Detourism: Bordeaux.

Take the TGV straight from Charles De Gaulle Airport.

Avoiding Paris

For those who would like to visit the south-west of France but avoid the hassle and pressures of Paris, we highly recommend you to visit Bordeaux, southwest of France. With over a million inhabitants, the metropolitan area of Bordeaux has a pleasant atmosphere with 'everything you did hope to find in Paris’ without many of its draw-backs.

Find out more in our earlier posts; You are not a wine lover?! Day trips by train: Bordeaux (1) and You are a wine lover?! Daytrips by train: Bordeaux (2). To visit the vineyard outside the city, have time to explore the museums or sample the nightlife, you should spend a few nights in Bordeaux. Spend a day our two in Bordeaux on your way-in or out!

Bordeaux Saint Jean train station.

TGV from Charles De Gaulle International Airport
You can take the TGV (High-speed train) straight from the Charles De Gaulle International Airport in Paris (CDG) and reach Bordeaux in about 3.5 hrs.

Trains leave from the TGV train station in terminal 2 of the airport. You can book your tickets in advance online through: https://oui.sncf/en .

Select: [Train]. From: [Paris Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport]. To: [Bordeaux (FR)(New Aquitaine)]. Booking up to 3 months in advance will get you great deals.

TGV train station in terminal 2 of the airport.

Fly to Bordeaux from many European destinations
Ones you include Bordeaux into your travel plans many destinations in Europe are just a short flight away. And the "Terminal billi" is specially dedicated to low-cost airlines EasyJet, Ryanair and WizzAir! Look-out for great offers! Some of the destinations served are:

Destinations
Marseille (France)	London (UK)
Nice (France)	Madrid (Spain)
Strasbourg (France)	Malaga (Spain)
Amsterdam (Netherlands)	Milan (Italy)
Barcelona (Spain)	Porto (Portugal)
Basel (Switzerland)	Prague (Czech Republic)
Berlin (Germany)	Rome (Italy)
Brussels (Belgium)	Tenerife (Spain)
Lisbon (Portugal)	Venice (Italy)

Please check full flight schedules at: www.bordeaux.aeroport.fr/en

Bordeaux airport is served by airport coaches connecting with the city centre and the St.Jean train station. Cheapest way has been the bus (line 1) a single ticket €1.70 OR a 1 day pass €5.00, if you would stay like to spend few days in the city of Bordeaux. The extension of tram line A is supposed to reach the airport any time now, keep you eyes open as this would be a real improvement.

Direct train to Terrasson, easy & comfortable.

How to get from Bordeaux to Terrasson?
There is a direct train to Terrasson (2 hrs, route 25 via Périgueux to the direction of Brive-la-Gaillarde), it’s easy & comfortable.

Day trips by train: Bordeaux (2).

Saint-Emilion is a beautiful little town.

You are a wine lover?! You are in luck. Bordeaux is the dynamic capital of the Nouvelle- Aquitaine region at the heart of the vineyards. Taking the early train, Bordeaux is a 2 hours train ride away from Terrasson, and heading back by the end of the afternoon will give you enough time to explore the historic center. To visit the vineyard outside the city, have time to explore the museums or sample the nightlife, you should spend a few nights in Bordeaux. Spend a day our two in Bordeaux on your way-in or out (see detourism post). Leave your luggage at the consignes counter of the Saint Jean train station and explore Bordeaux lightweight!

Map of Bordeaux wine area.

The Bordeaux wine area is divided into five sub-regions: Médoc, Graves, Entre-deux-Mers, Rive Droite and Sauternes, all benefit from the same temperate oceanic climate. As the saying goes; ‘Le merlot fait le beau, le cabernet fait le bouquet, le teinturin fait le vin.’ The main red grape varieties in the region are Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. A teinturin grape is a red wine grape with dark skins and flesh, also known as malbec. The three white grape varieties are Semillon, Sauvignon and Muscadelle. This mixture of grape varieties is at the core of the Bordeaux vs. Bourgogne ideological divide.

Theatricality of the wine-growing chateau.

Bordeaux vs. Bourgogne
‘Having more than one grape variety is one way of making corrections. I am opposed to artifices which allow repentance. I like the idea that a grape variety is a key, the unique key that opens up a terroir and allows it to reach its truth and mystery.’ *

Burgundy is the French wine par excellence, it corresponds to the French idea of what a good wine should be. Bordeaux is often seen as ‘foreign’, characterized by order and balance. It represents measure, symmetry and domestication of nature. Bordeaux appellations makes no allusion to the ‘terroir’. It is the owner who marks the quality of the vintage, producing wines in accordance with the reputation of the chateau. Cosmopolitan, international and quality viticulture: shared belief in progress and investment. But there is also a certain form of theatricality in the wine-growing chateau, invented by the Bordelaise to market their wine.

If Bordeaux is the product of a human-will, this opposes burgundy’s ideal of a prevailing terroir, openness to nature, mystery or spontaneousness. Invented and sculpted by man the Bordeaux vineyards are a real garden at the cost of draining and moving soil. Burgundy presents itself as a vineyard of its unchanging terroirs. Bordeaux is a blended wine, Burgundy is married to its Pinot Noir. Bordeaux pragmatism of vs. Burgundy idealism?

Almost every classified cru has changed hands since the original 1855 classification. Since the turn of the century tycoons, investors, moguls and the world wide nouveau riche have descended on the Bordeaux vineyards. An excellent bourgeois or grand cru has become more of a commodity.

The Cité du Vin.

Wine in the city
Fortunately, Bordeaux wine is not limited these snobbish hundred or so ‘star labels’. Those represent only 4,000 out of a total of 115,000 ha. Surrounding the city there are over 7,000 chateaux vineyards. Together, they produce more than 10,000 different Bordeaux wines. And if you widen your scope you will find the vineyards extending into the Côtes de Duras and Côtes du Marmandais. And particularly the ‘rive droit’ bordering Bergerac wine area, with its appelations Montravel, Rosette and Pécharmant that can take on Saint-Émilion, and its Monbazillac equaling Sauternes.

In Bordeaux, the wine merchants (cellar men) offer you thousands of references, red, rosés, whites, crémants. There are some 250 guided tours of the city, its vineyards and its wine. If this is what you are looking for, the website of the tourist office (https://www.bordeaux-tourisme.com) is a good place to start. Bordeaux world is famous for it’s wine production, but there are no vineyards or wine makers in the city itself, two ‘wine destinations in the city stand-out.

The Cité du Vin
Bordeaux has gone through a remarkable transformation since the days it was known as ‘the black pearl of the Aquitaine’. Under mayor (and former Prime Minister) Juppé decades old dossiers on public transport, markets and infrastructure started to move. But Bordeaux was also in need for modern statement architecture to mark its maritime entrance. A High-tech ‘cathedral of glass and metal, curved and rounded, where with the help of innovative technologies, visitors will be able to discover ancestral savoir-faire’, ‘a place to celebrate wine, its culture, its economy, its traditions, and the men and women who produce it.’ The architects were given the explicit instruction not to construct a traditional wine cellar or wine barrel, the building ‘evokes the swirling of wine in a glass’. Reserve 2 hours to visit and end at the roof terrace to sample a glass of wine.

Musée du Vin et du Négoce de Bordeaux
Close to the Les Hangars (Médoc) river ferry stop this museum is everything the Cité du Vin does not like to be. Old equipment representing 2000 years of wine production in the region, housed in the building of the royal broker of Louis XV. Discover three centuries of history and fame in the vaulted cellars built in 1720. The Museum offers; Self-guided tour with tasting of 2 Bordeaux wines(€ 10.00), Wine workshops (€ 40.00) and a 3-hour guided tour: Bordeaux city center + Tasting of 4 wines (€49.00).

Guided tours of the vineyards and its wine.

Excursions to the vineyards
To visit the surrounding vineyards the tourist office in Bordeaux offers half day and full day tours, they include visits to chateaux, vineyards and villages like Saint-Émilion to taste the famous Bordeaux wines.

No other wine is associated with its ‘city’ the way Saint-Émilion is.

Saint-Émilion
‘Saint-Émilion is maybe too much: too immaculate, too typical, too glorious, too opulent, too touristy. Saint-Emilion is a beautiful city ... The only thing one can find fault it with is its lack of mystery.’**

The quote above is from 1989… today Saint-Émilion has become the ‘bucket-list’ destination of the global globetrotter class. Do not worry if you not like french food, you will find tapas- and sushi-bars, and if you do not like wine, the ‘Irish pub’ will pour you a pint of Guinness. Asian women in school-girl coseplay-outfits…

No other wine is associated with its ‘city’ the way Saint-Émilion is, perfectly placed for the 80’s tourism – product promotion trend it is slowly becoming self-defeating. Tourists attracting tourist services and facilities, which in turn attract more tourists.

Ligne du Médoc
For the independent traveler train line 42 Bordeaux – Macau – Point de Grave (Ligne du Médoc) travels through the Médoc vineyards with stations in Pauillac and Margaux.

Excursions to the vineyards.

Wine Marathon
“Wine Marathon” for all you Marathon enthusiasts and tasteful people!!!

'The world's most idiotic Marathon (according to the UK telegraph): ”Who could possibly have thought it a good idea to combine a 26.2-mile run with a feast of oysters, cheese, entrecôte and foie gras, all washed down with up to 23 glasses of wine? Well, the French, of course.'

The Marathon du Medoc (www.marathondumedoc.com/en/) runs through the vineyards every September, registration opens in March!

References

*) Burgundy winemaker quoted in Kaufmann, 1992. As published in: Tentative d’autocritique Bordeaux-Bourgogne. In: Kauffmann J-P, 2014. Voyage à Bordeaux.

**) Voyage to Bordeaux, 1989. In: Kauffmann J-P, 2014. Voyage à Bordeaux

Day trips by train: Bordeaux (1).

Built on the banks of the Garonne river, city of art and history.

You are not a wine lover?! Actually, the city of Bordeaux has much more to offer! We highly recommend you to visit this gem in southwest of France. After Paris, it has the highest number of preserved historical buildings of any city in France. 

Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux.

Built on the banks of the Garonne river, richly & beautifully decorated with Gothic style churches, medieval monuments, 18th centenary architectures, and Europe's longest pedestrian shopping street.

Map of Bordeaux.

With over a million inhabitants, the metropolitan area of Bordeaux is also the sixth-largest city in France. Its center has a pleasant atmosphere with 'everything you did hope to find in Paris’ without many of its draw-backs. Museums, bronze sculptures, fountains, places gardens, public art, culinary markets, luxurious brands, artisans and designers shops and a thousand bars, cafes and restaurants of local and international cuisines.

Richly & beautifully decorated with Gothic style churches, medieval monuments, 18th centenary architectures.

World Heritage
Bordeaux, city of art and history, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, provides day tours, gourmet trails, initiations of Bordeaux wine tasting and visits to wine storehouses in the city. The Water Mirror (Miroir d’Eau) in front of Place de la Bourse together is a ‘must photo taking spot’!

Monument aux Girondins, Quinconces.

The historic Bordeaux Cathedral, Church of the Holy Cross, Monument aux Girondins, Gothic style St. Michel & Peu Berland tower are stunning and enchant you with fantasy. Porte de Caihau, La Gross Cloche (Fat bell) are adorable and the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux is breath-taking… and the list doesn’t end!

The Bassins de Lumières.

​Art & Culture
Bordeaux is a city of art & culture with the Aquitaine Museum, Musée des Beaux-Arts, CAPC musée d'art contemporain, Musée National des Douanes, Musée des Arts Décoratifs et du Design, and many public art pieces… You will be well satisfied, if you are an art lover! Outside the center the Bassins de Lumières (7) is housed in the giant German WW2 submarine base bunker. The largest Centre d’Art Numérique (and sometimes size does make a difference) has changing exhibitions/experiences. The easiest way to get there is by bus 9 from ‘Brandenburg ’, take tram B till one stop passed the Cité du vin (8).

Marché des Capucins.

​Shop & Eat

There are a thousand of bars, cafes & restaurants of local and international cuisines spread all over the metropolitan of Bordeaux. And shops of high-end brands or designers & artisan shops are all awaiting to be explored! The 'rue Sainte-Catherine', is a 1.2 km long pedestrian main shopping street. Marché des Capucins (6) is a covered market where you will find all kinds of fresh and preserved food to satisfy you eyes and taste buds.

The Water Mirror (Miroir d’Eau) in front of Place de la Bourse.

Gardens
Bordeaux has a number of gardens, parks and green spaces, we mention here the central Jardin Public (4) from where you can walk to the Palais Gallien; Ruins of a roman amphitheater dating to the 3rd century (5).

Palais Gallien, ruins of a roman amphitheater.

Take tram A over the iconic Pont de pierre to Botanical garden (9). Also close to the terminal (Stalingrad pier) for the river ferry that connects to Quinconces - Les Hangars – (passes under the Pont Jacques Chaban Delmas) - La Cité Du Vin - Lormont Bas terminal. The ferries are part of the public transport system, a great way to get a different view of the city, and use is included in the TBM-daypass.

The tram crossing the iconic Pont de pierre.

Getting around
Bordeaux city is very easy and economic to explore. Thank to its users friendly public transportation system (TBM, Transports Bordeaux Métropole). The tram line covers most places in the metropolitan area of Bordeaux and you can hop on & off the tram as you like for a price of €5.00 (1 day /24h pass), while a 1 hour pass is €1.70.

One of many public art pieces, Stalingrad.

Tickets are available from machines at all tram stops. On the other hand, many attractions are within walking distance, and will allow you to enjoy strolling the streets and alleyways. Our suggestion to those arriving at St. Jean train station: hop straight onto the tram (line C) to the center (Quinconces) where you will also find the tourist office.