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Best experiences:

Bordeaux Wine Region

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

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Bucket List Experience
Close up of grapes hanging from a tree

France’s premier wine-growing region is home to over 8,500 wineries (or chateaux) producing some 800 million bottles a year, 89 percent of which are red wines, including the legendary Grands Crus or ‘First Growths’ of the Medoc.

Adult price: £40

Min age 18

Best for ages 18+

Prehistoric Cave Art at the Lascaux Cave

Montignac, Nouvelle-Aquitaine , France

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Bucket List Experience
Close up of a bison painted on the cave walls

A day-trip away from Bordeaux or Toulouse, in the beautiful Dordogne, you can visit an immaculate replica of France’s prehistorically painted cave – the ‘Sistine Chapel’ of Palaeolithic art.

Adult price: £15

Best for ages 6+

Bordeaux’s must-see architecture

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

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Bucket List Experience
Exterior of Palace de la Bourse, doubled in the reflection of a puddle

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

Best for ages 18+

Bordeaux’s best food & drink

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

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Bucket List Experience
five small round sponge cakes

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

 

Best for ages 18+

Duration: -

Wine City

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

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Bucket List Experience
Exterior of Wine City building on a sunny day

A museum dedicated to the history of wine and its relationship with Bordeaux, housed in a spectacular modern architectural jewel.

Adult price: £18

Best for ages 18+

Dune of Pilat

La Teste-de-Buch, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

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Bucket List Experience
A large dune with greenery on one side and the sea on the other

Climb to the summit of Europe’s largest and most spectacular sand dune, 60 km southwest of Bordeaux.

Best for ages 4+

Museum of Contemporary Art (CAPC)

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Visitors walk around the inside gallery of the museum

Set in a striking, 19th-century vaulted warehouse, the groundbreaking CAPC houses one of France’s most important collections of contemporary art, collected from around the world. It also hosts temporary exhibitions on specific themes.

Adult price: £6

Best for ages 18+

Saint-Emilion

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Saint-Emilion

Enchanting UNESCO-listed landscapes of vine-clad rolling hills surround this beautiful medieval town less than an hour east of Bordeaux.

Min age 18

Best for ages 18+

Halles de Bacalan

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Exterior view of the building, with slatted wooden roof and the Wine City Tower behind

Although it only opened in 2017, this vast new food hall by Wine City has become one of the most popular foodie hangouts in the city, with a mix of stalls run by farmers, chefs and producers.

Best for ages 18+

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Submarine Pens

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

external view of the huge concrete structures of the former Submarine pens in Bordeaux

An indestructible relic left behind by the Nazis, Bordeaux’s former submarine pens, is now the setting for extraordinary art, science, sound and light shows – and the world’s largest centre of digital art.

Adult price: £15

Best for ages 4+

Natural spas and hot springs in Aquitaine

Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Natural spas and hot springs in Aquitaine

Centred on Bordeaux and the Basque coast, this region is France’s undisputed spa capital, home to 30 of the country’s 170 spa resorts. The region’s unique sub-soils enrich the water with mineral salts and trace elements. Being the world’s biggest region of fine wines, it’s the go-to place for innovative wine-themed treatments.

Best for ages 18+

Duration: -

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Saint-Michel Flea Market

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Close up of a table of bric-a-brac, with market faded behind

Bordeaux’s hip multicultural district, in the shadow of the great Gothic spire of St-Michel, is the place to be on a Saturday morning, when this lively, atmospheric flea market takes over Place Meynard and Place Canteloup.

Best for ages 13+

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La Porte de la Lune

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Exterior of Palace de la Bourse, doubled in the reflection of a puddle

Set on a crescent-shaped bend in the Garonne, Bordeaux’s riverfront port is a work of art. The kilometre-long, UNESCO-listed façade of 18th-century buildings by Jacques Gabriel is breathtakingly illuminated after nightfall. The stunning Place de la Bourse is reflected in an enormous mirror of water from 900 misting jets.

Best for ages 18+

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Museum of the Sea & Navy

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Museum of the Sea & Navy

A maritime museum covering ships, sailors, marine art and science, with model ships and real boats (including the Defi Francais from the America’s Cup). Nearby, seemly crashing into the port, is Suzanne Treister’s flying saucer sculpture, the Vaisseau Spatial.

Adult price: £6

Best for ages 8+

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Museum of Decorative Arts, Bordeaux

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

The exterior of the museum on a sunny day

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.

Adult price: £4

Best for ages 18+

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Aquitaine Museum

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

A statue of a figure reclining

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.

Adult price: £4

Best for ages 18+

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Marche aux Capucins

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Close up of a vegetable stall in a market

The ‘Belly of Bordeaux’ is the city’s biggest and busiest covered market, offering delicacies from France and around the world. Join the locals for a mid-morning snack – a half dozen oysters on the half shell – at Jean-Mi’s stand.

Best for ages 18+

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Chartrons Quay Food Market

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Tasty oysters on the half shell served flat lay on wooden background directly above view

Every Sunday morning, join the local Bordelais at this lively, gourmet outdoor market along the Quais des Chartrons – with particularly good seafood and wine.

Best for ages 18+

National Customs Museum

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Exterior of a beautiful building

This museum is the only one of its kind in France: exhibits cover the history of customs and taxes, including smugglers and counterfeiters. The bizarre mix of fascinating curiosities – including maps, musical instruments and opium pipes – date back to the 18th century.

Adult price: £3

Best for ages 13+

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Porte Cailhau

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Porte Cailhau, a castle-like monument that used to be the gate to the city

This beautiful monument was built in 1494 as a triumphal arch to commemorate Charles VIII’s victory at Fornovo. It was later integrated into the city walls and today forms one of the gates to the old city from the port. You can go inside for an exhibition on how it was built, and for views from the tower.

Best for ages 18+

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Bordeaux Wine & Trade Museum

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

People sit at a table with glasses of wine ready for tasting in front of them

This small museum is a must for those interested in the long history of wine-making in France. Guided visits take you to the wine cellars to see exhibits of wine-making equipment dating from the present back 2,000 years. The tours explain the different grape varieties, how they make Bordeaux’s famous ‘Grand Vins’, and end with a wine tasting.

Adult price: £35

Min age 18

Best for ages 18+

Duration: 2 hours 30 mins

When: Varies

Frequency: weekly

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Darwin Eco-System

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Exterior view of a warehouse building with pointed roofs

An army barracks on Bordeaux’s Right Bank, abandoned in 2015, has become a laboratory for the future, where everything is organic, recycled, sustainable and green, with special events, sports, street art, food, and more.

Best for ages 18+

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Bordeaux River and Wine Festivals

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Bordeaux's port at night with crowds on the banks

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

Best for ages 18+

Duration: 4 days

When: June/July

Frequency: annually

Bordeaux Cathedral

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

The exterior of the cathedral and its two spires

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.

Best for ages 18+

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Le Bar a Vin

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Red wine being poured into a glass

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.

Min age 18

Best for ages 18+

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Monument aux Girondins

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

A 43m high white column monument in an empty square, with grandiose fountain at its base

Erected between 1894 and 1902, this wonderfully elaborate 54-meter-tall statue is dedicated to the memory of French Revolutionaries. It’s located in the enormous Place des Quinonces, the largest city square in Europe.

Best for ages 18+

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Max Bordeaux Wine Gallery

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Inside the gallery, where there are racks of wine bottles

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.

Min age 18

Best for ages 18+

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La Toque Cuivree

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Close up of a branded sign

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.

Best for ages 18+

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