Gary Poster, with essential assists from Galyn Norwood, Phiroon Phihakendr, Jose Quijada, Pavandeep Kalra. Had paparazzi existed in the 12th century, they would have loved Eleanor of Aquitaine. Thus did half of France become English for 300 years, and Bordeaux become the most English of French cities. On the Rue des Ramparts a shop sells only razors.
Tobacconists sell enameled corkscrews for opening favorite Bordeaux wines.
But although the Britishness of Bordeaux is singular, the city's proximity to Spain and the south manifests itself as soon as the weather gets warm. Tables are set out on the sidewalks or sprawl across the cobblestones in the vast network of car-free pedestrian streets, and the squares are jammed with parasols. Throughout this extensive neighborhood, much of it medieval, the liveliness feels Mediterranean rather than Atlantic, provincial instead of urban. Churches like St. Pierre seem to have sunk through the centuries under their own weight, like the ancient Byzantine churches in Greece. A surprise of another sort can be found in the Museum of Contemporary Art, a former warehouse built in 1814.