BORDEAUX (bor-del, a city and port of France, capital of the department of Gironde, on the Caronne river, about 70 miles from the sea. It is built in a crescent form round a bend of the river, which is here lined with fine quays and crossed by a magnificent stone bridge, and consists of an old and a new town. The former is mostly composed of ir regular squares and narrow, crooked streets; while the latter is laid out with great regularity, and on a scale of mag nificence hardly surpassed by any prov incial town in Europe. In the old town are the Cathedral of St. Andre, St. Michael's Church, with its superb front of florid Gothic, the Hotel de Ville, and the Palais de Justice. There are ex tensive and finely planted promenades. Its position gives it admirable facilities for trade, and enables it to rank next after Marseilles and Havre in respect of the tonnage employed. Large vessels
sail up to the town. The chief exports are wine and brandy; sugar and other colonial produce and wood are the chief imports. Shipbuilding is the chief in dustry, and there are sugar refineries, woolen and cotton mills, potteries, soap works, distilleries, etc. Bordeaux is the Burdigala of the Romans. By the mar riage of Eleanor, daughter of the last Duke of Aquitaine to Henry IL of Eng land, Bordeaux was transferred to the English crown. Under Charles VII., in 1451, it was restored again to France. Montaigne and Montesquieu were born in the neighborhood; the latter is buried in the Church of St. Bernard. In the World War (1914-1918) Bordeaux be came a great military port for the Allies, where troops were concentrated and supplies for the armies were re ceived. Pop. about 262,000.