The south-west French city of Bordeaux is a popular stop-off point for cruise ships, and the number of ships stopping over in the city centre has doubled in the past decade,

City officials have so far been successful in limiting the total number allowed to dock in the city centre to around 40 per year, but now the mayor Pierre Hurmic wants them out of the city centre altogether.

Cruise ships currently dock at the Port de la Lune, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and can travel from the Atlantic ocean inland to the city of Bordeaux thanks to the large estuary of the river Gironde, which is crucial for trade as well as tourism.

Recently, Bordeaux’s city council proposed that cruise ships moor along the right bank of the Garonne instead – this would put them downstream from the Chaban-Delmas lifting bridge and out of the central parts of the city.

Why change the location?

It is largely to address aesthetic and environmental concerns, as other French cities, like Marseille, have sought to do in recent years.

“More and more people in Bordeaux are being disturbed by the arrival of cruise ships in the city centre, and it’s becoming increasingly unpleasant,” Mayor Pierre Hurmic, from the Green Party, told AFP, adding that they resemble “actual floating buildings in some of the most aesthetically pleasing parts of the city”.

This is one of several environmental plans Hurmic has for the city. He has also proposed other ambitious projects, such as covering the ring road with solar panels.

READ MORE: Bordeaux’s epic plan to cover the entire ring road with solar panels

As for the cruise ships, Julien, a 37-year-old Bordeaux resident told AFP that “visually, they are not the most beautiful… The project to have them parked a little further north would not be bad at all”.

“For me these ships are big polluters, they have no place in the city centre”, added another resident, Charlotte, 32.

The relocation of the ships away from the city centre could also be a way to encourage more environmentally friendly boats that rely on electricity and to limit the polluting diesel engines. 

Building the necessary infrastructure on the current docking site, “in the heart of the UNESCO perimeter”, would prove to be “very imposing and extremely costly”, the mayor said, noting that it would be “much easier” to do it on the right bank.

According to the Grand Port Maritime de Bordeaux, the project is still “at the technical and regulatory studies stage”. 

The project is nevertheless controversial.

In an interview with the regional newspaper Sud Ouest in July, the president of the Bordeaux-Gironde Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), Patrick Seguin, said that the “decision would have heavy consequences for Bordeaux trade”, adding his frustration that the CCI had not been involved in the discussion.

According to a study by geographer Victor Piganiol, a cruise passenger “spends an average of €150 a day and up to €200 during a stopover” in Bordeaux, compared with an average of €89 in Le Havre, €80 in La Rochelle and €44 in Marseille.

This higher spending in Bordeaux is mostly explained by people purchasing wine bottles.

“When they pass through Bordeaux, the cruise promotional brochures highlight the vineyards and their prestigious appellations”, the researcher said. Visits to nearby châteaux are often organised and included in the cruise package.

Georges Simon, president of the Bordeaux Mon Commerce association of traders and artisans, told AFP that he is not “opposed” to the project and understands the issues, particularly ecological, but he expressed concerns about the new choice in mooring location.

“If tourists stop in Bordeaux, it’s to visit Bordeaux. It’s not to visit empty quays a few kilometers before the city centre (…) There will need to be some kind of solution,” he said.

The town hall has considered this and they are counting on a network of river shuttles to transport visitors from one bank to the other. They believe that docking ships in a “less congested” area will also facilitate the use of buses to travel around the département and the region.

Still, Victor Piganiol was doubtful. “I don’t know if the average cruise passenger who just came here to do a bit of tourism in the city will be able to motivate himself to cross the Garonne or take a bus.”

As for the cruise passengers themselves, one of them – American Rony Bass who arrived last weekend aboard the Seven Seas Mariner ship, said: “For us, it’s great to be in the heart of Bordeaux.” 

“We’re free to explore the city on foot with a map. Otherwise, we’d have to take a taxi and do the same on the way back.”