The Marché des Capucins is easily identified by its sprawling nineteenth-century metal structure, which has sheltered the city’s largest food market since eighteen seventy-eight. Known to locals as the "belly of Bordeaux," the market…
The Best of Bordeaux
This self-guided walk leads you through the iconic squares, historic commercial streets, and breathtaking waterfront landmarks of Bordeaux, culminating at its world-famous wine museum.
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1. Marché des Capucins
2. Musée d'Aquitaine
The Musée d'Aquitaine greets visitors with stone sculptures of historic figures carved into its pediment, marking a building that once served as the Bordeaux University faculty of arts and humanities. Its current form, established in…
3. Tour Pey Berland
The Tour Pey-Berland is a bell tower that stands entirely separate from the Saint-André Cathedral it serves. You can distinguish it by its Flamboyant Gothic design, characterized by intricate lacy stonework, numerous gargoyles, and a…
4. Rue Sainte-Catherine
Rue Sainte-Catherine stretches for over one thousand two hundred meters, forming a straight, pedestrianized spine through the historic center of Bordeaux. This path follows the exact line of the cardo maximus, the primary north-south axis…
5. Opéra National de Bordeaux - Grand-Théâtre
The Grand-Théâtre is marked by a neoclassical portico of twelve colossal Corinthian columns, each topped by a stone statue representing a muse or goddess. Inaugurated in seventeen eighty, this opera house was designed by the architect…
6. Place des Quinconces
The Place des Quinconces is easily identified by its vast, twelve-hectare open esplanade that slopes gently toward the Garonne River, framed by dense rows of trees planted in a staggered pattern known as a quincunx. This immense space was…
7. Place de la Bourse
Place de la Bourse is defined by its wide, symmetrical limestone façades that sweep along the Garonne riverfront in a grand horseshoe shape. Built between seventeen thirty and seventeen seventy-five, this square marks the moment Bordeaux…
8. Miroir d'eau
The Miroir d’Eau is a vast, flat expanse of granite slabs spanning three thousand four hundred and fifty square meters. Located along the Garonne River quays, this surface is covered by a layer of water exactly two centimeters deep. When…
9. Cité du Vin
The Cité du Vin rises along the Garonne River as a fluid, golden sculpture of glass and iridescent aluminum. Its bold, curved silhouette is designed to evoke the movement of wine swirling in a glass, the eddies of the nearby river, and the…