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The Bordeaux metropolitan area has 1.141 million residents,1 while the city proper has 215 thousand.2 The city is centered on both banks of the Garonne,3 where the river is still navigable by ocean liners, in the Gironde Department of the Acquitaine Region of France. Its port 'of the Moon' is honored by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, noting its ensemble of buildings showing Enlightenment planning. The tallest building is the Basilique (Basilica) Saint-Michel (1492, 374 feet).4 Two other religious buildings are part of a World Heritage Site honoring the routes within France of pilgrims headed for Santiago de Compostela: the Saint-André cathedral and the Saint-Seurin basilica.
Overview of Bordeaux, Gironde Department, Acquitaine Region, France
1. Figure for 2011 in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_area_(France), accessed 2/5/2015.
2. http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_France, accessed 2/5/2015.
3. The Garonne combines with the Dordogne to form the estuarine Gironde.
4. Emporis.com, accessed 7/3/2015.