29 Best things to see & do in Bordeaux

Our summary of typical foods, ingredients and flavours, cooking styles, dining scene and best foodie experiences in Bordeaux.

 

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Bordeaux is an architectural masterpiece, with more listed buildings than any French city outside Paris.

These lively, four-day summer festivals – with an alternating theme of either ‘wine’ or ‘river’ – celebrate the heart and soul of Bordeaux.

Bordeaux’s Musee des Arts Decoratifs contains a series of period rooms from different design eras, filled with historic objects and artefacts, offering an insight into aristocratic living in the last two centuries. It’s set in an immaculately-preserved, 18th-century Bordeaux mansion – one of the most beautiful townhouses in Bordeaux.

Artworks by some of Europe’s finest painters, from the 16th to 20th centuries, including Titian, Perugino, Rubens and Van Dyck.

This pastry shop makes cracking versions of Bordeaux’s famous cinnamon and orange canele pastries; they also do rum-soaked caneles in jars and savoury versions with chorizo, now available in several locations in the city.

Bordeaux’s enormous Gothic Cathedrale Saint-Andre is the city’s most majestic medieval landmark; the church dates back to 814 AD, but it was predominantly constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries. Don’t miss the sculptures of the Porte Royale and a climb up the Tour Pey-Berland belltower for a bird’s-eye view over the city centre.

Bordeaux’s world-famous Grands Crus are expensive, so you want to be sure you’re buying a wine you really like. At this high-tech wine gallery, you can sample a sip from 48 of the finest bottles – each of which has been allowed to breathe to perfection.

Exceptional wine bar in an 18th-century prow-shaped townhouse run by the Bordeaux Wine Council, with 30 wines by the glass served by knowledgeable young wine students, along with cheeses, cold meats and chocolates.

This compelling history museum is home to over 1.3 million artefacts that document the history of Bordeaux and the entire Aquitaine region, from prehistory (including Paleolithic Art and the Lascaux Cave) to the modern day.