Bordeaux

A granite square filled with a thin sheet of water that mirrors the buildings opposite. Water rises, drains and turns to mist in a cycle of a little over twenty minutes. It works from April to October only; in winter the slabs lie dry.

The square opens straight onto the river with a fountain of three goddesses in the middle. The water mirror was laid right in front of it to reflect this facade, so the two work as one view.

The bell tower stands apart from the church, moved off in case the ringing shook the nave. A tight spiral stair climbs to the top with hardly a place to stand aside halfway. The church costs nothing to enter, and only the tower is ticketed.

The building copies wine swirling in a glass and opened in 2016. A ticket includes a glass at the 8th-floor lookout, swapped for grape juice if you do not drink. The displays work through smell and sound, so your nose does more than your eyes.

A vineyard village is forty minutes away by train, the whole hill sitting on worked-out quarries. A church hollowed from solid rock lies underneath, and a guide has to take you in. The lanes are cobbled throughout, which punishes thin soles.

A bell chamber sits over an old gate with people walking through underneath. The bell rings for the grape harvest and for grave occasions only, which comes to a handful of times a year.

Wine merchants kept their stores on this riverside, which is why ground floors run unusually tall and the doors wide. On Sunday morning a market fills the quay and oysters get opened on the spot. Antique shops crowd one lane, so prices sit side by side.

The middle deck of this bridge rises whole to let tall ships through. The lift dates are posted, and traffic stops while the deck is up.

An hour out towards the Atlantic a mountain of sand stands beside the pine forest. Wind pushes it inland year by year, so measurements of its height and position keep changing. In summer a staircase is laid on it; in winter you climb bare sand.

A pedestrian street runs dead straight north to south, so a walk from one end to the other passes every side lane without showing one.

A history museum walking the region from prehistory to modern times. Its star piece is the Venus of Laussel, a Stone Age relief of a woman holding a horn. Several rooms set out plainly how the 18th-century port grew rich on the Atlantic slave trade.

Since 2020, digital art shows fill the concrete pens of a German U-boat base from World War Two. The basins still hold water, so each picture on the walls shows a second time on the surface. It stays chilly inside even in summer; bring a layer.

A city gate raised in the 1490s to mark Charles VIII's victory at Fornovo in Italy, its pointed turrets facing the river. For a few euros the gatehouse is open to climb, but the rooms are bare and the windows narrow, so it looks better from the street.

A 114-metre spire standing alone before the Saint-Michel basilica, reckoned the tallest in southern France. Its tip pokes above most rooftops, handy when lost. The Saint-Michel quarter around it is full of North African grocers and tea rooms.

The first bridge to span the Garonne, ordered by Napoleon and finished in 1822. It has 17 arches, said to match the letters in Napoleon Bonaparte. Cross to the right bank and turn round: the old riverside facades stretch out in one long row.

Contemporary art in the Entrepot Laine, an 1824 warehouse for colonial sugar and coffee. The great hall of stone and brick arches is as much the draw as the art. It runs mostly on temporary shows, so the space changes from visit to visit.