Spanning Gallo-Roman times to the present day, the evocative Musée d’Aquitaine (musee-aquitaine-bordeaux.fr; adult/child €4.50/free), closed Monday, is a captivating waltz through urban history. Grab a bilingual floor plan at the entrance and borrow an English-language catalogue to better appreciate the exhibits that span prehistory through to 18th-century Atlantic trade and slavery, world cultures, the emergence of Bordeaux as a world port in the 19th century, and the city's modern developments in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Bordeaux's backstory gets grim on the 2nd floor where chronological exhibits move into 18th-century Bordeaux and its pivotal role in transatlantic trade and the trade of enslaved people. A hotly contested issue in times past, this period of history is presented with candor and uncomfortable detail. During the 480 "triangle" expeditions organized from Bordeaux between 1672 and 1837, some 130,000 to 150,000 Africans were "purchased" in exchange for goods and later sold on as enslaved persons in the Americas.
