The old street plaques – place Dauphiné and place Nationale – remain firmly on the wall of one building as a reminder of this tree-shaded square's colourful past. Framed by elegant 18th-century buildings, the square fell outside the original city walls – which perhaps makes it all the more ironic that Bordeaux's point zéro, the geographic centre of the city in the 19th century from which all distances from Bordeaux are measured, lies in this square. A stone marker outside 10 place Gambetta marks the exact point.