Friday 14th February 2020.
"Audacious and emblematic, the architecture of La Cité du Vin is inspired by the river and wine and complements the architectural heritage of Bordeaux. Truly evocative of the soul of wine and the liquid, the building recalls wine that swirls in the glass, the coiled shape of the vine or the waves of the Garonne, while its golden reflections echo the white stones of Bordeaux facades and the reflections of the river."
I was glad I read that from a plaque outside the building, or I would never have guessed it. Any of it.
This is a very modern and interactive museum about the history, making of, culture and science of wine. From the top floor (where your entry ticket allowed you to have one taste of wine) you had a great view of Bordeaux and the river.
While we're at the modern end of town .....
The Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas is the longest vertical-lift bridge in Europe, opened in 2013. The middle bit lifts up to let ships through.
It is named in honour of Jacques Chaban-Delmas, a former Prime Minister of France (1969 - 72) under President Georges Pompidou and a former mayor of Bordeaux from 1947 to 1995 (48 years - no wonder they named a bridge after him!) Also seen from the top of the Cité du Vin.
While we had taken one of the slick modern Bordeaux trams up to the Cité du Vin, we walked back so we could visit the Musee d'Art Contemporain (to continue our day of weirdness).
On the ground floor was a colourful and poignant exhibition by the British artist Lubiana Hamid, born in Zanzibar, Tanzania, in 1954. A figurehead of British Black Art in England in the 1980s, she questions the marginalization of the black diaspora in the contemporary society. This exhibition consists of a hundred painted plywood silhouettes representing African servants of the 17th and 18th centuries, and then "widens the experience of the slave to that of all 'migrants', whose personal identities are defeated and remade according to the pressures exerted by the world political and economic forces."
On the upper floors were two other exhibitions, of which I didn't like most because the works were violent or unpleasant, and quite frankly couldn't understand any of it.
A challenging and interesting day.
"Audacious and emblematic, the architecture of La Cité du Vin is inspired by the river and wine and complements the architectural heritage of Bordeaux. Truly evocative of the soul of wine and the liquid, the building recalls wine that swirls in the glass, the coiled shape of the vine or the waves of the Garonne, while its golden reflections echo the white stones of Bordeaux facades and the reflections of the river."
I was glad I read that from a plaque outside the building, or I would never have guessed it. Any of it.
This is a very modern and interactive museum about the history, making of, culture and science of wine. From the top floor (where your entry ticket allowed you to have one taste of wine) you had a great view of Bordeaux and the river.
We are at the weird end of town.
This anodised aluminium sculpture (just sitting in the river) by British artist Suzanne Treister belongs to a trilogy entitled The Spaceships of Bordeaux. This one "evokes the metamorphosis of a shipwreck in the Garonne, a vestige of the war, into a gleaming spaceship heading for the future."
Luckily, I read the plaque for this one too. (Seen from the top of the Cité du Vin.)
While we're at the modern end of town .....
The Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas is the longest vertical-lift bridge in Europe, opened in 2013. The middle bit lifts up to let ships through.
It is named in honour of Jacques Chaban-Delmas, a former Prime Minister of France (1969 - 72) under President Georges Pompidou and a former mayor of Bordeaux from 1947 to 1995 (48 years - no wonder they named a bridge after him!) Also seen from the top of the Cité du Vin.
While we had taken one of the slick modern Bordeaux trams up to the Cité du Vin, we walked back so we could visit the Musee d'Art Contemporain (to continue our day of weirdness).
On the ground floor was a colourful and poignant exhibition by the British artist Lubiana Hamid, born in Zanzibar, Tanzania, in 1954. A figurehead of British Black Art in England in the 1980s, she questions the marginalization of the black diaspora in the contemporary society. This exhibition consists of a hundred painted plywood silhouettes representing African servants of the 17th and 18th centuries, and then "widens the experience of the slave to that of all 'migrants', whose personal identities are defeated and remade according to the pressures exerted by the world political and economic forces."
On the upper floors were two other exhibitions, of which I didn't like most because the works were violent or unpleasant, and quite frankly couldn't understand any of it.
A challenging and interesting day.
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