Rue Sainte Catherine (often referred to informally as “Rue Sainte Cath”) has been car-free since 1977 and is now one of the most popular shopping streets in Bordeaux, with over 230 shops, stores and restaurants.
The street connects two major squares, Place de la Victoire in the south and Place de la Comédie in the north, over a distance of 1145 meters, making it one of the longest car-free commercial streets in Europe — about the same length as the Strøget in Copenhagen, for example, though the Strøget has been car-free since the 1960s.
Controlled access
Access to Rue Sainte Catherine is controlled by bollards which can be lowered for emergency vehicles or for deliveries in the mornings from 7 to 11 o’clock.
Save our memories!
One of the many shops on Rue Sainte Cath is this one which proposes to “save our memories” by converting old films, cassettes, videos and slides to a modern digital format. This is something I have been meaning to do for many years now, but somehow I keep putting it off. Actually, I suspect that my old 8 mm films will turn out to be totally insignificant, even for me and my immediate family. But I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to preserve them in a readable format, just in case.
My photos in this post are from 2014. I revised the text in 2019.
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it has grown into a huge shopping street it wasnt like that now too much tourist traps stores in Bordeaux.