The Cour Mably and its adjoining Salle Capitulaire are identified by a compact, elegant courtyard framed by stone arcades. Built between sixteen eighty-four and seventeen oh seven, these structures were designed by the royal engineer…
Quiet Courtyards and Passages
This walk leads you through the quietest stone passages, forgotten inner courtyards, and silent residential alleys of old Bordeaux. It offers a tranquil escape from the bustling shopping avenues, showing how the city's scale shifts as soon as you turn a corner.
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1. Cour Mably - Salle Capitulaire
2. Passage Sarget
The Passage Sarget is a covered arcade recognizable by its nineteenth-century glass roof and ornate metal framework, which features decorations honoring Mercury, the god of commerce. It functions as a sheltered pedestrian link connecting…
3. Impasse de la Merci
The Impasse de la Merci is a narrow, enclosed alleyway tucked away near the Place Saint-Projet in the heart of the city. Over centuries, the site has cycled through many identities, once serving as the setting for the Saint-Catherine…
4. Rue du Puits Descujols
The Rue du Puits Descujols is a narrow passage in the center of Bordeaux, recognizable by the wrought-iron balconies that ornament the corners of its historic stone buildings. Its name recalls a time when deep wells, or puits, were…
5. Vinet Garden
Square Vinet is distinguished by a four hundred square meter vertical garden that stretches one hundred meters along the walls of the plaza. This wall of greenery was created in two thousand five by botanist Patrick Blanc, using a variety…
6. Passage de la Tour de Gassies
The Passage de la Tour de Gassies holds a small, stone-built mound that serves as one of the final visible fragments of the defensive walls that once protected the city of Burdigala, as Bordeaux was known during the third century. The city…
7. Passage des Argentiers
The Passage des Argentiers is a narrow, stone-walled lane located within the historic Saint-Pierre district of Bordeaux. Its name refers to the silversmiths who once worked in this quarter, filling the area with the sounds and bustle of…
8. Impasse de la Rue Neuve
Impasse de la Rue Neuve is a narrow, quiet alleyway hidden within the Saint-Éloi quarter of Bordeaux. Its cobblestones have remained in place since the seventeenth century, serving as a boundary for some of the city's oldest surviving…