For some reason, journalists who try to describe Bordeaux almost aways fall back on clichés. For decades it seemed as though the same article were being published again and again, always dredging up the same old stereotypes: The city’s intellectual heritage made it arrogant; the Bordelais are wealthy, insular and terribly bourgeois. Yet like all communities that began as ports, Bordeaux has always been a place of trade and cross-cultural exchange, a place where several languages are spoken. The port may no longer dominate the city as it once did, but it still sparks the imagination—and what determines the future more than that?
    While it’s true that Bordeaux is hardly prone to palace coups (it has had only two mayors in nearly 60 years), the old descriptions of the town have become almost laughably obsolete, swept away by the New Economy, globalization, intensified trade, and demographic and ethnic shifts. Any city that is trying to clean up its historic center, ban automobiles, lure former residents back from the suburbs, build a bridge, refurbish its waterfront and cut taxes can no longer be the “Sleeping Beauty” described by travelers.
    New inhabitants—entrepreneurs, artists, scientists—are contributing their talents, indifferent to stereotypes depicting Bordeaux as a place frozen in some eternal tableau of stone and wine. Younger, more mobile and more attuned to the outside world, they’ve often chosen to live here for the salutary climate. After all, this is the gateway to the south, and what’s been good for the grapevines, they reason, is surely good for people.
    Of course, not all creative Bordelais are iconoclasts. Institutions such as the Grand Théâtre still enjoy tremendous prestige, and the wine industry has lost none of its luster. But there’s a fresh breeze blowing along the quays and through the squares and taverns. The city is alive with night music, block parties, festivals, outdoor markets and picnics.
    No one knows what Bordeaux will become once its new tram lines have been completed and the scaffolding is removed from newly gleaming monuments. But if the following people are any indication, the city has a dynamic future ahead of it.

Jean-Luc Rumeau [multimedia wizard]

Why spend 10 hours drawing on paper, wondered architect Jean-Luc Rumeau, when computer programs can bring a design to life in practically no time at all, and offer incredible technical precision and great looks to boot? His musings gave birth to Axyz, a multimedia firm specializing in 3-D imaging. Boasting a top-notch team of architects, artists, computer specialists, designers and special-effects people, Axyz—a name combining the word "axis" with X, Y and Z, the three geometrical axes—has become the leading French architectural imaging company in the decade since its creation, executing more than 2,500 plans by architects and designers seeking to snag contracts with developers, municipalities and industries.
    The company’s most notable accomplishments to date include France’s bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games, plans for the Beijing Opera and the Dubai airport. It’s currently working on a luxury complex in the Persian Gulf. A Canadian subsidiary launched in 1999 gave the company a foothold in North America, where Rumeau has his eye on the lucrative U.S. market.

Jacques Bernar [fashion revolutionary]

Clothing designer Jacques Bernar—a professor at Bordeaux’s Ecole des Beaux-Arts—sees a revolution under way in the world of apparel, with conventional textiles gradually losing ground to high-tech polymers. And he should know. After carefully studying aerospace materials, he is now experimenting with new synthetics derived from vinyls, thermoplastics and elastomers. His name for them is rodalège (from the Greek radalegein, "to say sweet things").
    French couturiers are wildly enthusiastic about his creations, and Féraud, Lacroix, Lagerfeld and Chanel have all ordered his unusual fabrics. Jean-Paul Gaultier’s famous coat for Madonna is rodalège; billionaire Mona Ayoub saw it and had to have one too. Paco Rabanne calls Bernar "an embroiderer for the 21st century." Indeed, you could say that Bernar and his association Matières Proches are creating a whole new brand of French dressing.

Bernard Alaux [science educator]

Bernard Alaux has a mission: to share his passion for science with the largest possible number of people. He’s certainly got the right job for it. For the past six years, Alaux has directed Cap Sciences, one of Bordeaux’s most popular attractions. Administered by five regional universities, this hands-on sci-tech museum welcomes some 120,000 visitors a year, all eager to better understand the times we live in. Such pertinent issues as genetics, cloning and what’s in our food are dealt with in exhibits that owe their spectacular success to their supremely entertaining presentations—some have even traveled on to such prestigious venues as the Pompidou Museum and the Cité des Sciences in Paris.
    On the international level, Cap Sciences is currently co-producing an exhibit about sleep with Montreal’s new Centre des Sciences. Closer to home, it is developing a program with the Hospital Foundation of France called "science reporters," in which hospitals will be opened to children to help them understand every aspect of what goes on there, from the specific duties of the staff to the technologies they use.
    "We should all be more familiar with the latest research," declares Alaux. "In fact, lots of scientific work nowadays deserves to be on the front page."

Alain Catherineau [high-flying ébéniste]

Alain Catherineau has been dubbed the couturier of aircraft manufacturers. Indeed, some of the world’s most luxurious planes have been fitted with high-end cabinetry produced by his company, a Bordeaux institution for more than two centuries. The secret to Catherineau’s success lies in the successful marriage of high-tech materials—lightweight, fireproof, elegant composites developed by the company—and centuries-old savoir faire, a winning combination that has made it a French market leader and given it an edge over its U.S., Canadian and German competitors. The entire manufacturing process is computerized, with finishes executed by the country’s best ébénistes. Such is the company’s reputation that all the major woodworking schools send their students to Catherineau.
    Catherineau has enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Dassault, to whom he has delivered more than 500 Falcon business jets, but nowadays he is working most closely with Airbus, fitting its VIP planes with precious woods. Thanks to his hard work, business tycoons, heads of state and emirs are traveling in the lap of luxury. As are sailing champions. Indeed, the sea represents a whole new market for this ébéniste of the air: He recently began manufacturing ultralight furniture for racing boats.

Eric Chevance ["all new" theater director]

Eric Chevance lives and works in a loftlike space in a former shoe factory, far from the city center. But soles have given way to soul. Founded in 1998, Chevance’s Tout Nouveau Théatre (TNT)—a multidisciplinary venue dominated by theater and dance—aims to bring something different to the cultural landscape. During its few short years, the avant-garde group has earned respect nationwide for its experimental creations.
    In one such project, the TNT is offering residencies to photojournalists more accustomed to covering the world; for a little while, at least, they will put away their passports and focus exclusively on Bordeaux. Their work will be exhibited around the city on captionless posters, and residents will be given a chance to express their reactions. TNT also has gardens that neighborhood locals help tend. Hopefully, through weeding and watering, they will become curious about the theater itself.
    Chevance sees it as a place to question and confront, to invent new ways of working in the arts. "It is crucial," he says, "to re-think both places of expression and the role of artists in the city."

Xavier Pommereau [lifesaving psychiatrist]

Every year, a few hundred youngsters aged 12 to 25 pass through Bordeaux’s Centre Jean Abadie, the first psychiatric unit in France specifically created as a refuge for suicidal teenagers and young adults. Since it was founded in 1992, this small halfway house has been widely copied throughout Europe.
    It was psychiatrist Xavier Pommereau, 49, who got the idea of creating a pilot unit that could serve as an intermediary step between the ICU and the hospital environment. Staffed by volunteers, the Centre Abadie has obtained impressive results, considerably lowering the rate of repeat attempts and steering most of its patients to psychotherapy. But suicide isn’t Pommereau’s only concern. In a report presented to the government this past April, he made a series of proposals to help cut the rate of traffic accidents, the other leading cause of death among young people.
    A private man absorbed in his studies of le mal-être, Pommereau is the author of a remarkable "dictionary of madness" and invaluable works on the subject he knows best. L’Adolescent suicidaire, Quand l’adolescent va mal and Un coquelicot en enfer explore a common theme: "Modern adolescence is a never-ending transition."

Sylviane Sambor [literary impresario]

A champion of cultural diversity, Sylviane Sambor considers Bordeaux a crossroads: a "humanistic city poised on the border between northern and southern Europe." By founding Le Carrefour des Littératures in 1987, the young dynamo created a new kind of crossroads—this one literary. A unique festival, the Carrefour brings authors from all over the word to this riverside town—but don’t expect dry lectures on the latest post-modern theories in some staid academic setting. Sambor’s brilliant idea was to take books to the places where people congregate. Indeed, during the 10 days or so that the event is under way, participants read their works and commune with the public at venues as varied as cafés, community rec centers—even an eyeglass store!
    Each year, the Carrefour—which favors "meaningful," noncommercial creations—showcases a different country, but one nation is always represented: Portugal. That choice reflects the passion of the festival’s founder. Indeed, Sambor is an unabashed lusophile who discovered Portuguese literature back in the ’80s and has been a devoted fan ever since. Portuguese presidents have attended the festival’s official opening on more than one occasion, and Sambor herself has been awarded that country’s highest cultural decorations.

Bertrand Cantat [pop star activist]

At age 37, Bertrand Cantat is still a rebel at heart. The lead singer of Noir Désir, France’s hottest rock band, came to music via the poetry of Jim Morrison and old Doors LPs; other inspirations have included such American writers as Faulkner, Fante and Williams.
    For Cantat, singing means taking a stand. Even back in 1980, when he formed the band with a bunch of his high school buddies from Bordeaux, Noir Désir sang about political and social struggles. For the past 20 years, it has championed such disparate causes and characters as the Indians of Chiapas, human rights in Tibet and anti-globalization activist José Bové. Produced by American Ted Nicely, the genre-defying band (whose members say they’re like family) claims to reject the rules of show business; they’re wary of commercial pressures and carefully select their rare television appearances. Some complain that they put their politics before their music—but their concerts are always packed.

Yves Parlier [seafaring scientist]

Yves Parlier, 41, has been dubbed "the extraterrestrial" because of his extraordinary ability to analyze the weather—and take advantage of it. But this elite sailor cum engineer who has captured practically every title in ocean racing believes it’s his experience with high technology that has always given him an edge. Fascinated by aerodynamics and hydraulics, he was one of the first to understand that the future of racing boats lay with composite materials.
    For the past 10 years, Parlier has been at the helm of Aquitaine Innovations—quite literally a floating laboratory designed to showcase the region’s technology and know-how. Wherever he goes, Parlier is always transporting experiments involving industrial and space technologies. First and foremost, though, he is a thrill seeker: Everyone in France recalls his 2000 expedition in the last Vendée Globe—a nonstop single-handed round-the-world race—when this maritime MacGyver rebuilt a broken mast all by himself and survived a long ocean voyage by eating seaweed and flying fish.
    Parlier’s next project is Gerris, a revolutionary multihull he devised when he was laid up in the hospital a couple of years ago following a serious paragliding accident. If his calculations are correct, it should win him a few more trophies.

Martine Bedin [maverick designer]

She’s worked on castles, a cathedral, a bookstore—even city buses—but Martine Bedin, 44, considers herself first and foremost a "furniture artist." As a young architecture student in Italy, Bedin made the acquaintance of Ettore Sottsass and was part of the group that, under his tutelage, co-founded the avant-garde Memphis atelier, an affiliation that propelled her to the top of the international design world. Since Memphis disbanded, she has divided her time between applied research and creating unique collectors’ items.
    After running the accessories division of Esprit International in San Francisco and stints as artistic director at Vuitton, Hermès and Daniel Hechter, she and her husband started their own business, La Manufacture Familiale—a mail-order design firm based in Bordeaux that produces handcrafted furniture and objects from exotic woods. Bedin mostly works alone, creating an annual collection of original furnishings and objects that she manufactures on demand. As if that weren’t enough, she has also designed homes in Toulouse, Bordeaux and Corsica, including "La Maison Rouge," a prototype house on the hills overlooking the town.
    Children and adults alike fondly recall a show Bedin organized for the Millennium celebrations featuring playground equipment conceived by such design luminaries as Karim Rashid. Next year, her hometown will salute her with an exhibit at the Museum of Decorative Arts, running from February 6 to April 28, 2003.

Eric Roux [schoolhouse rocker]

Eric Roux firmly believes that music can change lives. When the young man founded the Barbey Rock School back in 1988, however, the reaction was somewhat downbeat: No one in France thought that pop music—and particularly rock ’n’ roll—was something that could be taught. Roux proved them wrong. Housed at a local theater, his unique school boasts an unusually comprehensive curriculum that runs the gamut from musical training and rehearsals to recording and distribution. At once a classroom, a concert hall and a recording studio, it welcomes countless aspiring musicians.
    Roux’s Rock School has also converted a bus into a mobile studio that crisscrosses the countryside scouting out new talent, and he hopes to see more and more people from every walk of life get involved in music. For the past three years, the school has even organized an open-air festival on the grounds of the town prison. But its proudest accomplishment is a program for dozens of kids aged 8 to 11—future rock stars, perhaps, who may even sing in French.

Didier Pineau [the ultimate recycler]

Trash talk notwithstanding, garbage isn’t a subject that captivates most people. Didier Pineau, however, is happy to take care of the clean-up work. Pineau, 48, has made it his mission to promote the benefits of the plasma torch, a technology he helped develop while working at Aérospatiale Aquitaine. Acting on a hunch that it could have extraordinary industrial applications, Pineau bought up the patents in 1992 and created Europlasma. Sure enough, the plasma torch—originally used in ballistic missile tests—soon found new applications. It is now used to neutralize asbestos and residues from municipal waste incinerators that previously had to be buried in special solid-waste dumps. One zap and a trip through Europlasma’s vitrification unit and they’re transformed into a kind of harmless glass. Recycled into paving blocks, street lamps or even polar fleece, they save landfill space and are environmentally friendly.
    Company sales have been rising steadily, posting a $6.8 million increase last year, when Europlasma was also listed on the Paris stock exchange. Its performance recently caught the eye of the Japanese: Pineau has signed contracts with Kobe Steel and Hitachi Zosen that could generate $100 million over a 10-year period.

Jean-Didier Vincent [neurobiologist and epicure]

Jean-Didier Vincent has published so many papers and collaborated on so many collective works that he has lost count. A professor at the Institut de France and director of the neurobiology institute at the National Center for Scientific Research, he specializes in a field that would seem particularly well suited to a wine-growing region: the neurophysiology of smell. His biggest claim to fame, however, is the creation of a new branch of biology known as neuroendocrinology, which studies the interactions between the glands and the nervous system. Through his work in this field, he was among the first to show how certain hormones act on the brain and the nervous system to regulate such functions as the body’s hydromineral balance, reproduction and sleep.
    A lively man with a penchant for colorful bow ties, Vincent is also a talented writer. He has published several best-selling works of popular science, including La Biologie des passions and Casanova, la contagion du plaisir, which explore the biological mechanisms that govern passion, and La vie est une fable and La chair et le diable, dealing with the origin of life. But his true passion for life’s mystery is revealed at the dinner table, where he can expound at length on the flavor of foie gras.

Anne Lacaton [populist architect]

Architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal first found themselves in the limelight in 1993, with the completion of a unique house in the Bordeaux suburbs. The outside walls of the distinctive, 650-square-foot residence were actually moving panels operated by a system of jacks; the inside featured a flexible floor plan that made it easy to re-arrange furniture. The cost? A mere $65,000, all that the buyers—a couple of railway workers—were able to afford. The structure sparked lively discussions about single-family homes, a field long neglected by architects in favor of large projects and prestigious government commissions.
    Lacaton’s house sent a clear message: Architectural ambitions can be achieved regardless of the budget. In 1998, she used the same approach to create an equally unique low-cost house in the Bassin d’Arcachon. To avoid cutting down trees, she incorporated them into the house as a design element—there are now six pines in the living room! Winners of the Grand Prix National d’Architecture Jeune Talent in 1999, Lacaton and Vassal are not proponents of sophisticated, sleek, minimalist architecture but prefer to bring out the inherent qualities and function of a space. The subjects of an exhibition and a documentary, Lacaton and Vassal create architecture that leaves no one indifferent.

Philippe Richard [iconoclastic horticulturalist]

Few people can converse in Latin with a Japanese botanist about Chelidonium majus, a plant that cures warts, but Philippe Richard is one of them. This self-effacing scientist runs Bordeaux’s 145-year-old botanical garden, which boasts a fabulous collection of 300,000 plant illustrations—some dating back to the 18th century—and a 6,000-volume library.
    Part of this treasure-trove is about to make its way across the river, where a national botanical conservatory is slated to open at the end of 2003. The unique 11-acre facility—expected to cost nearly $9 million—will include a library, exhibition space, conference center, restaurant, greenhouses and a collection of plants from around the world. Both scientific and educational, the garden is expected to captivate a wide audience with nearly a dozen large-scale displays re-creating the geology of southwestern France, from the sand dunes of the Atlantic coast to the limestone cliffs of the Cognac region. Additional attractions include an astonishing variety of aquatic plants and thematic plantings.
    And the new conservatory will differ from the typical jardin à la française in another respect: In place of the usual manicured hedges and flower beds, many of the plantings will be allowed to evolve naturally, to demonstrate how vegetation changes over time in the wild. Illustrating biodiversity and emphasizing the importance of using renewable natural resources also figure among the curator’s goals. Richard, who additionally heads the association of botanical gardens of France and French-speaking countries, has no doubt that this innovative project will flourish._s