A 75 km long and 5 to 15 km wide estuary in south-west France that flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The department of Gironde, which is largely on the left bank, is named after the Gironde; opposite it on the right bank is the department of Charente-Maritime. It is formed by the two rivers Dordogne and Garonne. With a surface area of 685 km², the Gironde is the largest estuary in Europe. The Gironde begins at the tapered Bec d'Ambes peninsula formed by the two rivers around 15 kilometres north of the city of Bordeaux.

Confluence of the Dordogne and Garonne rivers

The picture shows the confluence of the Dordogne and Garonne rivers at the tapered Bec d'Ambès (Beak of Ambès). Along the left bank stretches the Médoc region, which is ideally suited to viticulture thanks to the permeability of the gravel and pebble soil. The best crus are those that "see the water" (bordering the Gironde), as the sunlight is reflected by the large water surface. The retention of heat results in very good conditions for optimum grape ripening. The six famous communal appellations of the Haut-Médoc are located here: Margaux, Moulis, Listrac-Médoc, Pauillac, Saint-Estèphe and Saint-Julien.

Rive droite and Rive gauche

The right bank of the Gironde is dominated by limestone with the two appellations Blaye - Côtes de Bordeaux and Côtes de Bourg. The river also gave its name to the département in south-west France in which the Bordeaux region is located. In the area of the Charente-Maritime department, which borders the Gironde to the north, the terrain gradually becomes flatter and viticulture disappears. The mouth of the Gironde into the Atlantic Ocean is marked by the promontory known as the "Pointe de Grave" near the municipality of Le Verdon-sur-Mer.

The right bank along the Dordogne and Gironde is known as the rive droite, the left bank along the Garonne and Gironde as the rive gauche. The large area between the Garonne and Dordogne rivers, romantically referred to as the "seas", is called Entre-deux-Mers. The Gironde department is part of the regional IGP Atlantique area.

Garonne and Dordogne: von Boerkevitz - own work, public domain, link
Map: From Domenico-de-ga from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Modifications from the original by Norbert Tischelmayer 2017