Every design for Bordeaux

Bordeaux stretches out along the Garonne, close to the Gironde estuary and the Atlantic, with the vineyards of Bordeaux on one side and the Landes de Gascogne on the other. Its historic riverside centre carries a poetic name, the Port of the Moon.

For people who call Bordeaux home, the feeling is tied to the river: long walks along the quays, the light on pale limestone façades, Sunday afternoons when the whole city seems to be outdoors. It is a place proud of its wine, of course, but also of its stone, its squares and its calm, unhurried rhythm. Inside the old town the Grosse Cloche rings out over its quarter, the Tour Pey Berland rises near the Cathédrale Saint-André, and the Esplanade des Quinconces opens up beside the Monument aux Girondins. Students, wine makers and newcomers mix in streets where locals still greet each other by name.

At the end of the day, the place everyone ends up is the Place de la Bourse, its golden eighteenth-century fronts glowing as the evening sun falls across the Garonne.