Budget · 3-hour walk · Bordeaux
Bordeaux's old town in three hours
The royal square and the reflecting pool, two medieval gates, the tallest bell tower in the south of France and the cathedral.
For most of the twentieth century Bordeaux was cut off from its river by warehouses and railings, and it only gave the quays back to walkers in the 2000s. This route starts on the waterfront at the eighteenth-century Place de la Bourse and works inland through Saint-Pierre and Saint-Michel, the medieval town behind it, climbing two towers on the way and ending at the cathedral. Everything is flat and paved; only the towers are hard work.
The route, stop by stop
-
Place de la Bourse
A royal square opened to the river, its pale stone palaces built between 1730 and 1775 to designs by Jacques Gabriel and his son Ange-Jacques. The Three Graces fountain in the middle dates from 1869.
15 min here Walk here → -
Miroir d'eau
The largest reflecting pool in the world, opened in 2006: two centimetres of water over 3,450 square metres of granite, with a cycle of mist. It is switched off in winter.
15 min here Walk here → -
Place du Parlement
An eighteenth-century square of matching façades around a fountain, at the heart of the Saint-Pierre quarter. Its restaurant terraces fill at lunch and again late in the evening.
15 min here Walk here → -
Porte Cailhau
A gate in the old city wall, built in the 1490s as a triumphal arch for Charles VIII's victory at Fornovo. Its rooms are open, and the top looks along the quays.
-
Flèche Saint-Michel
The free-standing bell tower of the basilica of Saint-Michel, 114 metres tall and the highest in the south of France. More than two hundred steps lead to a platform over the rooftops.
-
Grosse Cloche
A gate of the old town hall between two round towers, one of the symbols of the city. Its bell, cast in 1775, weighs nearly eight tonnes.
10 min here Walk here → -
Cathédrale Saint-André
The Gothic cathedral where Eleanor of Aquitaine married the future Louis VII in 1137. Its bell tower, the Tour Pey-Berland, stands apart and can be climbed for a view of the whole city.
25 min here Walk here →
More walks in Bordeaux
More in Bordeaux
Every walking route in Bordeaux, the full Bordeaux guide for where to stay and what a day costs, or walks in other cities.