Bordeaux – Introduction

Bordeaux is not only one of France’s biggest cities, it’s also the name of the popular red wine region. Bordeaux wines are famous the world over, but the city is quite beautiful as well.

Bordeaux, with its 250,000 inhabitants (and total of 1.1 million in the suburbs) is France’s 6th largest city. Although inland, Bordeaux is also a harbour city seeing many cruise ships dock here.

The city is flat, and despite its size, it is conducive to walking (although there is quite a good bus/tram infrastructure).

Roads are often wide, although in the inner city, roads can become quite narrow, and you need to share that road with cars. There are several pedestrian shopping streets, parks and boulevard with large walking paths in the middle.

When you walk on the many streets of Bordeaux, often you will find a “passage”. A “passage”, also known as a “galerie”, are a number of shops inside a building. It’s not a shopping mall, since it’s often just one small alley inside a building with shops and maybe a restaurant or two.

They are ideal for when it’s raining…and are often upmarket.

Buildings

Most of the buildings in Bordeaux are majestic (but not all, see further below). For that matter, the city looks a lot like Paris or Lyon. The 4 to 8 floors, “warm” stones and facades that are often highly decorated, give the city the majestic look.

Here are photos of some of the many fine buildings you can see in Bordeaux. It is but a very small selection.

Opera/Theatre

One of the more imposing buildings in Bordeaux is the “Grand Theatre de Bordeaux“; the opera and theatre building. The building sits on a square that also houses the imposing Intercontinental Hotel.

The building was inaugurated in 1780. Click here to access their website to see the opera program (in French only)

Girondin Monument

Standing on the square (Place de la Comedie) where you find the Opera and the Intercontinental Hotel, you will see further up the very big Monument for the “Memory of the Girondins” (the area of France you are in is called Gironde).

The Monument was built in 1894, and was dedicated to the Members of Parliament who died during the French Revolution in a period called “La Terreur”. It was to be built on the spot that in 1794 the last MPs were executed. However, it was after a long deliberation and several competing proposals built where it is today.

Initially the monument was to hold a very ornate fountain designed by Bartholdi, but the fountain was deemed too expensive, and instead the fountain was built in Lyon (click here to see the Lyon fountain).

City Hall (Mairie/Hotel de Ville)

The City Hall (Mairie or Hotel de Ville in French) of Bordeaux is very imposing. Also known as the “Palais Rohan”, the building is located on a square which also has the cathedral.

The Palace was built in 1771. It was initially built as the Bishop’s house, but after the French revolution, it became the revolutionary courts, then the governor’s (prefecture) building, then the Imperial Palace for Napoleon I, then a Royal Castle for Louis XVIII, and finally in 1835 it became the City Hall.

On the same square, you will find the “Cathedrale Saint-André de Bordeaux”, the cathedral of Bordeaux:

Click here to read our review of the cathedral.

Shops

There are many shops in the city of Bordeaux, many, if not most, part of large chains. Most of these can be found in the shopping malls or large pedestrian streets. But if you wander alongside the little roads in the city centre, at times you will encounter very nice shops, either by their design, or by their contents. Some of them have very interesting facades.

Gates

Bordeaux, like most cities from the Middle Ages, had a fortified wall around it. To be able to enter the town in those days, you had to pass through gates, that were often heavily fortified.

The fortified wall has disappeared over the centuries, but the gates are all mostly there. And some of them are works of art.

Porte Gailhau

The main gate was built in the 15th century, and at the time there was no bridge, only boats that moored outside the gate.

The fortified walls (at the time, since they are no longer there) dated back to the 14th century.

Porte Dijeaux

The gate dates back to the Romans when they conquered the area. It had stayed intact for centuries, and only was moved in the 14th century when the new fortified walls were placed.

Porte de Bourgogne

The Porte de Bourgogne is relatively “new”, since it dates back to 1750. The gate replaced an older gate used for the fortifications, and was the “official” gate. The road that led into the city through this gate went all the way to Paris.

Porte Saint-Eloy/Grosse Cloche de Bordeaux

The Porte Saint-Eloy (Eloi in French) is no longer there, but instead you will find this magnificent gate/tower:

What you see here is the top part (the bells) from the old City Hall of Bordeaux, sitting on the remainders of the Saint-Eloy gate. The reconstruction was accomplished in the 15th century while the original gate was constructed in the 12th century. The tower is part of the Saint-Eloy church.

The gate was used for the pilgrims who were travelling on Santiago de Compostela route.

This city/town forms part of one of the French legs of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route.

Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage routes

The bells were used to signal the start of the grape harvesting (for the Bordeaux wines), or in case of a fire. The bells themselves weigh 7800 kg (17200 pounds) and are 2 meters high and wide.

Place de la Bourse

One of the other main attractions for tourists is the “Place de la Bourse“, the Stock Exchange Square. It’s not only the buildings alongside the square (the stock exchange building and the museum of the customs & excise) but it’s also the “miroir d’eau” (the water mirror) and the Garonne river.

The “Water Mirror” (in French “Miroir d’Eau”) is a flat surface with a thin layer of water over it. This gives the surface and impression of a very big mirror.

The Stock Exchange is now the Chamber of Commerce. The statue and fountain in the center of the square was once upon a time the statue of King Louis XV, but it was destroyed during the French Revolution. The new statue/fountain was made in 1869.

The square and buildings (also named Port of the Moon) was built between 1730 and 1775 and is listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Right next to the square and “Water Mirror” is the “Pont de Pierre” (the Stone Bridge):

The bridge crosses the very large Garonne river. It is one of four bridges and was ordered by Napoleon Bonaparte I. It has 17 arches, representing the number of letters in Napoleon’s full name.

It was only recently that some of the arches were widened in order to allow barges to pass underneath that are transporting parts of the new Airbus A380 airplane.

A little bit further you will be able to see the (river) cruise ships moored alongside the quai.

Pollution

As stated in the first paragraph, Bordeaux is a very beautiful city, but… there is a lot of pollution and it shows on quite a lot of buildings. Some of the buildings are in a pretty bad state, and many are quite blackened by pollution. Here are just a few examples of polluted and buildings in dire need of some TLC.

Odds & Ends

Here are some parts of Bordeaux that I could not classify in any of the chapters above:

Gallery of Fine Arts

The gallery is part of the Museum of Fine Arts, and is used as overflow and for special exhibitions. The building was built in 1936 and is only open when there is a temporary exhibition.

To see which exhibitions are on, please click here.

Palais des Sports de Bordeaux/Sports Arena

Bordeaux has a rather big sports arena used for a variety of sporting events.

The arena was built in 1950, but used by the opera. It was only in 2016 that it was renovated and it became a sports arena.

Click here to read and see more about several of the churches in Bordeaux.

Frogs and Rosbif

This is a pub we encountered during our walks, and the name says it all… Frogs is the English nickname for the French, while the French call the English Rosbif!

The building in which this pub is located was a 16th century woman’s prison. It was also the first pub to brew its own beer.

Click here to access their website.

Conclusion

Bordeaux is a very nice and comfortable city. It’s beautiful, even majestic, with some great monuments, pedestrian streets, shops and entertainment areas. There are plenty of public parks, and roads are easy to walk, even for wheelchairs. The public transportation system is top-notch.

On the downside, there is a lot of visible pollution, but today, the air quality is not bad. You’ll not feel it when walking, unless you are walking close to a major traffic artery.

Related Posts