When we left Vancouver we moved immediately to a very small town called Varaigne. They have a giant turkey mascot.
The nearest shopping town is Montbrun, notable mostly for a decent Intermarché supermarket. Last month we moved south to Thézac, and even smaller town near Lauzerte. Then for the last two weeks we looked at multiple houses in Normandy, winding up in the relatively bustling and urban center of Alençon after spending a couple of days in Cherbourg.
The upshot of all of this was a realisation that no matter how romantic a little house in the country might seem, we need to be in or near some sort of urban setting. So, we decided, Alençon is where we want to be.
Then today we arrived in Bordeaux….
To be honest after three months of spending all of our time in little rural towns and cities, it’s a bit overwhelming. Instead of one or two brasseries we suddenly have dozens of restaurants. Good, varied restaurants. Bookstores. Boutiques and shops. Cinemas.
And people, so many people. People who are out in the streets after 8pm on a weeknight, in a hurry to go places and do things. The kind of energy and vibrancy that we haven’t seen for a very long time, and which, honestly Vancouver also lacked much of the time.
A real transit system, and bicycles everywhere, LOTS of bicycles, racks full of them in all places, and people riding every direction. Along with scooters and every kind of small transportation imaginable. All of them co-existing with car traffic with no big problems.
The things that I see in Bordeaux are in many ways like what I’ve seen in small villages like Lauzerte. Bikes and people and cars can operate on the same roads if the town has set things up to succeed. Narrow roads. Low speed limits. A compact urban environment that makes it easy to get around on foot. Or enough good, fast, and easy transit that a car can easily be a second choice.
The thing that you don’t see in most French towns and cities are the great, wide automobile routes like Lonsdale in North Vancouver - four traffic lanes, plus parking lanes, plus sidewalks, all of which make it a substantial barrier to anyone travelling on foot, and all of which exist only to move cars as fast as possible even if it puts everyone else at risk.
The normal speed limit in every town and village in France is 30 kmh, and traffic calming measures are absolutely brutal, with chicanes in every village and speed bumps that you have to slow down for or risk damaging your car. Plus the vast majority of intersections that in Canada exist to keep dozens of cars sitting for several minutes with idling engines, have all been replaced with traffic circles, which simultaneously slow down all of the cars, and reduce exhaust emissions.
And, surprisingly, everyone just accepts all of this, and slows down, and life is just better and easier.
The thing that you see in France, and that has been completely lost in Vancouver, is that a really successful and healthy city, town, or village begins by building around the needs of the people who walk from place to place. and by ensuring that every small town has at least a butcher, a baker, and small corner store with essentials.
Add density in the city centers, and maintain the old buildings that provide lots of cheap rental housing, and you wind up with a critical mass of people that make a city center thrive.
When you’ve done that you add mid-day shut downs for lunch, and Sunday shut downs, and five weeks of annual vacation, and somehow you create a place where people like to live, and can feel hopeful about their future.
But hey, the trade-off is that no-one owns a Ford F-350, so there are downsides.
We were only in Bordeaux once for a few days but absolutely loved it, indeed. It spoke.