We spent 10 days in Bordeaux in April and were blown away but how much this big-little city packs in. We wandered endlessly and aimlessly discovering new old-neighbourhoods, beautiful 18th century buildings, shady green parks and crumbling old ruins. Here’s some of our observations and highlights, grouped in categories that make sense to me. Hope they help you discover the hidden gems of this beautiful city.
The Borderlais people are so warm
It’s the 9th biggest city in France (by population) but it feels bigger as most live in the relatively small centre ville on the gauche side of the massive Garonne River so it has a bustling city feel. There’s about 1.4 million people in the greater metro area made up of French, Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese, Turks, Germans, and more recently, Lebanese and North Africans. The melting pot of all these people is at the Place de la Victoire where a lot of demonstrations are held and also, a little further on, at the Marche des Capucins (met a lovely Turk serving up delicious empanadas at the Saturday vegetable market). The people of Bordeaux (Borderlais)are warm and welcoming and tolerate me wanting to try and speak French. A typical response from a shopkeeper when I asked a question in French was: “would you like me to speak English or speak French more slowly for you?” (I chose the latter).
Staff say ‘Bonjour’ as soon as you enter a shop or café and when you leave you both say, ‘Merci, Au Revoir, Bon Journée or Bon Soirée.’ They are very proud of their wares and love to take the time to explain how their produce or clothing, or art is made. As to be expected, they dress well, particularly the older women who wear colour blocks, scarfs, perfectly coiffed hair and shiny shoes (they can’t be walking too far).
The French Language is très difficile!
Bordeaux was our first entry point for our 6 months in France, so we decided to enrol in a French language course to get us going on our journey to try and speak French whilst in the country. We enrolled in an intensive course at Alliance Française (9am – 1pm Mon – Fri) – and were delighted to find it was just around the corner from our apartment. We arrived at 8.40 on our first day and were allocated to our classes and spent the next 4 hours completely bamboozled as a barrage of French was spoken without pause with only a 15 minute break at 11am. We have never felt so lost or hopeless! We spoke to the manager who moved me into Jamie’s class and Jamie converted the rest of his week’s classes to two private lessons. The challenge is that they do not allow you to speak anything but French while you are at the school. And they presume you know about grammar and construction already. Still it was a good start for us towards learning French and I (think) the french appreciated us giving it a shot (see my comment in the paragraph on the people above).
Getting about Bordeaux a pied or a velo
Bikes, busses, boats and trams are all on the TBM app. You just tap your CC on the screen where the bikes sit and away you go. Same with bus stops and boat stops – tap for your ticket and jump on. Easy. Still, we struggled to get the bikes – they were new – only added a week before we arrived, and many were not available (red light), not there, or the screens were not working. Nice idea – but we ended up walking everywhere. Bordeaux is very walkable with the furthest sights about 4 kms from Centre ville (like le Lac). Its super sustainable and gives preference to cyclists and pedestrians everywhere. They even have bike parking for bike ‘prams’ – the Dutch style bikes that have wooden box for ferrying kids about on the front.
Bordeaux’s land – parks and gardens
Bordeaux is flat as it lies on a low peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and the Garonne River (another reason why it is so easy to get about on bike or foot). The land Bordeaux sits on was apparently mostly underwater – until those savvy Dutchies drained the water away to help them transport their goods more easily. The newly drained land boasted fertile gravel soil – which is responsible for the famous terroir of Bordeaux that has produced the world’s most famous and revered wines. It also helps keep all the beautiful parks so green.
The parks in Bordeaux are open from 7am to 8pm in Spring and we had all three of the larger ones within a couple of kms of us. Each morning, we ran-up to Parc Bordelaise which is the largest parc in Bordeaux central. There’s a number of running tracks that loop around and through the park and a couple of kids playgrounds, carousels and a small herd of sheep in a large pen.
Parc Rivière, also about 1km from our place was a more rustic, unkempt parc that had an old tower and a big, enclosed dog run as well.
Jardin Public less than 1km from our apartment was our total favourite. Big, green, open, and just made for picnics and always packed with couples, families, old and young catching the sun and enjoying cheese wine and baguettes, particularly on the weekends.
Jardins Angelique across the pedestrian Pont Pierre runs along La Garonne’s left bank and provides plenty of shady places to pic-nic, stroll or explore the rustic old military base turned Eco-park, Darwin.
Bordeaux’s Architecture, Monuments and Gates
Everywhere you look there’s a stone statue, ancient arch, rising steeple – the Old Town in particular, is teeming with beautiful architecture (over 350 buildings are listed as Historical Monuments) and is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can’t miss the amazing Catherderal Saint-Andre de Bordeaux or the splendid National Opera House.
We stumbled across one of the more magnificent sites in our street (Rue Doctor Albert Beraud) – the Palais Galien – which is the remains of a Roman amphitheatre from the 3rd century and it is quite startling to be strolling in the tiny cobblestone street with three story stone apartment buildings either side and suddenly there’s this big towering remnant of the stands that used to hold 20,000 people watching gladiators fight it out in the 3rd century.
Bordeaux used to be ringed by an old fort wall and there are 6 gates or ‘portes’ (doors) still standing from the old wall around Bordeaux .
The Aquitaine Gate – in the Place de la Victoire also called the Porte Saint-Julien, was built in 1753 and is one of the plainer gates.
The Great Bell Gate– aka Porte de la Grosse Cloche is the most ornate gate in gothic and renaissance style. It is on rue Saint-James, and was built in the 15th century, and has a huge bell that weighs more than 7 tons and still strikes the hour every day.
The Mint Gate – Located next to the Garonne River, also called the Porte del la Monnaie as the old mint was located nearby during the Middle Ages.
The Cailhau Gate is located on the right bank of the Garonne River, north of the historic centre, and is part of the old Roman wall.
The Burgundy Gate – in the north of the old city, also called the Porte de Bourgogne is a plain gate on Bir-Hakeim Square and marks the end of the Rue Victor Hugo.
The Dijeaux Gate is known as the “royal gate”, as it was through it that the kings of France entered when they visited the city.
Bordeaux Places and Squares
Place des Martyrs de la Resistance – with the Basilique Sant Seurin was our local and this green shady park has a small market on Wednesdays and an enclosed dog run as well. They are renovating the church which will be quite magnificent when done.
Place Gambetta – this is our second local ‘square’ that opens up to lots of restaurants, cinemas, shopping, cafes and has a lively feel on the weekends or evenings when groups picnic, meet to eat and drink or just hang out.
Place Pey de Berland with the massive Cathedral Saint André and the Tour de Berland – this is a big open square with Bordeaux biggest and most striking Cathedral and its side-kick the Tour Pey-Belande. Lots of big cafes set up to people and Cathedral watch and see weddings at the Hotel du Ville.
Place de Quinconces – the largest square in Europe, 12 hectares, this is more of a big gravelled area for hosting large events. There’s loads of monuments including two large rostral columns, close to the river, statues of the Bordeaux philosophers Montaigne and Montesquieu, and the Monument aux Girondins a bronze fountains with galloping horses and a statue of liberty breaking its chains at the top as a tribute to the Revolution.
Place Fernand Lafarge – a cute little square with outdoor eateries and colourful flags at the confluence of 4 small streets in the cute St Pierre neighbourhood
Place de la Victoire – this bare, stone square is not the most attractive or welcoming square in Bordeaux but it does have two striking features: 1. the Porte d’Aquitaine – one of the 6 old ‘doors’ to the city. 2. A rather new ( 2005) red marble (red wine) and bronze obelisk and two turtles (representing the longevity of the wine), made by Czech sculptor Ivan Theimer, to celebrate wine culture.
Place de Stalingrad – This square Commemorates the Soviets army overcoming the German army in WWII. Walk (ride or tram) across the no-cars Pont Pierre and you nearly run into an 8m high sky blue lion in a contemplative (not threatening) pose welcoming you to the square. The sculptor, Xavier Veilhan, crafted this lion in 2005 out of resin to symbolise the courage, valour and strength of the soviets who defeated the germans and changed the course of history in 1943. It certainly stands out and as such, has been widely criticised as not being sympatico with the architecture style of the square.
The food, the wine, the Halles of Bordeaux
Of course Bordeaux is best known for its wine and there are oh so many lovely wine caves and shops plus wineries and famous chateaux in the nearby town of Saint Emilion – but you’ll need to read my post on Saint Emilion for that!
Bordeaux is also known for two distinctive cakes: the Canelé and the Dunes Blanches. The canelé is a small, caramelized cake with a texture halfway between a donut and an eggy-sponge cake but with a caramelised coating. It’s a bit chewy a bit crispy and they come in a shot glass size and shape. Apparently, they are the result of the Monks giving the nuns the egg yolks after they used only the egg whites to preserve their wine. The nuns cleverly created this dense but delicious pudding-cake with a custard center flavoured with rum and vanilla. You can buy canelés from La Toque Cuivrée and Baillardran Bordeaux – both shops have several locations around Bordeaux.
Another dessert is the Dunes Blanches – from the nearby Cap Ferret in the Arcachon Bay. Dunes Blanches are light and airy cream puffs filled with Chantilly cream and topped with sugar crystals and powdered sugar.
Even though Bordeaux is not in Brittany – the authentic Galette region, there are still plenty of creperies with Galettes. There’s many fancy creperies and some simpler ones and you can even buy galettes at the supermarkets in packs to prepare at home.
The local Boucheries in the small neighbourhood streets serve up delicious cordon bleau or entrecote, roast chicken or lapin.
There’s also lots of little neighbourhood épiceries specialising in Italian or French delicacies and local wines, cheese and sausage
Halles are also great for grabbing a causal bite or takeaway; try Halles des Chartrons – behind Rue Notre Dame for cute cafes inside and out and also Hallles des Bacalan opposite the Citè du Vin which has stalls selling Spanish, French, Greek, Italian and African food.
There’s often a good collection of eateries in the small squares – the Place des Grand Hommes off Place Gambetta has a very pretty setting.
There’s lots of casual outdoor restaurants along the Quais too.
Our favourite Bordeaux restaurant finds:
L’Officine in Saint Seurin – serves delicious local wines, crostini and a few dishes in a super casual-chic with friends-loungeroom feel.
Yarra in Rue Notre Dame in Chatrons district for a buzzing vibe, delicious French dishes and loads of action (Melbournian’s will know who owns this by the name!). Also outdoor eating under an old arch.
Meunier a super causal bistro-bar style café in Saint Seurin with outdoor seating in the square for good local French bistro food.
Delizia da Bartolo – a cute little Italian tucked in the side streets of Saint Seurin
Best of Bordeaux outings:
Shop Rue Saint Catherine, Europe’s longest shopping street.
Walk along the Quais of La Garonne north to the Cité du Vin – a massive interactive wine museum and grab a bite to eat in Halls de Bacalan across the tram tracks.
Walk across the decorative Pont de Pierre to the Rive Droite of the Garrone and up to Darwin eco-park on the old military site to watch skaters, grab a bite, shop for old wares.
Picnic in the long shady Jardin Angelique that runs along La Garonne’s left bank.
Shop the busy vegetable stalls of Marche des Cupins en route to Place Coctoire.
Hangout in the happening square of the magnificent Cathedral Saint-Andre
Wander around the historical streets of Sainte-Seurin (our neighbourhood) and discover beautiful architecture, epiceries, vin and fromage shops, boutiques.
Get lost in streets like rue de la Rousselle or rue Notre Dame – cute curvy, paved street with lovely old buildings in the St Pierre district.
Explore the massive monuments and open spaces of Place de Quinconces and catch whatever exhibition is on at the time.
