Things to do in Bordeaux

To really get the best feel for the city, simply wander around the old quarter, Vieux Bordeaux. There’s plenty of architectural delight on offer. At the heart of the old town centre is place de la Bourse. Behind and to the west is the Grand Theatre on place de la Comédie. Built by the architect Victor Louis in 1780, on the site of a Roman temple, the lofty exterior is adorned with pillars, Muses and Graces. Smart streets radiate out from here: the city’s main shopping streets, rue Ste-Catherine and the cours de l’Intendance to the south and west. Look to the sandy, tree-lined allées de Tourny to the northwest. The narrow streets around place du Parlement and place St- Pierre - lined with ancient townhouses doubling up as bistros, boutiques and vintage shops - make for a pleasant stroll.

South of place Gambetta is the St-André cathedral, built between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, with twin steeples over the north transept, and an adjacent bell tower, the fifteenth-century Pey-Berland tower. The interior of the cathedral, begun in the twelfth century, is vast and impressive. The choir provides one of the few complete examples of the late Gothic style known as Rayonnant.

Bordeaux’s best museums are scattered in the streets around the cathedral. Directly behind the classical city hall, hôtel de ville, is the Musée des Beaux-Arts. It has a small star-studded European art collection, featuring Titian and Rubens, and good temporary exhibitions. The Museum of Decorative Arts, two blocks north on rue Bouffard, is housed in a handsome eighteenth-century house, where the beautifully restored period rooms evoke the grandeur of the Ancien Régime. As well as an impressive collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century furnishings and porcelain, the museum also hosts a series of temporary exhibitions devoted to Art Deco and contemporary design. Looking for Bordeaux holidays? Why not stay at Novotel Bordeaux Centrehotel?

To the northwest of the city centre is the beautiful formal park, the Public Garden. It contains the city’s botanical gardens as well as a small natural history museum. Behind, to the west and north, lies a quiet, provincial quarter of two-storey stone houses that includes rue du Dr-Albert-Barraud. Here you can see the Gallien Palace, a third-century arena - all that remains of Burdigala, Aquitaine’s Roman capital.

What to do in Bordeaux if you like wine? Plenty! You’ve definitely come to the right place! Visiting the city’s wine regions is by far one of the best things to do in Bordeaux. The wine regions lie in a great semicircle around the city, starting with the Médoc in the north, then skirting east through St-Émilion, before finishing south of the city among the vineyards of the Sauternes. In between, the less prestigious districts are also worth investigating, especially Blaye, to the north of Bordeaux, and Entre-Deux-Mers, to the east. You will quickly see that there’s more to the region than wine. Many of the Médoc’s eighteenth-century châteaux are architectural treasures. There’s also a vast fortress which dominates the town of Blaye, and there’s an older, ruined castle at Villandraut on the edge of the Sauternes. St-Émilion, loved by tourists, is the prettiest of the wine towns, and has the unexpected bonus of a cavernous underground church.

Bordeaux is packed with good restaurants to suit any budget and the streets around rue du Parlement St-Pierre and rue St-Rémi are full of places to eat. Upmarket options crowd around place du Parlement and towards Chartrons. The restaurant, Baud et Millet, has been running since 1986. This local institution takes guests on a journey through the cheese of France, with a mind-boggling array of cheese-inspired dishes. This is one of the most exciting things to do in Bordeaux. Bon appétit!