Sights from Invisible Bordeaux and beyond are now available to be explored on Atlas Obscura!

Several of the locations featured on the Invisible Bordeaux blog, along with a number of places further afield, are now included in Atlas Obscura, the definitive guide to extraordinary places around the world. This makes me strangely happy!

Here at Invisible Bordeaux, I have been an avid reader and user of Atlas Obscura for a number of years. In fact, recent cycling trips have been voluntarily designed to take in sights that have been featured on the website. It was only a matter of time before some of the Bordeaux and Gironde finds from the blog appeared on Atlas Obscura, reaching the platform's international audience. Here then are the weird and wonderful subjects that now have that additional exposure.

Twin City Gardens

These little-known and somewhat run-down gardens, which have been designed to make visitors feel as if they have been magically and instantly transported to other parts of the world, namely a number of Bordeaux’s twin cities, including Lima, Munich, Madrid and Casablanca, have been a recurring subject on the Invisible Bordeaux blog and were even converted into a song and video for my musical project, Slowrush.

> View the Atlas Obscura entry.

The Mériadeck quarter

This modern, high-rise district emerged in the 1960s and 1970s following the demolition of an entire residential neighbourhood. Although many Bordeaux citizens have never fully embraced the area, it is popular with brutalist architecture enthusiasts, photographers, skateboarders, urban dance groups, and British bloggers.

> View the Atlas Obscura entry.

Square Vinet’s green wall

Just a stone’s throw from the perpetually bustling Rue Sainte-Catherine, at the junction of two picturesque side streets, you will find a small children's playground which is home to the city's largest mur végétal — a vertical garden, or green wall. It stretches across two sides of the square that meet in a circular niche.

> View the Atlas Obscura entry.

The Ovniport UFO landing pad in Arès

The quiet resort town of Arès, located at the northernmost point of the Arcachon Bay triangle, has a designated landing pad for unidentified flying objects, albeit a rather minimalist one. The so-called 'ovniport' is still awaiting its first extraterrestrial visitor.

> View the Atlas Obscura entry.

 

Other Invisible Bordeaux contributions to Atlas Obscura are from a little further afield, but don’t let that stop you from checking them out!

Rembrandt’s Christ on the Cross in Mas d’Agenais (94 kms from Bordeaux)

Le Mas d’Agenais is a picturesque village overlooking the River Garonne, located approximately halfway between Bordeaux and Toulouse. Its small parish church, Église Saint Vincent, is home to an unlikely treasure: a painting produced by Rembrandt in 1631!

> View the Atlas Obscura entry.

Montech Water Slope (197 kms from Bordeaux)

This remarkable feat of engineering enabled canal boats to bypass a series of five locks. All that was required was a 125-metre sloping channel through which twin 1,000-horsepower diesel-electric locomotives could move the barges. Simple.

> View the Atlas Obscura entry.

Ayré Barèges funicular (302 kms from Bordeaux)

This leisurely mountain hike from the Pyrenean village of Barèges follows the disused tracks of a funicular railway and leads to the spectacular former upper arrival station, which is now abandoned. One of the funicular's last-generation green metal cabins remains in place, while its twin counterpart can be seen at the back of the former departure station in Barèges.

> View the Atlas Obscura entry.

Der Lake Museum Village (just 767 kms from Bordeaux)

This museum preserves the remains of three villages that were submerged by the creation of Der Lake in the early 1970s, which was intended to protect Paris from flooding by regulating the flow of the Marne River. The buildings relocated to the walk-through museum include a town hall, a school, a 14th- to 15th-century church (with its cemetery!), a barn, a blacksmith's house and a dovecote.

> View the Atlas Obscura entry.

> Enjoy the full Atlas Obscura experience and its more than 30,000 entries on the atlasobscura.com website, or else on the very handy app, as used and recommended by Invisible Bordeaux! 

> Atlas Obscura can also be followed on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and elsewhere!