Great excitement - the inauguration of our new square

 At the top of our road is a large crossroads where four roads meet and the tram crosses. The recent buildings have been built at an angle to the crossroads making a rather twisted open air called Place d'Armagnac. Over the past couple of months this square has been paved, trees planted, benches installed, lighting placed and a drinking fountain added. It's not quite finished.

But yesterday was the inauguration of the square. the Mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, a lawyer who belongs to the Green Party, was to open it, accompanied by the chairman of Bordeaux Metropole - kind of the like the Super-Mayor of the whole city. That means speeches.

In addition there were to be animations - a food truck serving kebabs and drinks, a bicycle-driven roundabout, the street-band of the medical school Los (Téoporos) and a classical trio of violin, cello and marimba who would play Spanish ad Latin American music in the library adjacent to the square.

A demonstration was scheduled, too, by the cycling pressure groups of Bordeaux who are (rightly) aggrieved that during the construction of this whole area too little attention has been given to safety for cyclists. So they turned up on their bikes with a huge banner and were given the microphone to be able to express their views. About a dozen riot police were there, too, so the whole thing was taken very seriously.

An artist was drawing people's portraits and she did Pat and me, but she gave me blue eyes and made us look like a curious coupling of punk (Pat) and hippie (me), so we were not thrilled with the result.

We enjoyed the music, avoided the speeches as much as we could and look forward to some shops arriving in the square. And better cycle-paths.