This is the English-language translation of a feature about Invisible Bordeaux (and my yellow bicycle) in the August 10th 2012 issue of Sud Ouest's Bordeaux and greater Bordeaux editions. Reproduced below courtesy of Sud Ouest journalist Catherine Darfay while the original online version of the French-language article can be viewed here.
The man with the yellow bike
Tim Pike is the writer of Invisible Bordeaux, a blog which is full of good ideas about unusual places to visit in and around the city. It’s in English but is an essential read.
Even when cycling to work, Tim Pike is the kind of person who stops to take photographs of the roundabouts in Le Haillan that celebrate its twin towns and researches each one to find about population figures and local specialities… and, hey presto, that will be another post on his Invisible Bordeaux website.
He has published around fifty items over the past year. Each is fuelled by a sense of curiosity which recently took him to the art deco façade of the Ciné Théâtre Girondin on Cours Gallieni in Bordeaux, and to Camp du Courneau in La Teste, where hundreds of African soldiers lost their lives during the First World War.
Cycling everywhere
He has published around fifty items over the past year. Each is fuelled by a sense of curiosity which recently took him to the art deco façade of the Ciné Théâtre Girondin on Cours Gallieni in Bordeaux, and to Camp du Courneau in La Teste, where hundreds of African soldiers lost their lives during the First World War.
Cycling everywhere
All of the above has been achieved with a bicycle as sole means of locomotion, looping as far as the UFO landing pad in Arès, the Cacolac factory in Léognan with its cow stationed outside, and the Tiquetorte water mill in Moulis. All of which have resulted in other posts. The articles are always in English but are so well researched that they are benchmark publications. His website is the place where you can find information about Toussaint Louverture’s son, who died in Bordeaux, and about the Statue of Liberty on Place Picard. What is more, unusually for the web, the author has the courtesy to quote his sources.
And yet Tim Pike is not a guide. He is just a copywriter with Thales in Le Haillan, the town with the roundabouts. “What triggered this was seeing how much Bordeaux had changed when I moved back to the city two years ago. Admittedly, when I taught at Bordeaux 3 University between ’92 and ’96, I only really visited Rue Sainte-Catherine and the Fnac. What I like today is seeing places whose functions have changed.”
The rest is down to his penchant for Sunday cycling sorties. One of his friends and colleagues had already launched “Invisible Paris” in the capital city.
Low-tech
Without it being a fully-fledged franchise, Tim Pike followed him down that (cycle) path with a first article about the kilometre zero marker on Place Gambetta. “It is in all the guidebooks,” the Briton says apologetically, “but I did add a nod to the signpost that indicates the directions to the twin towns.”
What follows is less conventional. In Avensan, Tim Pike uncovered Saint-Raphaël chapel, the birthplace of Pey Berland, and followed the trail of the Le Bouscat bullring which then took him to Floirac and La Brède.
“I like to do it all with rather low-tech means. When I’m out I use my yellow bicycle which is going on 20 years, a camera and a Moleskine notebook. That’s all. I spend an evening researching my subject in my books and on the Internet. I then leave it to settle and set about writing the following evening.”
Audio walks
The perpetually curious cyclist and guide-with-a-difference recently added walking tours to his repertoire.
The three audioguided walking tours, which can be downloaded on iTunes via the GPSmycity catalogue – there is a charge only for the GPS-enabled versions – track the essential landmarks of Bordeaux, some unusual sights and the right bank. Tim Pike is already looking into creating other Bordeaux variants, and possible even a French-language version and walking tours around Arcachon.
In the meantime, he is already off to where his curiosity leads him. His Moleskin notebook is full of subjects such as Toussaint Catros, head of the Bordeaux royal tree nurseries who has left his mark on Carbon-Blanc and Le Haillan, and the Way of Saint James pilgrimage. He’ll go there on his yellow bicycle.
And yet Tim Pike is not a guide. He is just a copywriter with Thales in Le Haillan, the town with the roundabouts. “What triggered this was seeing how much Bordeaux had changed when I moved back to the city two years ago. Admittedly, when I taught at Bordeaux 3 University between ’92 and ’96, I only really visited Rue Sainte-Catherine and the Fnac. What I like today is seeing places whose functions have changed.”
The rest is down to his penchant for Sunday cycling sorties. One of his friends and colleagues had already launched “Invisible Paris” in the capital city.
Low-tech
Without it being a fully-fledged franchise, Tim Pike followed him down that (cycle) path with a first article about the kilometre zero marker on Place Gambetta. “It is in all the guidebooks,” the Briton says apologetically, “but I did add a nod to the signpost that indicates the directions to the twin towns.”
What follows is less conventional. In Avensan, Tim Pike uncovered Saint-Raphaël chapel, the birthplace of Pey Berland, and followed the trail of the Le Bouscat bullring which then took him to Floirac and La Brède.
“I like to do it all with rather low-tech means. When I’m out I use my yellow bicycle which is going on 20 years, a camera and a Moleskine notebook. That’s all. I spend an evening researching my subject in my books and on the Internet. I then leave it to settle and set about writing the following evening.”
Audio walks
The perpetually curious cyclist and guide-with-a-difference recently added walking tours to his repertoire.
The three audioguided walking tours, which can be downloaded on iTunes via the GPSmycity catalogue – there is a charge only for the GPS-enabled versions – track the essential landmarks of Bordeaux, some unusual sights and the right bank. Tim Pike is already looking into creating other Bordeaux variants, and possible even a French-language version and walking tours around Arcachon.
In the meantime, he is already off to where his curiosity leads him. His Moleskin notebook is full of subjects such as Toussaint Catros, head of the Bordeaux royal tree nurseries who has left his mark on Carbon-Blanc and Le Haillan, and the Way of Saint James pilgrimage. He’ll go there on his yellow bicycle.
***
His three favourite places
While Tim Pike often travels beyond greater Bordeaux, he is also drawn to some places in the city itself:
COUR MABLY: “The function of the buildings have changed over the centuries: head office of a political party, military accommodation, a library, a museum and now the regional chamber of accounts and an exhibition venue. Above all I like it because it’s a haven of peace in the city centre.”
HÔTEL SAINT-FRANCOIS, rue du Mirail, recently listed as national heritage in response to a campaign against a project to install an elevator: “The façades boast a number of unusual details and the building features a number of innovations which were revolutionary for their time: running water on all floors, electric doorbells…”
THE FORMER LA BASTIDE PUBLIC SHOWERING FACILITIES: “An art deco masterpiece conceived by Jacques D'Welles. What is more, the place has been revived: head office of a literary association and, since early 2012, a pocket theatre run by the Le Poquelin Théâtre company.”
Catherine Darfay
(photo: Guillaume Bonnaud)
(photo: Guillaume Bonnaud)
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