24 Hours In Bordeaux, France

* Okay, fine – we were actually in Bordeaux for more than 24 hours but this is over the last 24 hours we had in Bordeaux before heading for the airport so that title still counts. 😁😄

After that delicious lunch, we decided to spend the rest of the evening exploring the pretty streets of Bordeaux.

With no plans in hand, we made our way quite aimlessly around through the beautiful French city – which, by the way, is such a perfect way to experience Bordeaux. The vibe is so chilled here and you just kind of need to lean into it and relax as you make your way through the city.

Eventually (after a brief stop for beers), we made our way over to Mama Shelter for dinner and drinks… before heading back to the chateau to finish off the bottles of bubbly we’d gotten earlier.

The next morning (surprisingly hangover free), we got up bright and early for breakfast – keen to make the most of our remaining time in Bordeaux.

As we were in a bit of a hurry the day before, there were some parts of the chateau I didn’t get to show you! Here are a few photos to show what the ‘more functional’ parts of the chateau look like (kitchen, dining…etc) as well as what it looks like from the outside.

If you wanna to see more photos (e.g. bedrooms and stuff) check out the earlier post here.

As we were in Bordeaux on a weekend, the market was in full swing and so we had our ‘grazing mode’ set to the max. Stopping to taste anything and everything on offer.

I eventually decided to get some delicious looking prawns which I kinda instantly regretted – not because they weren’t tasty (Oh, they were really good!) but because it was just plain messy to eat. 😆

Messy or not though, not a single bite went to waste! *licks lips*

We moved our gluttony on into an indoors market/food festival (which I think it an annual thing in Bordeaux) and pretty much ate and drank our way through the market.

See when you arrive, you get given a bag with glasses and cups for whatever you buy, sampling wines and sampling beers – respectively so grazing here seemed very much encouraged.

Eventually, we left and made our way over to the CAPC Musee d’Art Contemporain (The Museum of Contemporary Art) where we’d made lunch reservations earlier.

Suffice to say, my gluttony earlier was very short-sighted as by the time we arrived for lunch, I was far from hungry.

Thankfully though, we were in a contemporary art museum so there’s enough distraction here till though hunger pangs returned with a vengeance and demanded I hot-foot it right up to the restaurant.

Lunch over with, and feeling like we’d gotten a good sense of our way around the city over the past couple of days, we headed over to the Notre Dame district – Les Chartrons for coffee with a friend from the city… and, get this, even more cake (thankfully, we’d skipped dessert at the restaurant so we had an excuse for the cake 😄 not that I ever really need an excuse to eat cake).

La Pelle café is where we headed to and it’s such a cute fun spot in this part of Bordeaux but truth be told, if you’re in Les Chartrons you’ll be surrounded by so many cute restaurants, cafes, bakeries…etc that you’ll probably do well regardless of where you decide to go to.

Les Chartrons is also a fun little spot to have a jaunt around so I definitely recommend heading here for lunch, coffee, dinner or any combination thereof. 😀

Oh, and when you’re here, be sure to pop into the Église St Louis des Chartrons (the Cathedral) here. It’s magnificent!

Eventually, we bade our friend farewell and make our way over to a part of the city you absolutely need to see around sunset – the Place de la Bourse and its reflecting pool.

You can always see it during the day but the water isn’t still, nor the reflection quite as dramatic as it is just for a few moments around sunset. 😍

And with that, we said farewell to Bordeaux – a place I’d wanted to visit for the longest time and one that did not disappoint, despite visiting in a much colder month.

I’m already planning my return for summer months to drink all that delicious French wine but truth be told, even in autumn/winter, Bordeaux is one place you absolutely have to visit.