Drama at Place Armagnac

Bordeaux is basically flat. This makes it very suitable for cycling. At the same time, Bordeaux has narrow streets and lots of traffic. Less suitable for cycling. However, we live in a new area of the city, recently laid out, by people aware of the huge and growing popularity of cycling in the city. So we have cycle paths and cycle lanes everywhere.

Where the tram lines cross two major roads you can find the Place Armagnac. On one side there's the old sorting office, which is becoming a classy hotel. On another you find the back the main wholesale market. The third has our local library. There's a lot of construction going on, of new tower blocks, hotels and offices. And a couple of cycle paths of varying quality and safety.

When the square was inaugurated -- we inaugurate lots of things in France -- a large group of cyclists came on their bikes to protest against the poor design of the cycle paths. They denounced them as dangerous.

And on Wednesday morning a woman cycling across the junction was mown down by a heavy lorry and grievously injured. We saw the aftermath of the accident -- police vans, ambulances and so on -- and the paint on the road still marks he place where the bike fell, where the lorry was standing, and it circles an ugly stain on the tarmac.

I am rather nervous of cycling in our area. There are lots of heavy lorries, and they have blind spots that make it difficult for them to avoid collisions with cyclists.

We await good news of the woman who was injured.