Gironde estuary Totally Explained

Everything about Gironde River totally explained

The Gironde is a navigable estuary (often falsely referred to as a river), in southwest France and is formed from the meeting of the rivers Dordogne and Garonne just below the centre of Bordeaux.
The Gironde is approximately 65 km (38 miles) long and 3–11 km (2–7 miles) wide and the French département Gironde is named after it. The Gironde is subject to very strong tidal currents and great care is needed when navigating the river by any size or type of boat.

World War II

The Gironde was the setting for Operation Frankton, a British special forces operation during World War II tasked with the objective of destroying shipping moored at the docks in Bordeaux.

Islands of the Gironde

Within the estuary between the Pointe de la Grave at the seaward end and le bec d’Ambes are a series of small islands.
   The Île de Patiras is 200 ha in size with a lighthouse to aid navigation in the estuary. Vines and maize are grown there.
   The Île de Sans-Pain and Île de Bouchaud are now virtually joined due to progressive silting and are referred to as the Ile Nouvelle. They total about 265 ha and are owned by the Conservatoire du Littoral and managed by the Department of the Gironde.
   The Île du Fort Paté is about 13 ha and in 2006 was privately owned. The island has a historic fort built between 1685 and 1693 as part of the national fortification program masterminded by Vauban. The building is oval in shape, about 12 metres high and was originally eqipped with about 30 cannon. Fort Paté together with Fort Médoc and the Citadelle of Blaye defended the estuary and Bordeaux. During the French Revolution the fort was used as a prison for priests.
   In 2006, the Conseil General took the decision to make the island a ZPENS (zone de pre-emption espace naturel sensible). ZPENS status protects the island from development. If the owner wishes to sell the island then the Department has a pre-emptive right. After two months the Conservatoire National du Littoral has the next pre-emptive right and then after another 2 months the town of Blaye has a final pre-emptive right to acquire the island.
   The Île Verte, Île du Nord and Île Cazeau comprise about 800 ha and because of their natural state provide a fine stopping off place for migrating birds.
   The Île Margaux is 25 ha and in 2005 had 14 ha devoted to vines and is part of the world famous Médoc wine region.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Gironde River'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://gironde_estuary.totallyexplained.com">Gironde estuary Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.