Bordeaux - Wonderful towns in Europe #2 - La Place de la Bourse - The heart of Bordeaux



Which is the most famous square in Bordeaux?

La Place de la Bourse is maybe the most famous square in Bordeaux and most certainly the one that will remain more in your mind after having visited Bordeaux.

If you open a website about Bordeaux or you get a leaflet at the tourist office, La Place de la Bourse will be certainly in the biggest photo.

Bordeaux is a town that has a lot of attractions to see and most of them for free, La Place de la Bourse is one of them, and with the recent addition of a modern fountain where you can see reflected the wonderful building surrounding the squares is even more amazing.



Why to go two times to  La Place de la Bourse?

It is possible that after you have visited the place one time, you would want to go back in this beautiful square much more than another time.

But one times is the minimum required. You should go admire  La Place de la Bourse during the day and during the night.

At night the fountain reflects the lights that decorate the beautiful building squares surrounding.

Bordeaux at night is particularly fascinating. Thanks to the recent restyling that the mairie Alain Juppé recently made, Bordeaux is now one of the most elegant and best kept cities in France.

The ex-prime minister, Alain Juppé has bravely invested in a new era for Bordeaux, pedestrianising the town, cleaning the façades of building, giving to the town a cleaner, safer and more elegant face.

Going to the Place de la Bourse at night is a great experience, in front of the river Gironde the lights of the city are shining and make a wonderful panorama.



How many names for a Square?

Inaugurated in 1749, it is the symbol of the prosperity of the city. Successively called Place Royale , Freedom Square during the revolution , imperial place under Napoleon , then again at the Restoration Place Royale .

In 1848, at the fall of Louis -Philippe I, the square became Place de la Bourse.

The steward Boucher wants to open the city to the river. 
He wants to modernize Bordeaux and provide a face of the city more welcoming to the stranger who comes through the right bank of the Garonne. It removes some of the walls that surround Bordeaux and built a Place Royale. An equestrian statue of King Louis XV is located in its center.

This square remind me of another square I have already seen...

The buildings in Place de la Bourse may have been inspired by the Place Vendôme in Paris with an opening to the nearby river such as the Place de la Concorde (also in Paris). 

Originally there was at the center of the square an equestrian statue of Louis XV, but it was removed during the Revolution. The decor of the building is done in the rococo style became fashionable in the late 1720s.


A huge thanks goes to Anne Sophie Cordier from Bordeaux, a real Bordeaux citizen proud and passionate about her town!



 









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