If Marseille is the gateway to the Orient, Bordeaux is the gateway to the Americas. This novel takes us to the capital of Gascony during the reign of Louis XV. Bordeaux families, merchants, shipowners, and wine producers are the main players in this novel, depicting the economy of the monarchy that depends on trade with our possessions in the New World.
The ongoing or latent state of war with England, privateering, privateers, and pirates are the main threats to economic activity. The uncertainties of a journey to the West Indies, the risks involved, all determine the cost of ships and their goods.
Marc Flament perfectly captures the atmosphere of this regional capital, living off its river, its port, the ocean, and wine. The heroes come from various backgrounds: nobility, bourgeoisie, shipowners, adventurers. There are villains, scoundrels, and people of heart and honor.
Porte des Amériques is both a historical novel and a lovely stroll to discover this city of Aquitaine, its neighborhoods, its cathedral Saint André, and its churches.
The golden age of this city, with the sinister triangular trade that enriched the people of Bordeaux with ‘ebony wood’—black slaves bought on the African coasts, sold in the West Indies from where sugar, rum, and tropical products were brought back. A work that bears witness to an era whose shores of the Garonne retain the memory.
Thierry Jan
