Place de la Bourse Bordeaux
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44°50’30.4188″N, 0°34’8.0148″W

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Porte Cailhou Gate
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44°50’19.6476″N, 0°34’6.5064″W

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Porte de Bourgogne
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44°50’10.8168″N, 0°33’58.4244″W

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Grosse Cloche
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44°50’7.6164″N, 0°34’16.7808″W

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Musee d’Aquitaine
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44°50’9.3624″N, 0°34’30.7524″W

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Cathedrale Saint-Andre de Bordeaux
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44°50’14.6976″N, 0°34’39.5220″W

Today we did a LOT of walking. We walked from our hotel to our first stop – the Place de la Bourse Bordeaux (stock exchange or Old Royal Square)

Photo above – fountain at the Place de la Bourse.

Photo above – Catherine sitting at the edge of the reflecting pool across the road from the stock exchange

Photo above – the reflecting pool is in-between the river & the stock exchange. This entire area is so incredibly well done. Also very calming.

Photo above – our next stop – the Porte Cailhou Gate

Photo above – the Porte Cailhou gate was built in the 1500’s & was the former bell tower for Bordeaux City Hall. Lots of tourist like us walking through the gate & taking photos.

Photo above – our next stop – the Porte de Bourgogne arch. This is like a small scale Arch d’ Triomphe without a roundabout. However, it was located at the foot of a major bridge crossing the Garrone River so there was lots of traffic whizzing by.

Photo above – our next stop was another gate to the old city – the Grosse Cloche – an interesting clock tower.  I would have liked to have spent some more time looking at this but there was a lot of construction in the area plus there was a group of noisy “street people” by the gate that a security guard was trying his best to move them out of the area. We didn’t feel very comfortable at that location so we walked by pretty quickly.

Our next stop was supposed to be the cathedral but we were getting hungry so we stopped at a small cafe to get a bite to eat. By the time we were finished our lunch the cathedral had closed for their lunch & weren’t opening for another 90 minutes so we walked down to the city museum.

Photo above – a Roman carving recovered in the city.

This museum has a lot of artifacts & exhibits recovered from the Bordeaux area that date from before Jesus was born, through the Roman occupation, into the middle ages & into the 1700 & 1800s.

Photo above – a section of the museum was dedicated to Bordeaux’s maritime history including some great models of sailing ships. For a time Bordeaux was the second largest port in the world after London. Sadly, Bordeaux was also a key European port in the slave trade until the mid 1800’s. This was detailed in museum exhibits as well as honouring the contributions of people of African descent to France and Bordeaux in particular.

Photo above – our final stop of the day was at Cathedrale Saint-Andre de Bordeaux.

Photo above – inside the cathedral

Copied from Wikipedia: In 1998, UNESCO designated the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France as a World Heritage Site, including the three main churches of Bordeaux: the basilica of St Severinus, the basilica of St Michael and the cathedral of St Andrew. (I couldn’t have said it better myself).

Historic records date the original church building on this site around year 814 & then various records document the cathedral’s expansions over the next several hundred years.

Photo above – looking forward towards the altar. The acoustics in this building are amazing. There were posters outside listing concerts that were being performed here but unfortunately none while we are in the city.

Photo above – every planter needs a little lampshade, doesn’t it?

We had reached the end of our epic tour for the day. We did a lot of walking but all of these amazing places were surprisingly close together.

The historic part of Bordeaux is very compact & also very flat so getting around wasn’t all that bad. My biggest challenge was constantly trying to avoid being run over by all of the people on bicycles – especially the delivery people who were riding like they were in the Tour de France.

Tomorrow we head to Biscarrosse on the Bay of Biscay. The forecast for the next 3 days calls for rain. Hopefully we will get some sunny periods too.

Cheers!