I have a special connection with the city of Bordeaux because I lived there for a year many years ago now. Obviously, now when I return (which is finally quite rare), I feel a mix of familiarity (it brings back quite a few memories), and at the same time, I also have the impression of exploring a city I don’t know, or no longer know. A strange feeling. Anyway, it was with pleasure that I took my favorite photographer to discover the city for a weekend in October 2024 (and I continue to regularly update the article). A historic city of stone and wine, Bordeaux is also a destination favored for its urban vibes, its gastronomy, and its cultural effervescence.
Practical Information
- Getting there by train: You can go very easily from Paris, as Bordeaux is among the cities that are about 2 hours away – like Nantes or Lyon – from Paris Montparnasse station (and what’s more, you have ouigo trains at very affordable prices!)
- Getting around locally: Do not hesitate to use the city’s public transport, TBM (Transports Bordeaux Métropole), which are very practical with buses and tram lines as well
- The CityPass: There is also a CityPass which offers free admission to 20 museums and iconic monuments in the city, as well as unlimited use of public transport.
Bordeaux Tourist Office
Table of Contents
What to see, what to do in Bordeaux?
There would be a lot to say about the activities to do in Bordeaux, which are numerous and varied. Unfortunately, as we didn’t have much time there, I only have a few suggestions to make below, which I will try to expand upon during my next visits to the city. Below, as usual, I offer you a mini-selection of things to do and see if you come for a stay in Bordeaux.
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Discovering Bordeaux with a Civitatis Free Tour
If you are looking for a friendly and economical way to explore the historic center of Bordeaux, I recommend testing the “Free tours” by Civitatis. The concept of this platform is nice: you book your place for free, and at the end of the tour, you give the guide the amount of your choice based on your satisfaction. It’s the perfect tip to soak up the city’s history without breaking the bank!
Free tour in Bordeaux by Civitatis
Duration: 2h
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Visiting the Cité du Vin
We took advantage of a rainy afternoon to visit the Cité du Vin, a cultural venue entirely dedicated to wine cultures around the world through their cultural, civilizational, heritage, and universal dimensions. On the program: a museum with a permanent interactive exhibition based on digital technologies, tasting experiences, events, and a living space with shops and restaurants. The Cité is housed in a contemporary building constructed specifically to host it, and its curved glass and metallic architecture evokes the wine swirling in the glass and the eddies of the Garonne river, very close to the structure.
We only spent an hour in the permanent exhibition (because we had a train to catch), but we could have stayed there much longer because it is so rich with no less than 18 different spaces to explore. You can discover the history of wine throughout time, see numerous videos and interviews, challenge yourself to identify wine aromas, learn more about viticulture, and there is also a part dedicated to the history of Bordeaux wine. In short, we’ll have to come back and spend a whole day there! We finished the visit with a wine tasting (included in the price of the permanent exhibition visit) from around the world—we notably tested a wine from Bosnia and Herzegovina—at the Belvédère at the very top of the Cité du Vin (on the 8th floor, 35 meters high), which also offers a beautiful view of Bordeaux.
Cité du Vin – Foundation for Wine Culture and Civilizations
1, esplanade de Pontac, 33300 Bordeaux
Permanent exhibition + Belvédère rates: 22 € / 9 € children (between 6 and 17 years old) / free under 6 years old
Open every day from 10 am
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Visiting the Museum of Aquitaine
The museum has been located since 1987 in the former building constructed at the end of the 19th century to house the Faculty of Science and Letters of Bordeaux. Its collections retrace the history of Bordeaux and Aquitaine, from prehistory to the 21st century, through 400,000 years explained in a route rich with numerous tactile stations for a playful and multi-sensory discovery over 2 floors.
Museum of Aquitaine
30 cours Pasteur 33000 Bordeaux
Open every day from 11 am to 6 pm except Mondays and public holidays
Rates: 8 € / 4.50 € reduced / free for those under 18
My gourmet recommendations in Bordeaux
As usual, you will find below my selection of gourmet recommendations in Bordeaux (restaurants, bars, tea rooms…) that we had the opportunity to test during our stay with the favorite photographer. These addresses often offer the chance to discover local products and some regional specialties to taste if you come to Aquitaine.
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A tea room in Bordeaux? Le Boudoir de Léa
This tea room, attached to the Intercontinental Hotel, opened its doors in July 2024, in the heart of Bordeaux’s Golden Triangle. It is managed by Chef Gaëtan Fiard, World Champion of Sweet Arts 2014 and Executive Pastry Chef of the Pressoir d’Argent Gordon Ramsay (2 Michelin stars), who is the executive pastry chef for all the Intercontinental Hotel of Bordeaux‘s addresses. In this boudoir, we find a chic and cozy tea room that serves very high-level pastries.
Its specialty, the range of small cakes in the shape of a boudoir (about 10 or 12 kinds of pastries available in the display case). In addition to the “star product,” Le Boudoir de Léa also offers a selection of classics revisited by the Chef and his teams. Its name is a tribute to Léa, a modern, distinguished, and epicurean woman (Léa is also the name of the hotel’s Spa). We also find at Le Boudoir de Léa a boutique section where you can buy the divine pastries of the establishment to take away.
Le Boudoir de Léa
7 Cours de l’Intendance, 33000 Bordeaux
Open Tuesday to Saturday from 8 am to 7 pm
Prices: creation boudoirs 9.50 € / classic pastries 9 €
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A Swedish café in Bordeaux? Suzzi kafé
This eco-labeled restaurant offers Nordic, and particularly Swedish, cuisine, ideal for a quick lunch. It was the favorite photographer who discovered this address a bit by chance.
Suzzi Kafé
46 Rue des Trois-Conils, 33000 Bordeaux
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A chic brasserie in Bordeaux? Restaurant Le Bordeaux
This brasserie is the one at the Intercontinental Hotel that I mention below in the “accommodation” section. You eat there in a cozy atmosphere with a very beautiful view of the Bordeaux Opera. This chic brasserie menu is developed with local products in a resolutely locavore approach. The establishment also offers a very beautiful wine list with, obviously, an interesting selection of local wines, and there is plenty to choose from in the region!
We tasted: as a starter we shared oysters from Cap-Ferret from “La Kabane de Yoan et Chloé” (19 € for 6 oysters); the gazpacho of the moment (13 €); as a main course, we took the vitello tonnato (24 €) as well as the duck breast with seasonal fruits (26 €); for desserts, we find the creations of Gaëtan Fiard and we tasted his lemon tart this time.
Restaurant Le Bordeaux
2-5 Place de la Comédie, 33000 Bordeaux
Prices: a la carte starters between 12 € and 35 € / main courses between 21 € and 28 € / desserts 10 € / wines by the glass between 9 € and 28 €
The tip: market menu (Monday to Saturday for lunch) 25 € with starter + main or main + dessert / 30 € starter + main + dessert
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Where to have an accessible gourmet lunch in Bordeaux? Le 1544
I highly recommend having lunch at the annex of the starred restaurant Le Gabriel, at the bistro Le 1544. Indeed, the lunch menu is particularly accessible and everything is truly delicious with a level of cuisine that approaches the gastronomic restaurant. We had a very lovely lunch there to celebrate my birthday.
Restaurant le 1544
10 Place de la Bourse 33000 Bordeaux
Prices: weekday lunch menu with starter + main or main + dessert at 27 € and starter + main + dessert at 34 €
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Tapas & cocktails dinner in Bordeaux? Tigermilk Bordeaux
We are never disappointed by this group whose addresses we have tested in Paris, but also in Lille or even Brussels! This South American-inspired restaurant chain offers Latin, Mexican, or even Peruvian flavors. On the program: Latin American dishes and a few cocktails with always very reasonable prices. The place is perfect for an aperitif/dinner with friends.
To taste: we tested a local beer from the Mascaret brewery; the caliente guacamole with chili (6.50 €); the quesadillas (between 13.50 € and 15.90 €) and the ceviches (between 14.50 € and 16 €).
Restaurant Tigermilk Bordeaux
1 rue des Lauriers 33000 Bordeaux
Drink prices: cocktails between 8 € and 9.50 € / mocktails between 4.50 € and 6.50 €
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Where to drink a cocktail in Bordeaux? Bar at the Marty Hotel
Nestled in the heart of the dynamic Mériadeck district, the Marty Hotel, Bordeaux, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, opened its doors in 2023. The place, with really top-notch decor, offers a bar with a menu of creative cocktails. We tasted a pear and white cocoa sour cocktail there and also another more wintry cocktail with Verjus and white Armagnac “Winter in Armagnac.” The team is young and relaxed, and it’s a very good spot for a trendy aperitif.
Bar at the Marty Hotel
153 Rue Georges Bonnac, 33000 Bordeaux
Cocktail prices: signature cocktails 14 € / mocktails 10 € / classic cocktails between 10 € and 16 €
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Where to drink another cocktail in Bordeaux? Bar at the Firstname Bordeaux, Le Bada
The cocktail bar at FirstName Bordeaux, where we stayed during this trip (and which I mention below), is also a very good spot to drink a cocktail in a trendy and urban setting. And the bar is obviously accessible, even if you are not a guest of the hotel.
Le Bada, FirstName Bordeaux
14, rue Claude Bonnier 33 000 Bordeaux
My accommodation recommendations in Bordeaux
As usual, you will find below my selection of accommodation recommendations in Bordeaux (from 3 to 5 stars) that we had the opportunity to test or visit during our stay in 2024 with the favorite photographer.
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The Intercontinental Hotel
This legendary Bordeaux hotel is housed in a historic private mansion in the city, built in 1789 by the architect Victor Louis. The latter is also the architect of the Bordeaux Opera, built 10 years earlier and facing it in a mirror effect. The transformation of the building into a tourist hotel took place at the turn of the late 19th century with the creation of a restaurant, and at the beginning of the 20th century. After a long closure, the hotel reopened its doors as a 5-star luxury hotel in 2007 following a renovation under the leadership of the famous interior designer Jacques Garcia. Today the hotel brings together 7 distinct buildings.
We haven’t yet had the chance to sleep in this beautiful establishment, but we were able to take a short visit to discover its main aspects and spaces. Besides Le Boudoir de Léa and Restaurant Le Bordeaux that I told you about just above, the hotel also has an incredible Guerlain Spa, a two-Michelin-starred gastronomic restaurant, Le Pressoir d’Argent Gordon Ramsay, and a rooftop with a stunning view of the city (the perfect place for an aperitif with a view).
Hôtel InterContinental Bordeaux ☆☆☆☆☆
2-5 Place de la Comédie, 33000 Bordeaux
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FirstName Bordeaux
This 100% “feel good” lifestyle hotel is the first of this young brand. It is housed in a typical 60s/70s building, emblematic of modernist architecture, in the Meriadeck district of Bordeaux. The project for this district was entrusted at the time to the architect Jean Royer according to the principles of “slab urbanism,” including the separation of pedestrian paths and automobile traffic. We really liked this hotel designed by architect Nicolas Adnet of Studio MHNA. It offers 137 rooms and suites divided into 5 categories (Cocon, Cockpit, Tribe, Collector, and Firstroom). For our part, we were in a Cockpit room which offers a panoramic view of the city. If you are not staying at the hotel but want to discover this address, you can come to drink a cocktail at the hotel bar, the Bada, which I told you about in the previous paragraph.
The tip: on every floor of the hotel, there is a kitchenette with self-service products for guests, which we found truly great!
FirstName Bordeaux ☆☆☆☆
14, rue Claude Bonnier 33 000 Bordeaux
Prices: room from 131 €
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The Mama Shelter Bordeaux
You know that I really like Mama Shelter hotels; I had already mentioned those in Marseille, Rennes, and Luxembourg in my articles on these cities. The Mama Shelter group consists of 18 urban hotels across 15 cities and 9 countries. As in all the brand’s establishments, there are common points in all the hotels: festive atmosphere (with DJ sets on weekends) and relaxed, a restaurant installed in the hotel, and very good bedding in the rooms. Located in the historic center of Bordeaux, on the Place Saint-Christoly, the hotel notably offers a super trendy rooftop with a panoramic view of the surroundings.
Hôtel Mama Shelter Bordeaux ☆☆☆
19 Rue Poquelin Molière, 33000 Bordeaux
Hotel rates: from 112 € per night
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Practical questions
I highly recommend the restaurant Le 1544 (formerly Hôtel des Fermes). The cuisine is refined and the value for money for lunch is excellent.
For a sweet break, head to Suzzi Kafé. It is an ultra-cozy Swedish café where you can eat delicious cinnamon rolls and Nordic specialties.
Bordeaux is full of cool spots! I really liked the atmosphere of the bar at the Marty Hôtel (Mériadeck) or that of the Firstname Bordeaux for a chic and trendy evening.
Do not miss the Museum of Aquitaine. Its collections are fascinating and retrace the entire history of Bordeaux, from Prehistory to the present day. It is a must-see cultural visit.
Thanks to the addresses (Intercontinental Hotel, Mama Shelter, FirstName Hotel…) that welcomed us during this stay in Bordeaux.
I hope that with all this I will have made you want to visit Bordeaux, and if you also have your own tips and recommendations for this destination, don’t hesitate to share them in the comments below!
Photo credits: Nicolas Diolez Photos are not royalty-free; photographer authorization is mandatory before any use
