Bordeaux (Municipality, Gironde, France)

Last modified: 2005-07-23 by ivan sache
Keywords: gironde | bordeaux | fleur-de-lys: 3 (yellow) | leopard (yellow) | lion (yellow) | crescent (white) | castle (white) | cross (white) | diamond (blue) | letters: cvb (white) | bayssellance (adrien) | anchors: 3 (black) | trai |
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by Arnaud Leroy

• Presentation of Bordeaux
• Municipal flag of Bordeaux
• Mayor Bayssellance and the flags
• Yacht clubs
  • Cercle de la Marine de Bordeaux
  • Cercle de la Voile de Bordeaux
• Paris-Bordeaux and Bordeaux-Paris trains

See also:

• France
• Gironde (Department, France)

Presentation of Bordeaux

The city of Bordeaux (200,000 inhabitants; 650,000 including the outskirts) is the eigth French city by its population, located on the river Garonne. Bordeaux is the préfecture of the department of Gironde and of the Region Aquitaine.

Bordeaux, then Burdigalia, was the capital city of the Gaul tribe of Bituriges Vivisques. The city increased in importance after the Roman conquest and was successively besieged by the Wisigoths, the Arabs and the Normans.

The Duchy of Aquitaine, with Bordeaux as its capital city, was created by King Dagobert (629-638). Duke Huon probably never existed but is the main character of the eponymic chanson de geste (XIIIth century). According to the legend, Huon inadvertently killed a son of Charlemagne and was sentenced to exile. To be forgiven, he was sent to Babylon, where he had to cut the beard of the Emir, pulled him four molars and married his daughter. He was helped in his adventures by the elf Oberon, who started later a new career thanks to Will Shakespeare. Duke Guillaume Tête d'Etoupe (William Tow-Head) was more real and married his daughter to King of France Hugues Capet, becoming therefore the root of the Capetian dynasty.

In 1137, Louis, Crown Prince of France, married Aliénor (Eleanor), the unique daughter of Duke William of Aquitaine, and received as dowry the Duchy of Aquitaine, Périgord, Limousin, Poitou, Angoumois, Saintonge and Gascogne, as well as the suzereignty on Auvergne and the County of Toulouse. The marriage was celebrated in the cathedral of Bordeaux. Louis became King of France as Louis VII but the marriage turned sour because the King was serious and t