Bordeaux, Museums and opera

 Further north, visitors are welcome at the retired battleship the “Croiseur Colbert”. At Hangar 16, Quai des Chartrons, opposite Cours du Medoc, is Cap des Sciences, an exhibition centre which is aimed to bring scientific subjects home to the public. “Vinorama”, 12 Cours du Medoc, is a cornball talking wax museum that explains the history of Bordeaux wine from ancient times to the present.
Bordeaux old docks along boulevard Alfred Daney (take bus 9 from the station or the boulevards), have been disfigured since 50 years by the German submarine base, a vast indestructible bunker with concrete walls over 15 feet thick. Since it would take forever to remove the monster, the Bordelais tamed it instead, converting the base in 1993into a center for exhibitions and a unique museum of pleasure boats, the “CONSERVATOIRE INTERNATIONAL DE PLAISANCE”, only open Wed, Sat, Sund 1-6.30. You can see a replica of “Simon and Jude”, a catamaran of 1662; one of the first petrol-run pleasure motorboats, , built by Daimler in 1889 for Bismarck ;the 1989”Cesa” world champion and world’s fastest sailboat, Sir Timothy Coleman “Crossbow II”; and an interesting array of antique outboard motorboats. *During the winter, the old bunkers also contain “Marinexpo”, evoking the life of Bordeaux’s port with ships’ models and figureheads. In the summer, the exhibitions move aboard an itinerant barge. To the west the last swamps of the Chartrons were concentrated in 1960 into an artificial lake, the centre of the “Quartier du Lac”, with trade fair buildings, congress centre, golf courses, an arboretum and recreational facilities. It turned recently into a site of a new aquarium.
Last but not least, Bordeaux has also a right bank. There is a small museum in one of the houses. There have been some attempts to perk it up in recent years, but the only real reason for crossing over the Garonne is the views back on Bordeaux’s facades.
So let’s resume:
Bordeaux’s golden triangle of good taste and luxury shops is formed by the Cours de l’Intendance, Cours Georges Clemenceau and allées de Tourny.The last address of the painter Goya was 59, Cours de l’Intendance, He died suddenly in 1828, age 82 and his remains were transferred too Madrid.
You’ll find Bordeaux baroque church: Notre-Dame, the iron and glass shopping mall “Marché des Grands Hommes”. The east of the cours de l’Intendance opens into place de la Comédie.
You can also find the “Grand Theatré" from Victor Louis, Bordeaux proudest showcase that underwent a through restoration in 1992. From the outside it resembles a Greek Temple, fronted by a row of mighty Corinthian columns and crowned with statues if goddesses and muses.
You can learn and taste the wide variety of Bordeaux appellations at the Maison des Vins de Bordeaux”on the corner of the place de la Comedies.

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