Bordeaux – a regional guide to this amazing city!
One of the first places we visited following the Covid pandemic was France. We had been many years prior (2007!) and had enjoyed our time in Paris – to some extent. Some new, more recent experiences were required, so basically we thought this would be a great place to start our travels this time.
We flew into Bordeaux from the Stansted airport just outside of London in the month of May. It was a beautiful, balmy evening. The sun was just starting to go down and everyone was rushing for the taxis to get into town. We could have taken the tram right into town to our rental, but we didn’t learn that until later!
Arriving in central Bordeaux we texted our rental contact and were helped to the top floor the building we were staying in. It was already 8:30 PM and we were famished – we needed some food. Since we hadn’t eaten much since early afternoon we quickly freshened up and headed out to get a meal.
We enjoyed excellent wine and food during our time in Bordeaux and met lots of very interesting travellers and locals.
Read on to learn about our time in Bordeaux.
Getting Around Bordeaux
Walking everywhere in the city of Bordeaux is viable for the most part.
Other Options:
Tram: https://www.infotbm.com/en
The tram is super easy. You can buy tickets at the stops, and card in when you get on. We used a book of 10 between us. The 4 routes take you ALL over Bordeaux, so, great to get somewhere and walk back or vice versa. Sometimes a lot cooler (temperature-wise!) than walking.
Taxi’s:
Pretty reasonable, but, given the tram, we didn’t use it more than 1 time.
Train:
Very reasonable, the train station was always busy and lots of shopping and food around should you have to wait for a train. Pretty reliable as well for schedule.
Accommodation in Bordeaux
The apartment we had booked online for accommodation in Bordeaux had stellar reviews. We liked how it appeared so modern and were sold on its central location. A walkable city is fundamental to us in Europe as we don’t typically rent vehicles.
Upon arrival in the 1 bedroom apartment, we noticed the heat. Bordeaux had been experiencing a significant heat wave and was still somewhat under the grips of it. The apartment had been shut up since the last renters so we opened the windows and skylights. We tried to figure out the air conditioning system and had some small success in our first couple evenings. We did have some challenges with it as time went on and called in the landlord to help us fix it.
Details:
The rental itself was plenty spacious for the two of us and had all the necessary outfitting in the kitchen; a washer and dryer; shower, and so on. The TV was probably the one under-performing fixture in the apartment. We didn’t have a VPN set up on our devices so we were somewhat restricted to what we could access remotely in France on our devices beyond surfing, the Internet or our app subscriptions. Some channels were familiar (but in French of course) but all in all did not find any similar television viewing that we have at home in English. We used our iPads to watch what we wanted to online – via YouTube or on the internet. For sports, such as an F1 race we wanted to see, we found local bars were the best, with built in camaraderie with other travellers and locals to cheer on the event!
Summary:
We booked the rental via booking.com. The apartment is called: L’appartement de Margot
Location: Excellent especially for seeing Bordeaux and walking everywhere.
Pros: Equipped for a short stay, very modern, great location, great view of rooftops and Grand Homme.
Cons: 100 stairs up (no elevator), warm (unless the air con is working), a little cramped for 2 for a stay of more than a couple weeks; shower has no curtain (glass on one part) and you have to be very careful not to flood the floor!
However, have to stress, location is excellent. Lots of rentals in town.
Eat in Bordeaux
We love grocery shopping in our travels! There is something so adventurous to us in trying and finding different items and in deciphering how to use them in our cooking. When we plan our travel with rental accommodations, we ensure we know where the grocery stores are near us.
Our local for our visit was Carrefour Market . We were about a half a block away from it! We shopped there first thing in the morning after our arrival to secure the essentials. Eggs, a baguette, some bacon and fruit. Our further explorations would secure more products for us to enjoy in the kitchen!
For dinner at restaurants, reserve in advance. Almost all confirmations are electronic and very efficient.
Some recommendations:
Excellent, modern food with a very local flavor. Lots of seafood and different presentations. Excellent service as well. We were recommended to it by a local chef who provided us a food tour of Bordeaux. (in the tour info below)
Again, excellent. Traditional French brasserie, with the standard offering. A higher end Brasserie l’ecole if you have been to Victoria, BC, Canada. Wine list is superlative (it is just a block from the Bar d’Vin, and thus the local wine school). It was full every day we walked by – lunch and dinner. We booked a day in advance.
Referred here by Bordeaux Wine Trails (see below link) – great wine by glass and very reasonable bottles of wine as well. Excellent small plates – so many to choose from!! From lobster to snails to veg to whatever has been pulled in that day from the farms and sea. Gastronomy focused – so, lots of ‘creations’ that sound odd but taste wonderful!
Pizza, etc. and, truffle everything. Very good for a casual dinner and drink.
Boulangeries: Every single one we went to was good
Patisserie: Yes, every single one we tried was good
Coffee
Excellent hanging place. Great baked goods as well, and drinks, and very good-looking big breakfasts.
Markets: We enjoyed the market on two Sundays – Marche des Quais along the river. Travellers and locals alike shopping for their meals, snacks, and to socialize.
Wine
You can’t go to Bordeaux and not experience the wine of the region. After completing level one and level two of my WSET certification at that point in time, I wanted to experience as many different wines as possible. In addition to sampling wines in our apartment with meals, we also enjoyed Cite du Vine ; the Bordeaux Wine School ; a tour of the Haut Medoc region with Bordeaux Wine Trails . The St.Emilion wine tasting tours are very good as well. The company we went with in 2019 is no longer around, but, the tours with wine trails are pretty well the same. Big bonus is you can do it with an e-bike if you want.
St. Emilion: This can be done on your own. The regional trains, SNCF, go about every 2 hours. It’s a 30 minute train ride. About $7-20 CAD each. Then about 1.5 km walk into St. Emilion. Mind you, you do have to climb up to get to the main part of town, but, makes the drinks rewarding!
Activities
You won’t lack for things to do and see while in Bordeaux. In addition to opera, ballet, musical performances, there are all the various tours to learn more about the region. We did a combination of our own research and exploration by food and tram; and, signing up for walking tours, tasting tours and events onsite. You can get pretty well anywhere you want to get within France by train. In addition we did ride the local trams to explore the entire city. Some of the outer regions of the city of Bordeaux reach into wine districts and tasting is available.
The Cite du Vin noted above is a solid day of exploration, and you can sign up for more intensive events onsite during your visit. In addition to the Marche des Quais, there are markets all over Bordeaux throughout the week. Check out https://www.lostinbordeaux.com/the-best-markets-in-bordeaux/ for a great article on the markets in the region. Take a cruise on the Garonne to wile away the day or on a sunset cruise with drinks.
Recommendations:
Anne at Aquitaine Travel is fabulous. She took us on a small private tour (we agreed to share with +1 person) over 2.5 hours for some restaurant ideas in Bordeaux, shopping, boulangeries, and wine tasting. She is originally from the US but moved and married a local and she is not only fluent but extremely helpful. We kept in touch through our time there and she guided us a lot. She was a chef (as was her dad) and brings that lens to everything.
In addition to this travel guide, check out our travel posts and our previous travel review of Bordeaux from 2020!
One Comment
Troy
I love what you have posted!!