009. It’s an engineering
marvel and the raising and lowering of the bridge takes a mere 11 minutes.
This past weekend was a great celebration in the city – it
started with fireworks on Friday evening and then the official ribbon cutting
on Saturday morning. Even the President
of France, Francois Hollande arrived for this joyous occasion and joined in the
celebration. We, along with I think the
rest of Bordeaux, headed down to the river to watch this ceremony. They closed trams and buses close to the
site, so one had to get off downtown at Quinconces and walk. Both sides of the river were packed with
people to watch the nautical parade of several different kinds of boats, along
with the tall Ship, Belem which sailed down from La Rochelle for the
event.
The quai was so packed that it was impossible to get down to
the opening ceremony of the bridge near Cap Science to get a good viewing of
the ribbon cutting. After the ceremony,
the nautical parade started from under the bridge and sailed toward the
historic port. The bridge was then
lowered and the President and other officials took the first walk across this
beautiful structure.
Even though we didn’t get to officially see President
Hollande, which was my oldest daughter’s wish…it was really interesting to be
there and share in such a joyous event for the city. According the radio and twitter reports, the
celebration continued all weekend – allowing pedestrians to walk across the
bridge and enjoy such treats as free chocolatines and croissants and even
souvenir rubber bracelets to commomerate the event. (We didn’t make it all the way to the bridge,
too long of a walk for a 5 year old…but if I knew all of this was going on we might
have headed back on Sunday) The bridge
officially opened up for traffic on Monday morning.
This might be the closest we will come to see the French
president in person – nice to be able to say we were there. I think we will remember this event for a
while.
And what does one do after a morning like that?
Enjoy the carnival in downtown!
Le pont est sobre et beau .Bravo Bordeaux
ReplyDeleteYou'd better be quick if you want to see Hollande again... I'm not terribly sure that he'll be around for a 2nd term. The bridge is beautiful!
ReplyDelete