Showing 1-11 of 11 results
-
Basilique Saint-Seurin
Austere and imposing, the Basilique Saint-Seurin is an architectural treasure, classed by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. The basilica's style is predominantly Romanesque, but many Gothic elements pertain - the result of successive additions to the structure over the centuries. Its history goes back as far as the beginning of Christendom in the 6th century.
-
CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain
Entrepôts Lainé was built in 1824 as a warehouse for the rare and exotic products of France's colonies. These days more than 900 works of post-1960s contemporary art have replaced the coffee, cocoa, peanuts and vanilla that used to fill the building's capacious spaces. There is free entry for permanent collections, temporary exhibits cost around €5 for adults.
-
Cathédrale Saint-André
Lording it over Bordeaux is Cathédrale St-André. A Unesco World Heritage Site, the cathedral's oldest section dates from 1096; most of what you see today was built in the 13th and 14th centuries. Exceptional masonry carvings can be seen in the north portal.
-
École du Vin
Serious students of the grape can enrol at the École du Vin, within the Maison du Vin de Bordeaux (Bordeaux House of Wine), across the street from the tourist office. Introductory two-hour courses are held in English on Monday and Thursday from to noon, and Wednesday and Friday from to between May and October.
-
Esplanade des Quinconces
The most prominent feature of esplanade des Quinconces, a vast square laid out in 1820, is the fountain monument to the Girondins, a group of moderate, bourgeois National Assembly deputies during the French Revolution, 22 of whom were executed in 1793 after being convicted of Counter-Revolutionary activities.
-
Jardin Botanique
If you need some respite from the frenetic pace of wine tasting, head to Bordeaux's beautifully landscaped botanical garden. The grounds of the public gardens was established in 1755 and laid out in the English style a century later. The meticulously catalogued Jardin Botanique itself was founded in 1629 and moved to its present site in 1855.
-
Musée d'Aquitaine
Gallo-Roman statues and relics dating back 25,000 years are among the highlights at the impressive Musée d'Aquitaine. Ask to borrow an English-language catalogue. Free entry for permanent collections; temporary exhibits cost around €5 for adults.
-
Musée d'Histoire Naturelle
There's something delightfully old-fashioned about this natural history museum, which dates back to the period after the French Revolution when French society began to embrace the benefits of science. There is one section devoted to housing an exhibition of regional fauna and lots of bugs on pins and quality taxidermy.
-
Musée des Arts Décoratifs
Installed in the magnificent Hôtel de Lalande, built in 1779, the Museum of Decorative Arts contains a fantastic collection of faïence, porcelain, silverwork, glasswork, furniture, weapons and the like, dating mainly from the 18th- and 19th-centuries. The location - an elegant private mansion - renders the visit all the more interesting and informative.
-
Musée des Beaux-Arts
Occidental art buffs can trace its evolution from the Renaissance to the mid 20th-century at Bordeaux's exceptional Musée des Beaux-Arts. Occupying two wings of the 1770s-built Hôtel de Ville, either side of the elegant public park, Jardin de la Mairie, the 1801-established museum houses a superb collection of paintings, particularly 17th-century Flemish, Dutch and Italian works.
-
Spa de Vinothérapie Caudalie
To immerse yourself, literally, in the local liquid, at the Spa de Vinothérapie Caudalie you can take a red-wine bath, enjoy a Merlot wrap or order a Cabernet body scrub. Apart from the sheer novelty factor, the vine and grape extracts are said to promote blood-strengthening and anti-ageing. The spa is 20 minutes south of Bordeaux next to Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte. It's best reached by your own wheels - exit the A62 at junction 1.
Showing 1-11 of 11 results
