The Garonne River

The Garonne River runs right through the city of Bordeaux. A rough translation of the word 'Garonne' is 'stony river.' When we first arrived, we noticed that the color of the river is mostly chocolate brown. Trey informed us that the river looks this way because it has an unusual interaction with the ocean. Well, being a river geek, I had to look this up . . .

The phenomenon is called a Tidal Bore and it occurs when the "leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave (or waves) of water that travels up a river or narrow bay against the direction of the river or bay's current." (Wikipedia). There are very few rivers in the world that experience this phenomenon.

The source of the Garonne is in the Pyrenees mountains of Spain. Prior to meeting the ocean at the Bay of Biscay, the Garonne is joined by the Dordogne, another river we have enjoyed here in France -- back in 2005. Here's a map that shows the course of the Garonne river:

When we went on our long walk on Tuesday, we crossed the Ponte Pierre Bridge and then walked down the other side of the river bank to another bridge, the Ponte Jacques Chaban Delmas and then back to the city center. This loop is about a 3 mile walk. We noticed that there are many chic new restaurants along the banks of the river and we were told that these types of places did not exist 7 years ago.