I’m not going to say a lot about the first place we saw as we made our way to the Maritime Museum. It was not a pretty or heart-warming sight.
To get to this area just off the river and a bit north of town, one can drive – no one does – or take the tram to the Wine Museum – which is what everyone does and then walk
It is several blocks off the main streets in a very nondescript location. The area here just off the banks of the Gironde River appears to once have been strictly industrial but recently has become a point of revitalization with ultramodern apartments in unattractive, plain brown wrapper, boxy architecture springing up everywhere. We saw little evidence of a grand plan for the development. These are probably high-rent digs . . . everything is new and just steps from the tram line. Still, the area has no landscaping, is dry, littered, and not particularly inviting.
At some time in history, an arm off the Gironde River was dug out and equipped with locks and pivoting bridges to allow entry into the manmade yacht basin. It does not appear to be used very often these days. To the right, is a shocking sight. Still standing is a concrete World War II U-Boat Pen built by Hitler and the Axis powers. They built 5 of these along the French Atlantic during the war. This monster of a place is huge. It has 13 bays that will hold U-2s and a full-size submarine for maintenance, restocking, etc. Its cylindrical roof-top reinforcements were strategically installed to withstand any bomb the enemy might deliver. It was bombed, in fact, several times by the Allies, but no harm was done. It’s sobering, chilling, and a little frightening to wonder what this part of the world went through in the early 1940s. The structure is so large and so strong that it cannot be demolished. Seeking a positive outcome for the structure that still conjures horror, the city made it a museum for temporary exhibits. No one seems to like it.
A few more blocks away is the Maritime Museum, Mussee Mer Marine. The French have a way of creating museums that would interest even the most resistant person. Instead of standing regal and proud with marble floors where no one should talk and certainly not raise voices, the museums here in Bordeaux are spacious, airy, and often feature interactive exhibits, videos, and things visitors can touch or merely stand and observe in awe.
The permanent exhibit in the Musee Mer Marine begins with fish fossils and cave drawings of hunters in early prehistory watercraft. It then carries us through history featuring early dugouts, the first explorer and trade ships, slave ships, freighters, French and US battleships, aircraft carriers, and other warships. We got a look at models of rafts, boats, and ships carrying immigrants and asylum seekers to different parts of the world. There was a sad display of the Titanic, and then modern cruise ships and yachts and smaller pleasure boats for sailing or cruising. One of the most interesting models was Jules Verne’s Nautilus. Stan and I marveled at all the models, each exactingly built by hand by one or several unknown artists. The models were realistic and pure art.
The temporary exhibit, however, was the most significant. Called Planet or Plastic, this very well-designed and delivered exhibit by National Geographic focuses on the danger to our earth created by plastics. Worldwide we are addicted. Since the late 40s, this miracle material has become important in almost everything we do. It’s cheap; it’s clean; it’s universal. It litters our landscape and it kills. Marine life is most susceptible to its dangers. There are about 269,000 tons on every square mile of the ocean and millions and millions of tons of it are on land. Another 14 million tons of unrecycled plastic get added to our oceans every year.
Plastics and what to do with them after they’ve been used is one of our greatest environmental challenges. While there are many initiatives raising awareness and influencing change, we still keep buying products like sodas and water in plastic bottles, keep accepting drinks with plastic straws or take-out meals or picnics with plastic utensils. . . Or get this, even our expensive tennis shoes contain plastics that cannot be reused.
This is something all of us need to think about now. At some point, we have no choice, we must stop.
Very interested
Very interesting. I enjoyed the museum. C’est manufique.