We find ourselves in a run-down part of a Leclerc shopping centre in the Chartrons district of Bordeaux. The building in question used to be one of the city’s railway stations: Gare Saint-Louis.

Invisible Bordeaux first encountered Gare Saint-Louis when researching the cycle path which runs all the way to Lacanau. The cycle path replaced a railway line which previously departed from Gare Saint-Louis. The station’s other destinations included Bordeaux Saint-Jean and the Médoc wine-growing area.

These are difficult times for independent bookstores, but one shop which continues to weather the storm is Bradley’s, the only English-language bookshop in Bordeaux and one of the city’s most respected literary outlets. On a suitably rainy Saturday morning, I met Anne-Françoise Mazeau, who owns and runs the business, and long-time attendant Juline Druillole to learn more about Bradley’s past, present and future.

Bradley’s was founded in 1983 by a couple of expatriate Australians, Pauline and Paul Carpenter. They moved into premises on Place Gambetta and, instead of simply calling it “Carpenter’s”, opted to give the brand new bookshop Pauline’s maiden name: Bradley. The Carpenters spent 20 years at the helm of the store until their retirement in 2003, when the business was taken over by Englishman Terry Vincent.

My Invisible Paris and Invisible Lyon counterparts and I regularly look to old postcards as a source of inspiration for subjects which end up being featured on our blogs. Therefore, without really trying, I appear to be slowly amassing a bona fide collection of interesting pictures of Bordeaux as it used to be.

The following all show various views of the waterfront, demonstrating how much it changed throughout the 20th century, and how much it has evolved in recent years with the city “reclaiming” the quayside for pedestrians, cyclists and rollerbladers, and installing the popular “Miroir d’Eau” attraction.

A name that seems etched into the collective consciousness of La-Teste-de-Buch, on the southern ridge of the Bassin d’Arcachon, is that of Dr Jean Hameau, whose research paved the way for the scientific achievements of Louis Pasteur.

Hameau was born in La Teste itself on October 5th 1779 in a small house located on what is now Rue du 14 Juillet. His father, André, was a local tailor who had married Jeanne Labouroir from Dax, further south in the Landes area. Aged just 16, Hameau began his medical studies under the guidance of one Dr Desquives in Ychoux, a few kilometres to the east of Biscarrosse. Two years later, in 1797, he departed for Paris, pursuing his studies at École de Santé de Paris where he spent four years and contributed to an initiative known as the “Centre de la Vaccine”.

Dotted along the banks of the Gironde Estuary are countless wooden fishing huts which have been built on stilts. Their main implement is a square-shaped pulley-operated net (or “filet carré”) which has given the humble shacks their name: “carrelets”.

The recurring characteristics of carrelets are that they are sometimes elaborate and often colourful structures which can be reached via invariably precarious walkways. They may appear somewhat flimsy but each carrelet has to meet stringent norms and construction projects are closely monitored by local authorities. From a legal/real estate point of view, carrelets may be the private property of their owners, but the latter are solely registered as “occupant temporaires” of their waterside plot, subject to an authorisation administered by the relevant body (“Bordeaux Port Atlantique” for much of the Gironde Estuary).

The city and people of modern-day Bordeaux owe much to the man celebrated by this monument which can be found in the heart of the leafy Parc Bordelais: Camille Godard. 

Sadly, very little is known about the man himself. After literally minutes spent on the internet and flicking through books I was only able to establish the following: Jean Baptiste Camille Godard was born in Cognac in May 1823 and died in Nice 58 years later in December 1881. His occupation was that of a “négociant”, a trader in wine and other produce, a position which is perpetually held in high esteem in Bordeaux. Négociants invariably carve out a status in the city’s high society and, above all, regularly become extremely wealthy.

This was Godard’s case: with the fortune he had amassed, in 1855 he acquired the renowned Château Kirwan wine-growing estate in Cantenac, near Margaux. As well as overseeing the production of the château’s wine (which had just been ranked as a “Grand Cru”), Godard also designed its gardens – he was a keen amateur gardener and botanist. When Godard died in 1882, it also transpired that he was to be a posthumous philanthropist. 

Château Kirwan and its magnificent Camille Godard-designed grounds (and vines).

For, two years previously, on September 24th 1880 from the comfort of his office at Kirwan, Camille Godard had written the following lines: “Les revenus obtenus par le placement du capital de mon legs seront assez considérables pour faire et entreprendre des choses utiles que ne permet pas toujours de faire le budget de la ville. […] J'entends par ces mots, la création de squares, les embellissements des promenades, les ouvertures de grandes voies, les constructions d'écoles, les créations de cours publics, de bibliothèques, de prix. Pour commencer, je désire que la ville crée une école de jardiniers.”

In short, Godard was officially committed to bequeathing his fortune to the city of Bordeaux and stated that investments would yield enough funds to enable the city to do things which were beyond its regular means. His request was that the money be used to build squares, embellish walkways, lay down roads, build schools, and initiate lessons, libraries and awards. His first wish was for the city to create a gardening school. Along with his money, Bordeaux inherited Château Kirwan itself. Management duties were handed over to the wine traders Schröder & Schÿler, until 1926 by which time partner Armand Schÿler bought the château outright. His family still owns the domain.

The first venture facilitated by Godard’s funds was the purchase and landscaping of the Parc Bordelais. The area had previously been earmarked as the venue for a Paris-style “jardin d’acclimatation” but the project, led by a group of stakeholders from Caudéran (an independent town at the time) fell through. On July 15th 1882, Caudéran sold the plot to the city of Bordeaux on the condition that it would become a “lieu de promenade”, i.e. a nice place for a pleasant stroll. The park was officially inaugurated by the French president Sadi Carnot in 1888.

A year later, the city of Bordeaux erected the aforementioned monument to its benefactor. The statue which can be seen today is the original marble sculpture (revealing a little further information about Godard: he was bald and sported a substantial bushy moustache). At the outset, a plaster copy had been installed but this was stolen in 1904. The decorative pedestal features the city’s coat of arms and three-crescent emblem as well as the words “la ville de Bordeaux reconnaissante” as a mark of the city’s appreciation for Godard’s generosity.

The Camille Godard monument in Parc Bordelais.

Godard’s request for a horticultural legacy began to take shape in 1890 when the funds were used by the University Faculty of Medecine to purchase part of the grounds of Château Peixotto in Talence. The resulting horticultural facilities, registered as botanic gardens which continue to be operated by Bordeaux University, comprise a two-storey orangerie, greenhouses and a laboratory.

"Le jardin botanique universitaire de Talence", in the grounds of Château Peixotto, visible in the bottom-left photo.

Later, in 1953, the city elected to use Godard funds to create his much-desired “école municipale d’horticulture”. After 13 years at one Château Carreire (located near Rue de Bethmann, the château was demolished in 1969 to make way for University Faculty of Medecine buildings), the establishment set up shop at Domaine Bel Air, a château in Le Haillan. The mansion had been built on the reported site of a battle during the Hundred Years’ War and had often changed hands up until the 19th century before being occupied by the Germans during the Second World War. Post-War the property was in poor shape until the city of Bordeaux purchased it and its surrounding lands in 1963. The horticultural college operated here until 1986 when the château became the headquarters and state-of-the-art training centre of local top-flight football team Girondins de Bordeaux. 

Now best-known as Château du Haillan, the mansion is surrounded by training grounds and facilities.

The college, its greenhouses and its associated municipal teams of gardeners and landscape artists subsequently moved to grounds adjacent to the château and its football pitches. And that is where the facility continues to operate under the name of “Lycée Horticole Camille Godard”.

The entrance to the modern-day Camille Godard "lycée horticole" in Le Haillan.

Meanwhile, perhaps the best-known of the by-products of Godard’s wealth is, quite simply, the Monument aux Girondins, erected on the Esplanade des Quinconces in central Bordeaux between 1894 and 1902. The monument pays homage to the Girondins political group who were overpowered and executed by their rivals the Jacobins in the slipstream of the French Revolution. Its centrepiece is a 43-metre column which is topped off by a winged lady made out of bronze symbolising freedom (hence the broken chain in her right hand).

Signs of the city’s appreciation for Camille Godard’s generosity now stretch beyond the Parc Bordelais monument and include both a street and a combined bus-stop/tram-stop. So spare a thought for the wealthy benefactor the next time you’re on a number 15 or 72 bus, or on a Line C tram!

> Locate them on the Invisible Bordeaux map: Find them: Château Kirwan, Cantenac; Parc Bordelais, Bordeaux; Château du Haillan, Lycée Horticole Camille Godard, Le Haillan; Monument aux Girondins, Rue Camille Godard, Camille Godard bus and tram stops, Bordeaux. 
> Thanks to Lesley Graham for clarifying some of the sketchier details about Château Carrière.

This waterfront orthopedic clinic in Arcachon, which specialised in the treatment of osseous tuberculosis, was allegedly the scene of a series of paranormal events throughout a four-month period in 1963. After all these years, no definite explanation has enabled the case to be fully closed.

The most complete account of the mysterious goings-on were filed by the owner of the clinic, known to some as “La Clinique des Allongés”, the respected physician Dr Cuénot (member of France’s Académie de Médecine and the son of renowned biologist and genetician Lucien Cuénot). His writings were published by the Revue Métapsychique in June 1966.

In this, the first-ever guest post on the blog, Bordeaux-based translator and authority on all things beer-related, Chris Tighe, casts his well-informed eyes upon the history of La Grande Brasserie de l’Atlantique, a Bordeaux institution which was located on Quai de Brienne for many years. Over to you, Chris!

It was the turn of the 19th century when a gentleman from the Strasbourg-based Fischer family decided to open a Bordeaux branch of his Alsace brewery. His aim was to cut down on transportation costs to the Sud Ouest as well as to export to overseas French territories from this new outlet for Fischer beers. He chose a peaceful open spot by the river which had decent road, rail and boat access for supplying the city and beyond. So in February 1806 was born the Grande Brasserie de l'Atlantique which successfully operated from 1-6 Quai de Brienne for 173 years until its final closure in 1979; the site is currently occupied by the Point P and M.I.N. (Marché d'Intérêt National).

The good people of Bordeaux webradio station tooBordo have released their first “carte postale audio” of 2014, which features… Invisible Bordeaux!

During the French-language interview (cunningly edited to sound like a monologue), I talk about how the website started out, its philosophy, some of the subjects that have been covered, the people I’ve met along the way and the various offshoots of the blog. The talk is illustrated by a selection of photos from the website… will you be able to link each picture with its associated subject?

I hope you’ll enjoy listening to (and viewing) the feature which you can view here or directly on the tooBordo website. Big big thanks to Laurent Spadotto and tooBordo for making it happen!

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

• Do visit tooBordo where there are dozens of (other!) great audio documents to check out: www.toobordo.net

Once again, all the subjects covered by the website over the past twelve months have been a delight to compile and research. But here are five subjects which proved particularly interesting when peeling the layers away. Click on the titles or associated pictures to read the items!

 

The end of 2013 will soon be upon us and the time is therefore right to finish off the calendar year with a couple of items that look back on some of the features that ran on Invisible Bordeaux over the past twelve months. This first set compiles the five most-read articles. Feel free to click on the titles or associated pictures to read the items!

It was Adam over at Invisible Paris who first spotted this 1895 advertisement for a unique range of dental hygiene products: “Dentifrices des RR. PP. Bénédictins de l’Abbaye de Soulac (Gironde)”. As the distributors, Seguin, were based in Bordeaux, it seemed like a potential subject for this website, but piecing the full story together proved to be a difficult case of working out where the facts end and the work of 19th-century marketing types begins!

The undisputed facts are that these tooth care products, which included mouth wash (or, to put it more eloquently, “elixir”), powders and paste, were produced and marketed from the late 19th-century onwards by Seguin, a company founded in 1807 and which specialised in products that were sold in chemists and parfumeries. Seguin was initially based at number 3 Rue Huguerie, near Place Tourny, and later relocated to number 47 Rue Ulysse Gayon, near Barrière Saint-Médard.

In spite of the fact that there are still no Starbucks coffee shops in Bordeaux (although this will change in early 2014), in recent years much of the city has inevitably become a standardised succession of the brand names that are ever-present on high streets throughout France and around the world.  

But in amongst the Apples and Oranges, Fnacs, Etams, Body Shops and Subways, a number of timelessly independent outlets continue to hold out against the onslaught! Scroll on down as we view a handful of examples of the kinds of elegant and charming shop fronts that can still be seen throughout the city. Let’s enjoy them while we can!

Our first stop is stamp collectors' haunt Art et Philatélie, on the corner of Rue de la Porte-Dijeaux and Place Puy-Paulin.

 

The shop has been here for more than 150 years and, as well as dealing in stamps, boasts a fine stock of coins, old written correspondence, postcards, phone cards and champagne "muselets", the little metal caps that are clamped onto the top of champagne corks. Further information on the shop's website: www.art-philatelie.fr [Find it]

**

The vintage shop front of the Laffargue haberdashery can be seen on Rue des Remparts. According to informed opinion on various online forums, the shop is a popular draw for sewing and knitting enthusiasts of all generations. From what I can make out Laffargue stock rolls of material and reels of cotton and wool of just about every colour, shape, thickness and design, a wide range of zips and buttons, and enough patterns, thimbles and needles to make you want to take up knitting the minute you step inside the shop. Enter therefore at your peril!... [Find it]

**

The Verdeun toy and scale model shop recently featured in the Invisible Bordeaux item about the Galerie Bordelaise. It is arguably the most timeless of the thirteen trade units in the arcade and features both an arcade-side entrance and this quaint roadside shop front with its host of miniature trains, planes and automobiles. The shop was founded in 1948 by Maurice Verdeun, a successful track cyclist who won a world championship title in 1950! His sons Bruno and Frédéric now run the shop. [Find it]

**

OK, OK, as authentic and old-school as this one looks, Le Comptoir Bordelais is in fact a fairly recent addition to the shopping landscape in Bordeaux and is therefore very much the odd one out in this selection. The Rue des Piliers de Tutelle shop was founded by one Pierre Baudry less than five years ago and is Baudry's second such venture (his first shop was the similarly-themed Le Comptoir Arcachonnais in Arcachon). Both épiceries sell quality foodstuffs from the area and beyond. Products include wine, apéritifs, charcuterie and miscellaneous sweet and savoury delicacies. [Find it]

**

À l'Art Nouveau is a small independent printers on Rue Bouffard. They specialise in signage, name plates, rubber stamps, letterheads, engraving (such as on medals and trophies) and "faire-part" cards (wedding invites, birth and indeed death announcements, etc.). I think I'll go there the next time I need to get some keys cut, if only to see what it looks (and smells) like on the inside! Website: www.imprimerie-gravure-bordeaux.fr [Find it]

**

Unbelievably, Au Carnaval has been supplying festive outfits and accessories to the good people of Bordeaux since the 1930s! Behind its colourful mosaic façade items for sale include all sorts of novelty wigs, masks, face paint and enough streamers, sparklers and fireworks to make any party go off with a bang. Pranksters can also purchase essential equipment for their practical jokes. The store also organises face-painting and balloon art and sculpting workshops. It all feels a million miles away from the genteel and cultured environment of the Musée d'Aquitaine, which just happens to be next door... [Find it]

**

For obvious reasons, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a traditional French charcuterie, supplying miscellaneous deli meats to the masses on Rue Camille Sauvageau. But all that remains of the 1930s-built charcuterie is the name and the intricate mosaic façade. The place is in fact a record shop that stocks thousands of vinyl singles and albums (and displays some fine vintage record players in its window). Regarded by some as the "caverne d'Ali Baba du disque", La Charcuterie was converted into a record shop by owner Luc Magnan in 2006. The full story can be found on the Saint Mich' blog here: www.saintmich.fr/?p=1542 [Find it]

**

This is number 5, Boulevard Antoine Gautier, not far from Chartreuse Cemetery. It goes by the name of "Verseau Couture" and is in fact the workshop of Marie-Christine ("Cris") Dartigalongue, an "artisan d'art" who excels in knitting, sewing and sculpture. The colourful wood panels partly obscure some of her creations which do indeed seem very woolly. There also appears to be a cardboard cut-out of a power drill in amongst the clothes and pictures. Art, eh? [Find it]

Four-and-a-half kilometres of murky Gironde waters separate the towns of Lamarque and Blaye. Bridging this gap between the Médoc and Blayais territories is a regular ferry connection; we give you the “bac Lamarque-Blaye”!

Every year around 50,000 vehicles and 150,000 passengers utilise the service, operated by the Gironde conseil général’s TransGironde network which mainly comprises bus routes and school bus lines.

Although I seem to recollect spotting several identical ferries in the past, the line’s official website refers only to a single one, the Côtes de Blaye. The 530-ton ship, built in 1970 by the Nantes shipbuilder Chantiers Dubigeon (founded in 1760 and which folded in 1987), is 51.5 metres long, 12.3 metres wide, and manned by a six-strong crew. It can carry up to 40 vehicles and 350 passengers, reaching speeds of up to 11 knots (around 20 km/h) over the course of the 20-minute crossing.

One of the most illustrious of Bordeaux’s daughters is Rosa Bonheur who, throughout her life which spanned much of the 19th century, became a world-renowned "animalière" and is regarded by many as the most famous female painter of her time.

Rosa Bonheur was born Marie Rosalie Bonheur on March 16th 1822 at 29, Rue Saint-Jean-Saint-Seurin (now  55, Rue Duranteau) in Bordeaux. Her father, Oscar-Raymond Bonheur, was a landscape and portrait painter and frequented Spanish artist Francisco Goya during the four years the latter spent in Bordeaux up until his death.

The artistic genes also ran on the side of her mother, Sophie, who was a piano teacher. Rosa struggled at school and her mother taught her to write, encouraging her to draw animals to illustrate each letter of the alphabet. Basics in art were also passed down by Oscar-Raymond to Rosa and the other, younger Bonheur siblings: Auguste and Juliette went on to become animal painters and Isidore Jules became an animal sculptor.

55, Rue Duranteau, the birthplace of Rosa Bonheur.

In 1829, the family relocated to Paris. Four years later Rosa’s mother died and, soon afterwards, her father and his new partner set up in the Plaine Monceau district of Paris. Rosa instantly turned to painting and sculpture to help her through her teenage years. She began by copying images from drawing books and by sketching from plaster models.

Rosa Bonheur pictured at Château
de By, near Thomery. Source: Wikipedia

Then she began to make studies of domesticated animals from life. These included horses, sheep, cows, goats, rabbits and other animals observed in the pastures on the outskirts of Paris.

In 1840, her father allowed her to exhibit of picture of two rabbits at the “Salon de Paris”. This was followed by a painting entitled “Cheval à vendre” which proved popular with audiences; its success encouraged Rosa Bonheur to officially trade as an “animalière”. In order to continually progress, she visited cattle markets and studied animal anatomy and osteology by visiting the abattoirs of Paris and by performing dissections of animals at the École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort, the National Veterinary Institute in Paris.

The homework paid off, resulting in her two most famous works: the 1848 "Ploughing in the Nivernais" (Le labourage Nivernais), which can now be seen at Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and the 1852 "The Horse Fair" (Le marché aux chevaux), a monumental piece which is now displayed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and which led to international fame, most notably in the US where her paintings became a staple of travelling exhibitions. Britain’s Queen Victoria was among her admirers, and the two met when Bonheur was en route for an extensive stay in Scotland in 1856. Bonheur’s status was further cemented in in 1865 she became the first female artist to be decorated with the Legion of Honour by the Empress Eugenie.

"Le labourage nivernais". Source: Wikipedia.

"Le marché aux chevaux". Source: Wikipedia.

By now Rosa Bonheur, along with childhood friend Nathalie Micas, with whom she was to live for forty years, moved from Paris to the Château de By, a mansion house in Thomery, 75 kilometres to the south of the French capital (and which is now a permanent Rosa Bonheur museum).

Rosa Bonheur's portrayal of
Colonel Cody/Buffalo Bill.
Source: Wikipedia.

This is where she would spend the remainder of her life, painting the animals that surrounded her, and some famous human beings too: Colonel Cody, better-known as Buffalo Bill, made the round-trip to the Château de By to meet the celebrated painter while in Paris for the 1889 Universal Exhibition.

Buffalo Bill’s visit came shortly after the death of Nathalie Micas. Bonheur soon welcomed a new tenant to her Château, the young American painter Anna Klumpke, who went on to pen Rosa’s “autobiography” and became heir to her worldly possessions after the animalière’s death in 1899.

As well as her artistic achievements, Rosa Bonheur is regarded as having been staunchly independent and is remembered for the men’s clothes she would wear, her unorthodox (for the time) choice of companions and her penchant for chain-smoking cigars. On her wearing of trousers, Rosa stated that the choice was simply practical as it facilitated her work with animals. The authorities rubberstamped the choice, issuing a permit (a “permission de travestissement”) allowing her to wear trousers so that she could attend cattle fairs.

The Gaston Veuvenot Leroux sculpture of Rosa Bonheur in the Jardin Public, which was totally restored in 2018.

Even though Bordeaux only formed the backdrop to the early years of Rosa Bonheur’s life, a strong connection remains. Since 1910, a sculpture of Bonheur by artist Gaston Veuvenot Leroux has been a permanent fixture in the Jardin Public. A street bears Rosa Bonheur’s name in the neighbourhood where she was born and in 2009 a discreet plaque was added to the house where she was born. The latest homage is to be found in the suburb of Bruges where the secondary school has been given her name.

Rue Rosa-Bonheur.

Collège Rosa-Bonheur, Bruges.

Staying in Bordeaux, one of Rosa Bonheur's most notable works can be seen at the Musée des Beaux-Arts (undergoing renovation work at the time of writing): the rather large (6.5 metres by 3 metres!) “Foulaison du blé en Camargue”.

"Foulaison du blé en Camargue". Source: culture.gouv.fr

But, for now at least, Bordeaux has yet to follow in the footsteps of Elkridge, Maryland, where Rosa Bonheur Memorial Park is in fact a pet cemetery!

> Find them on the Invisible Bordeaux map: 55, Rue Duranteau (birthplace), Jardin Public (statue), Rue Rosa-Bonheur, Bordeaux; Collège Rosa-Bonheur, 57 Rue Jean Claudeville, Bruges. 

> And here is a France 2 report which serves as an introduction to Rosa Bonheur:

Click here if video doesn't display on your device.

After creating an “Essential Bordeaux” page a few months ago, I have now produced an “Essential Gironde” page, which provides a thumbnail guide to the top daytrip-friendly sights to take in during a stay in or around Bordeaux.

These include Arcachon, the Dune de Pilat, Saint-Émilion, Blaye citadel, the Médoc wine route and a handful of other “essential” visits. The page may be further edited in time when I think of things I may have initially forgotten about or if I receive too many messages from readers complaining that I’ve left a specific sight off the list!

The Essential Gironde page will remain permanently accessible in the top horizontal menu and all the sights which have been singled out can be easily located thanks to the dedicated Googlemap - which also comprises the essential sights to enjoy in Bordeaux itself.

• Click here for the Invisible Bordeaux guide to the Gironde essentials, and here for the Bordeaux essentials.

Photos by fellow Bonjour Bordeaux contributors Yves Maguin, Amandine Maurand and myself are currently on display at the Tapa’l’Oeil bar in the Sainte-Croix district of Bordeaux.

The pictures were taken over the course of a single late-summer morning in the Saint-Genès, Nansouty and Saint-Michel districts of Bordeaux, and were initially exhibited as part of the district Mairie’s Arty Garden Party back in September. The photos take in architecture, infrastructure, little-noticed details on buildings and scenes of everyday life (a previous blog item has already compiled the Invisible Bordeaux contributions to the full exhibition).

The photos will be on display until Saturday December 14th 2013. Naturally, admission is entirely free of charge, while the good people of Tapa’l’Oeil will gladly provide quality food and drink at affordable prices!

• Tapa’l’Oeil, 14 Place Pierre Renaudel, Bordeaux (opposite Sainte-Croix church), open weekday lunchtimes, and Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. Website: www.tapaloeil.fr, tel.: 05 56 92 63 21

This bust, which can be seen on the main esplanade in the Mériadeck quarter, depicts Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portugal’s Consul-General in Bordeaux in 1940 and the man whose signature enabled the escape to freedom of several thousand refugees.

Sousa Mendes was 55 years old when he arrived in Bordeaux in 1939, nearing the end of a respectable career as a diplomat for his country, having held positions in Zanzibar, Brazil and the United States. Respectable but not unblemished: he had been involved in a number of incidents of financial irregularities, using public money for private purposes. It was at the end of a ten-year stint in Belgium, a point at which Sousa Mendes returned to Portugal seeking permission to leave his post, that Portuguese prime minister António de Oliveira Salazar assigned him to this new position in south-western France.

During his tenure, war broke out and German troops made rapid headway across France. Even though Salazar’s personal standpoint was favourable to Hitler’s policies, Portugal remained by and large a neutral player in the conflict. However, Portugal did provide aid to the Allies by granting naval bases to Britain and the United States. Above all, Portugal, particularly Lisbon, was one of the last European exit points to the US.

Aristides de Sousa Mendes, 1940.
Picture © Comité Sousa Mendes,
Famille de Sousa Mendes.

Getting there would not be easy though: under threat of military action from the Nazis, Salazar had issued orders on November 11th 1939 (known as “Circular 14”) that consuls were not to issue Portuguese visas to "foreigners of indefinite or contested nationality, the stateless, or Jews expelled from their countries of origin". This order was followed six months later by one stating that "under no circumstances" were visas to be issued without prior case-by-case approval from Lisbon.

Meanwhile, the French government had relocated to Bordeaux and had been followed by thousands of refugees flooding into the city hoping to reach Portugal, many with the wish of subsequently emigrating to the States. To achieve this they needed to obtain a visa. Polish Rabbi Chaim Hersz Kruger was among the refugees. He had travelled from Antwerp, Belgium, with his family and sought the support of Sousa Mendes. The Consul-General was sympathetic to their cause, took Kruber and the Rabbi’s family under his wing and put them up in his consular residence. Going against orders, he rubberstamped visas for the Rabbi and his family, who refused to accept the documents until every single refugee in Bordeaux received one too, informing Sousa Mendes that “all my brethren are at risk of death”.

The statue on Esplanade Charles-de-Gaulle in the Mériadeck quarter.

Sousa Mendes took this message on board and, on June 16th 1940, he decided to deliver visas to anyone who would request one, regardless of nationality, race or religion. Over the next four days, aided by some of his nephews and children (Sousa Mendes had fathered 14 children and while in Bordeaux also got involved in an extra-marital adventure which resulted in one more child with his French mistress), Sousa Mendes got to work signing forms and, when the forms ran out, blank sheets of paper.

In response to warnings from Lisbon he declared “I would rather stand with God against Man than with Man against God”. A cat-and-mouse game with Portuguese authorities then began: Sousa Mendes relocated further south to the sub-consulate in Bayonne where the visa-stamping continued from the 20th to the 23rd of June, when Salazar officially relinquished him of his functions. Sousa Mendes set out for Portugal but, en route, continued signing documents and personally led a group of refugees to an isolated Spanish frontier post where news of his dismissal had yet to filter through.

The gamble had paid off though. Sousa Mendes’s actions had enabled thousands of people to escape from France. The figure which has stuck and which is often quoted, including on the plinth of the Bordeaux statue and on the plaque outside the former consulate, is 30,000. This number was first referred to by author Harry Ezratty in a 1964 article and was mistakenly based on the total number of refugees who had passed through Portugal. Official records instead show that Sousa Mendes granted 2,862 visas between January 1st and June 22nd 1940 (bearing in mind that often a single visa covered more than one person), with the vast majority being issued during the final days. Beneficiaries comprised Jews but also political dissidents, army officers from occupied countries, and priests and nuns. Notable refugees included Otto von Habsburg, the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, Charlotte the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and surreal artist Salvador Dalí who had spent six months in Arcachon.

Plaque on the wall of the former Portuguese consulate.

Back in Portugal Sousa Mendes was indefinitely suspended from diplomatic duties and forced into early retirement. To make ends meet, he and his family were offered the financial support of Lisbon’s Jewish community, which enabled some of his children to be educated in the States – two even contributed to the D-Day landings. Most of Sousa Mendes’s other children also emigrated and only one remained by his side when his wife died in 1948. Six years later, Sousa Mendes himself died a lonely death in poverty on April 3, 1954 in a Franciscan hospital in Lisbon.

Happily, a posthumous change of fortunes lay ahead. In 1966, the Yad Vashem memorial ranked the “Insubordinate Consul” as a “Righteous Among the Nations” figure. In 1987, the Portuguese Republic began to rehabilitate Sousa Mendes' memory and granted an “Order of Liberty” medal. The rehabilitation in Portugal was complete in 1995 when a commemorative stamp was issued.

The former Portuguese consulate, on the Garonne river-front.

Here in Bordeaux, on May 29th 1994 former Portuguese president Mario Soares dedicated the bust of Sousa Mendes, along with a commemorative plaque at 14 Quai Louis-XVIII, the address at which the consulate at Bordeaux had been housed. In 2002, this was followed in the Chartrons district by the inauguration of a primary school which was given Sousa Mendes’s name, as was the associated street (and nearby bus-stop).

Much has been written about Sousa Mendes’s acts of bravery which made him a wartime hero with a difference and a ray of humanitarian light during such a dark period. It is peculiar to think that it was the city of Bordeaux that formed the backdrop to this historical chapter, a chapter for which the several-thousand refugees and their descendants throughout the world are no doubt eternally grateful. 

> Find them on the Invisible Bordeaux map: statue, Esplanade Charles-de-Gaulle; former consulate, 14 Quai Louis-XVIII; primary school, Rue Sousa-Mendes, Bordeaux.

> For the full story, go to www.aristidesdesousamendes.com (which includes a cartoon version of the Bordeaux episode) and www.sousamendes.org

Here is the trailer from "The Consul of Bordeaux", a Portuguese film released in 2011:

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And here are extracts from a made-for-TV film based on the events:


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