This hike offers a drift through the eclectic and chaotic landscapes of the right bank of the Bordeaux Metropolis. The itinerary takes in the Parc des Coteaux and its many scenic views, along the Gua, a small river hidden behind suburban areas, around old quarries transformed into a leisure centre, or in the new eco-neighbourhoods that have filled in the last large urban wastelands…
Suburban Walks
An extraordinary journey
into the ordinariness of our contemporary cities
A dive into the urban interstices
The Suburban Walks are exploratory walks through the outskirts of the cities. They cross and connect hybrid and fragmented landscapes, composed of housing estates, social housing complexes, old towns, expressways, industrial and commercial areas, car parks and electricity pylons, but also unexpected parks and gardens, forgotten forests, old paths and especially uncountable abandoned spaces where wild nature develops, out of sight. This diffuse and involuntary nature represents a tremendous potential for escape and resourcing, a kind of exoticism of proximity.
The suburbs, a land of adventure and exploration
The suburban area has developed to respond effectively to our modern needs for housing, travel, consumption and production.
The resulting chaotic urbanism is often considered useful but uninteresting, and above all devoid of the qualities that make up the city and the pleasures it provides.
However, the urban outskirts have richness to reveal, resources that could change our viewpoint and practices, and build a sense of suburbanity : a huge territory, a great diversity of landscapes, an unsuspected architectural heritage…
Could we not, from this point of view, consider the suburban area as a land of adventure and exploration, like the great natural spaces ? And imagine hiking in the outskirts as we do in the mountains or in the countryside ?
The suburbs offer a new hiking experience. The hybrid and eclectic nature of the territories crossed, where places, atmospheres and sounds follow one another like a continuous zapping, constantly stimulates our senses and gives the walk a new dynamic.
The origin of the project
In 1999, Yvan Detraz, then an architecture student and co-founder of Bruit du frigo, led a 3-month, 1000 km walking expedition through the Bordeaux suburbs to map neglected spaces and paths. Before Google map and with the help of a simple geographical map, this mission sought to reveal the potential for escape from the Bordeaux suburbs and to develop a walking culture. (see “Zone sweet zone”).
It is from this founding experience that the concepts of the Suburban Walk and the Suburban Refuge were born.
If in 1999, nobody imagined hiking in the middle of the housing estates or along the ring road, today more and more curious people want to discover their city differently by venturing off the beaten track.
The collective suburban walks that we organise around Bordeaux bring together a large and eclectic public : families, students, walking clubs, seniors… The Suburban Shelters, which offer a unique immersive experience, are also very successful.
It is to respond to this search for exoticism of proximity and to share our knowledge of the territory and its hidden treasures that we have created the Common Land Trail.
The Metropolitan Trails Network
The Common Lands Trail of Bordeaux is a member of the Metropolitan Trails Network, created in 2017 in Marseille, on the occasion of the exhibition about the Metropolitan Trails organized at the Mucem Museum (as part of the permanent exhibition “Connectivities”).
This national network (Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux, Avignon) was created as a continuation of the international Metropolitan Trails network (Milan, London, Cologne, Istanbul, New York…) initiated and piloted by Baptiste Lanaspeze (editor – Editions Wildproject) and Paul-Hervé Lavessière (Geographer).
The first National Assises of the Metropolitan Trails were organised on 8 November 2018 at the Mucem in Marseille.
” The Metropolitan Trails are public spaces of a new kind. Transport infrastructures, tourist facilities, off-wall cultural centres, citizen platforms, training areas… they allow us to rediscover our living spaces and to foster the emergence of a common culture.
Urban hiking is a social phenomenon, a deep-rooted movement. Coming from the worlds of art and planning, it now interests a large public.
Metropolitan trails are an international innovation, born in France. »
Extract from the website : National Network of Metropolitan Trails
en savoir +
The Gleaners
French Vexin Regional Nature Park
Common lands trail & Art of metropolitan trails
Cross-exhibitions
Bordeaux
Hyderabad Urban Trail
Hyderabad – India
Dérive droite
The Walks of panOramas
Floirac, Cenon, Lormont, Carbon-Blanc, Bassens
Zone Sweet Zone
Walk as urban project
Bordeaux
Moving grouped
Bordeaux, Lormont
Walk around the Shelters #10
Le Haillan > Saint-Médard-en-Jalles
Common Lands Trail
Great Bordeaux
The Common Lands Trail at the Mucem
Marseille
AtTEnTIOn à La mArcHE !
Bordeaux
Walk around the Shelters #9
Le Haillan > Bruges
Walk around the Shelters #8
Lormont > Ambares-et-Lagrave
Walk around the Shelters #7
Floirac > Bassens
Walk around the Shelters #6
Lormont > Saint-Vincent-de-Paul
Walk around the Shelters #5
Pessac > Floirac
Tournée générale
Pau
Secret expedition
Lormont
Walk around the Shelters #4
Martignas-sur-Jalle > Bordeaux
Walk around the Shelters #3
Around the CUB, left bank
Walk around the Shelters #2
Ambes > Lormont
Walk around the Shelters #1
Gradignan > Bègles
Rocade walk
Bègles
Guest Garden
Royan
The crossing of the hillsides of Bordeaux
Floirac > Bassens
Suggested itineraries
Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
The Tour of Bordeaux
Bordeaux periphery, left bank
Zone Sweet Zone
Bordeaux outskirts
Last
projects
> all projectsAt the crossroads of art, territories and populations, our approach aims to promote the transition to sustainable, shared and welcoming cities, by proposing alternative ways of imagining and building our living environment and by exploring new forms of public space.
The Champicnic table
Pessac
The Secret Balconies # 3 – The Pinède balcony
Montpellier
Common lands trail
Exhibition Nouvelles Saisons, arc en rêve centre d'architecture
Bordeaux
The Secret Balconies # 2 – Balcony des Hauts de Massane
Montpellier
The Secret Balconies # 1 – Balcony Larzac
Montpellier
The Portable Public Spaces
Lyon
Modular shade canopy
Lyon
