Place

Bordeaux

France · Modern France

A wealthy wine port in southwest France. Montaigne retired to a tower on his nearby estate to write the Essays, and Montesquieu was born and served as a magistrate here.

Thinkers Connected to Bordeaux

Montaigne

1533 CE – 1592 CE

He invented the essay to ask a single question of everything: what do I know? His honest answer was, almost nothing for certain.

Montesquieu

1689 CE – 1755 CE

He studied laws the way others studied nature, and gave the modern world the separation of powers.

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