City of Grace

Bordeaux has undergone some significant changes in recent years, only adding to its ancient charm.

The Left bank, Right bank and Bordeaux city itself offer three distinct districts to explore. In part 1 we take in the UNESCO World Heritage site that is Bordeaux city.

6 July, 2018


The city of Bordeaux has surprised itself (as well as much of the rest of the world) by becoming the new darling of France. Sure, it’s been the centre of the wine world for centuries, but in the past it acted like a stuffy old Dowager cooped up in an ornate but dreary mansion nobody wanted to visit.

But then visionary Bordeaux mayor Alain Juppe brought in a new broom to scrub down its glorious but grime-covered buildings. He also banished cars from the Old Quarter, created a sleek tram system, and dismantled the wine merchant warehouses to create a four-kilometre riverside park. A little over a decade ago, Bordeaux became largest urban UNESCO World-Heritage site. 

These days the city is going from strength to strength. A new TGV high-speed train will whisk you here from Paris in two hours and three minutes and Bordeaux has become a hot cruising destination, too, with ocean liners and river cruise ships docking at the Port de la Lune on the Garonne River where those famous wines were once loaded onto cargo ships.

The Miroir d’Eau, the world’s largest reflecting pool, is the perfect distillation of old and new Bordeaux. When the air is still, it reflects the exquisite semi-circle of neoclassical buildings at La Place de la Bourse. That’s when it’s not misting or squirting tiny fountains to delight children who gleefully run through it. 

A new TGV high-speed train will whisk you from Paris to Bordeaux in two hours and three minutes

Nearby, you can enjoy wine workshops and taste dozens of wines by the glass at The Bordeaux Wine Trade Council set in a striking 18th century triangular building

Pick up a share bike or walk along the riverside parkland to La Cite du Vin, Bordeaux’s wine cultural centre which blends the fascination of a really good museum with the thrill of a theme park. You can also board boats here to explore the vineyards. The building looks like the swirl of wine in a glass and inside you’ll have fun interacting with its multi-sensory exhibits before heading to the Belvedere rooftop wine bar with 4000 glass bottles suspended from its ceiling. It offers a panorama of the city embracing a bend in the river with the spire of St Michael’s Basilica rising above the neat rows of limestone buildings. Hop on a tram back to the centre, stopping off in the historic Chartrons district to browse antiques and design shops along Rue Notre Dame near the CAPC museum of contemporary art whose soaring space is in a former wine merchant warehouse.

The Place de la Comedie is the grand heart of Bordeaux, flanked by the Corinthian-columned portico of the Grand Theatre and the equally grand InterContinental Bordeaux. Gordon Ramsey’s Two-Michelin-starred Le Pressoir d’Argent anchors the hotel while Philippe Echtebest, host of the French language version of ‘Kitchen Nightmares’, holds court at Le Quatrieme Mur beside the theatre. Nearby, you can enjoy wine workshops and taste dozens of wines by the glass at The Bordeaux Wine Trade Council set in a striking 18th century triangular building. Across the street, climb the spiral staircase of L’Intendent wine shop to admire increasingly rarefied (and expensive) bottles of Bordeaux.

For haute couture and grand chocolatiers and fromageries, circumnavigate the Golden Triangle formed by Cours Georges Clemenceau, Allee de Tourny and the pedestrian-only Cours de l’Intendance before wandering the polished marble slabs of Rue St. Catherine, the longest pedestrian street in Europe, and branching off into the Old Quarter’s labyrinth of narrow lanes. 

Here, fountains splash in lively squares framed by honey-coloured limestone buildings whose pale upper-floor shutters are thrown open to reveal floor-length windows letting in lashings of sunshine. Students (Bordeaux is a big university town) and professionals, winemakers and visitors gather at café tables sprawling across the cobblestones. Bijou shops entice with hand-crafted clothes and curated home wares. Tiny wine bars sit beside farm-to-table restaurants. And above the bustle rise the gorgeous Gothic towers of La Grosse Cloche and La Porte Cailhou, which are all that remain of Bordeaux’s Mediaeval past, when the marriage of local Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry Plantagenet forged the English taste for claret.

All this walking builds up an appetite. Luckily the Old World wine city has become a New World foodie haven. Not only have the toques arrived (three Michelin-star chef Pierre Gagnaire has also added his name to La Grande Maison luxury boutique hotel) but a gaggle of young chefs are gaining accolades too. 

And then there are the terrific little wine bars dotted all over town, which you can discover by following an urban wine trail via a downloadable smart phone guide. Taste Premiers Grands Crus Classes wines by the glass at Max Bordeaux or pour your own at Aux Quatre Coins du Vins, where you can sample an ever-changing selection of 60 wines from an oenomat. You can even make your own wine blend at Chateau Pape Clement, whose ancient vineyards are now within the city limits.

Or take a break from wine altogether at Symbiose, a mad-scientist cocktail laboratory sitting defiantly right on Quai des Chartrons where wine was once shipped around the world. Le Fooding named it the best bar in France last year. Now that’s a revolution.

All this walking builds up an appetite. Luckily the Old World wine city has become a New World foodie haven