Bordeaux’s new Pauillac quay receives its first call – Cruise Europe
On May 30, Sea Cloud Spirit became the first ship to dock at Bordeaux Port’s new cruise pier in Pauillac on an overnight call.
The port has invested €2.5 million in the facility. New fenders, as well as four dolphins (two for anchorage and two for docking) and two additional 100t bollards, have been installed. Two new platform gangways will be delivered shortly.
The quay is 291m long and 29.5 m wide and the berth is dredged at 9.5m.
Ships up to 320m in length and with a 61 000t will be accommodated at the new facility which is ‘one berth only’, meaning that if a small cruiseship calls in Pauillac, she will be alone.
“We will take the bookings on a first-booked, first-served policy, and the port dues are exactly the same as in our other cruise quays (Bordeaux and Le Verdon). If a cruiseship docks in two different locations during the same voyage (Bordeaux and Pauillac, for example), they pay the port dues only once. We do not charge overnights, this is also part of our ‘enjoy our destination’ policy,” says Laurence Bouchardie, Cruise Bordeaux manger.
The berth is located 1.8 km downstream from Pauillac city centre, on the left bank of the Gironde estuary, in the heart of the Medoc wine region and close to Bordeaux. In the sixties, it was used for liners, then cargo and, from 2004 to 2020, by Airbus for the Airbus A380 logistics. When the aircraft building programme was stopped four years ago, the port decided to make works on the quay to adapt it to cruise traffic.
Bordeaux Port now welcomes cruiseships on three different locations: Bordeaux City centre, in the heart of the pedestrian Unesco area, for ships up to 250m long (two berths); Pauillac; and Le Verdon, located at the mouth of the Gironde estuary, for any size of cruiseships (two berths).
Bordeaux Port expects a record activity of 66 calls this year, bringing 65,000 to 70,000 passengers.
(Bordeaux’s new Pauillac quay receives its first call – Cruise Europe)
