Rue de la Rouselle, which connects cours d’Alsace-et-Lorraine and cours Victor-Hugo, is one of the prettiest little side-streets of old Bordeaux. In fact, it is so picturesque that it has provided the setting for a number of films made in the city, including recent offerings such as 2 Automnes 3 Hivers (released in 2013), Compte tes blessures (2016) and Le vice caché des Navajos (also 2016).

Rue de la Rousselle also happens to boast one of the highest concentrations of ghost signs, those faded hand-painted signs and advertisements that have been a favourite recurring subject on the Invisible Bordeaux blog. But how many of the signs are the real thing, and how many are leftovers from period film sets?

The starting point behind this enigma was after spotting the painted sign for “Steenvoorde” above what appears to be a garage. With a little help from correspondents on social media, it was quickly established that Steenvoorde was a real-world firm (as well as being a town in northern France), more precisely a dairy company founded in 1911, which changed its name to Stenval in the 1960s ahead of being taken over by the Gervais/Danone conglomerate. Although most of the company’s activities gradually merged into Danone’s output, the original facility has gone on to produce baby milk under the Blédina brand. 

Thanks to a chance encounter on site, it was confirmed to me by the owner of the building himself that the sign was very much the real thing, and that when he acquired the building a number of years ago, the ground floor area was in fact a milk and cheese storage depot. He also mentioned that visitors from northern France were usually delighted to spot the Steenvoorde name above the door, as it reminded them “of home and of a bygone era”. 

My new friend was confident that one of Bordeaux’s most famous ghost signs, announcing “Dépôt des biscuits Léon” was also genuine, while believing the sign had been restored in recent years. (Cross-referencing with a previous appearance on the blog confirms this.) Running “Biscuits Léon” through Google failed to throw up any results whatsoever, but once again social media correspondents were on hand to clear things up. Biscuits Léon was indeed a real-world company, proclaiming to be from Paris but in fact operating out of Maisons-Alfort, a suburb to the south-east of France's capital city, and was apparently renowned for its "petits-beurres" and its "gaufrettes vanille". And this would therefore have been the company's Bordeaux storage depot. 

Punctuation pedants may have noticed that inverted commas have been positioned before the word Léon, but are missing after it.

Upon closer inspection, the paint job does appear to be relatively recent.

A Biscuits Leon advertisement, source: delcampe.net (thank you Rosine)

A little further up the street, there is every chance that this next ghost sign is very much the real thing, given how worn and lived-in it all looks. The faded letters above the windows read “Entrepôts J-E Bonnel & Cie” while two vertical signs refer to “Transit” and “Camionnage”, suggesting Bonnel & Co. provided transport and haulage services.

The following two traders definitely appear to be fictional film set material. The first is a shoemaker who also advertises as a “specialist in laces”, operating under the delightful name of “Aux Galoches Réunies”, which I would love to loosely translate as “Shoes United”, although the word galoche does have a double meaning: it is a type of shoe or clog, but also a French kiss! The second is the hairdresser Antonio Martinez, where the adhesive paper sign has seen better days. Although it has made it through to 2019 more or less in one piece, it does look as if the sign will soon be a thing of the past. 

Then comes the most photogenic of all, an establishment labelled as “Café Cardinal” which also sold firewood and coal, and was owned by one E. Vaton. My Steenvoorde correspondent believes that this really was a café in a past life but that the painted sign is a recent addition. Again this is all very difficult to verify. Whatever, there are two certainties: today the “café” is very much a private residence and, as a plaque on the wall recalls, it is located on the very spot where Michel Montaigne, the renowned and influential 16th-century thinker and mayor of Bordeaux, lived with his family. 

Finally, to the side of a small square where rue de la Rousselle meets rue du Puits-Descazeaux, it would be great to think this faux marble sign advertising “Service départemental, Architecture” did in fact date back to Gallo-Roman times. It is of course a much more recent addition, but was a bona fide banner above the door of what was an architects’ bureau. The architects have reportedly moved on though, and now that part of the building is a company crèche! 

So there you have it. A few open questions and unsolved mysteries, and some genuine signs of the past. But this might just be one of those articles that evolves over time on the basis of feedback and information that comes in from readers. Do let me know if you know something about those various sights that has been missed here, whether you’ve spotted any of them in films, whether you used to enjoy your morning cup of coffee at Café Cardinal, and if you can help to categorically tell which signs are real, and which have been left over from the movies! To be continued?

> Find it on the Invisible Bordeaux map: rue de la Rousselle, Bordeaux
> Big thanks to writer Sophie Poirier who alerted me to rue de la Rousselle’s film set credentials and the existence of “fake” ghost signs, to Tobye over on Instagram who provided the essential initial information about Steenvoorde, to Rosine Duet for information about Biscuits Léon, and to Jérôme Mabon of the États Critiques website (heavily recommended for Bordeaux-based cinema buffs!) who identified and viewed the films shot on the street, even though the mysteries remain!

> Full information about Steenvoorde here: http://lamalleapapa.com/marque/steenvoorde
> Ce dossier est également disponible en français !

Just a little heads-up here because in June 2020, 3,500 competitors from 45 countries and 40,000 spectators will be descending on Bordeaux for RoboCup, the annual robot football world cup, which is being held at the Parc des Expositions in the Lac district to the north of the city. It could be a lot of fun. 

So, what’s it all about? Basically, in the mid-1990s, the Japanese scientist Hiroaki Kitano came up with a 21st-century challenge to pick up where the 1996 and 1997 Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov chess matches left off. Kitano’s suggestion was that, come 2050, a team of robots would be able to take on and defeat the human world champions in a game of football (soccer). The RoboCup tournament was born and next year’s event in Bordeaux will be the 24th of its kind, and each year the robots are getting more versatile, fast, precise and powerful. 

Of course, what can first come across as an unusual day out to watch robots aiming to kick a ball all the way into a goal has far deeper implications: RoboCup is in fact a high-level competition that puts robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to the test, and using football as the medium is incredibly demanding for all the skillsets at play, incorporating limitless events, combinations and variables that make it a much tougher proposition than the two-dimensional chess moves perfected by IBM’s Deep Blue! What is more, the AI and robotic capabilities being trialled in these events have countless potential real-world applications in areas ranging from health to rescue operations.

Accordingly, over the seven days of the June 2020 event in Bordeaux, beyond the football tournaments which run across various categories (humanoid, standard, mid- and small-sized, and simulated), there are a host of contests being held in the fields of home, rescue and industrial robotics. In most of these disciplines, parallel junior tournaments will also be held. Throughout the event, visitors will also be able to take in an extensive exhibition area and wide-ranging conference programme. 

Officially hosted by the University of Bordeaux in close partnership with the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and Bordeaux Métropole, the organizers are secretly hoping for a home team victory: Bordeaux University lecturer Olivier Ly, who is one of the leading lights of the organization steering committee, has so far led his “Rhoban” team to RoboCup wins across various categories in 2016, 2017 and 2018. He is aiming to repeat that at this year’s event in Sydney… which would then set France up for a fifth title in 2020! 

So, it’s fun and technically fascinating, but is robot soccer as exciting as real, live entertainment sport? Judging by the promotional videos showcased by the RoboCup team at an event I attended to introduce the event to press and partners, the matches between humanoid robots are a little like watching life in slow motion, although there is a definite sense of adrenalin that builds up when a team is on the verge of scoring, and the ball is either parried by a tumbling robot goalkeeper or makes it over the line for a goal. However, the clips that were shown of the small-size automatic vacuum cleaner-like robots darting around the pitch like there was no tomorrow suggested they and their shots were almost impossible to counteract, and could almost certainly give bona fide footballers a good run for their money… so a 2050 robotic victory against the humans may not be as far-fetched as it sounds! 

> Official RoboCup France website, including information about the 2020 event: www.robocup.fr

> Here are video highlights from a 2018 RoboCup match between France's Rhoban team and Iran's MRL:

Click here if video does not display properly on your device.

> Cet article est également disponible en français !

The fourth episode of the monthly Invisible Bordeaux podcast is now available for your listening pleasure and features quality French-language conversation with Deux Degrés, the good people behind Bordeaux Safari, the interactive roleplay guidebook which was the star of an adventure on the blog some time ago, and which has just been given a full makeover with the release of a brand new edition. 

But, as we are about to find out, the Safari concept has been rolled out across other cities in France (Nantes Safari being the most recent addition), and Deux Degrés are much more than a publishing house, describing themselves as an "agence de médiation" providing a platform and channels to connect local authorities with citizens. The full story can be heard below, as delivered by urban planner Gabriel Bord and designer Julianne Huon, both project leaders at Deux Degrés (pictured fifth and third left on the group photo above).

Here then is the podcast, which you'll also find on miscellaneous platforms including Anchor, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Breaker, PocketCasts, RadioPublic, Overcast, Podbean, Podcast Addict and Stitcher. Feel free to hit the subscribe button on the platform of your choice! And scroll on down for all the links you need to find out more about Deux Degrés.

Click here if player does not display properly on your device.

Further information about Deux Degrés:

> Website: www.deuxdegres.net
> Social media feeds: Facebook / Twitter / Instagram
> Deux Degrés' publications: http://boutique.deuxdegres.net/index.php