As French cities go in the budget-travel stakes, Bordeaux measures up admirably. With a prestigious university at its helm since 1441, France’s sixth-largest city is one of the country’s most dynamic, cultured and brazenly creative. Those 50,000-odd modern-day students, invariably living on a shoestring like centuries of alumni before them, need to be fed, watered and entertained after all.
New-school designer hostels and studio accommodation catering to short or longer stays have mushroomed in Bordeaux in recent years. From heritage "don’t-waste-a-crumb" sanguettes (blood pancakes) devoured at street markets to sophisticated seafood gastronomy fresh from the nearby sea, dining out caters to every wallet; it is also notably cheaper than Paris or seasonal tourist hot spots like Provence and the Côte d’Azur. Some of the world’s priciest wines might be Bordeaux’s lifeblood, but choose vintage and venue wisely, and even the city’s eponymous vin can be drunk for a song. Here’s how to eat, drink and merrymake with Bordelais sass and cent-smart student panache.
In true French fashion, Bordeaux’s smorgasbord of enticing bistros, brasseries and restaurants cook up multicourse menus at a fixed price. Given the need for relative speed at lunchtime (this is France, after all), the formule (set two- or three-course meal) and plat du jour (dish of the day) chalked on the board at noon invariably offer exceptional value and can be a real steal. Casa Gaïa and Les Récoltants, both with two-/three-course lunch deals costing around €18/23, are favorite addresses to snag a lunch table at.
Each year, Bordeaux celebrates its army of talented wine growers and makers for four days in June during its headline Fête du Vin. Costing a bargain €23 (€16 if purchased online prior to December), the Pass Dégustation or Tasting Pass is a golden ticket to sampling 11 glasses of different reds and whites. Wine tasting doesn’t get cheaper than this.
Even in winter, Bordeaux’s milder climate and natural love of bluebird days render an alfresco picnic a true pleasure – be it in the peaceful Jardin Public or watching boats sail by from steps or manicured lawn facing the swirling Garonne. Buy picnic ingredients in the morning at covered market Marché des Capucins, the organic farm shop at Les Récoltants or the fresh produce market that fills riverside quai des Chartrons on Sunday morning. The latter is also a five-star op to grab freshly shucked oysters from nearby Arcachon, shellfish platters, steaming bowls of spicy tajines and other top-notch street-food nosh at a food truck or stall.
Accommodation is likely to be one of your biggest expenses. Cut costs and plan your visit for low season – October to March – when hotel rates tumble. The lack
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Fellow parents, forget the extraordinary wine for a brief moment (although there’s always grape juice for the kids). With its giddy mix of sweeping green spaces, river life, interactive museums and casual dining scene, Bordeaux tops the French charts for urban exploration en famille.
A provincial city in southwest France that deserves your full attention, Bordeaux is catwalk material. Wide aristocratic boulevards lined with elegant townhouses and glitzy designer boutiques vie for center stage with a labyrinthine medieval old town, industrial-cool wet docks and an infinite sweep of silky-smooth riverside quays abuzz with cyclists, skaters, city slickers, dandies, flaneurs – you name it.
The city of Bordeaux does city life and culture so well, it’s highly unlikely you’ll have any desire to leave. Yet its enviable location – on the banks of the coffee-brown Garonne River, a stone’s throw from the Gironde Estuary and Atlantic Coast – is enough to pique the curiosity of every urban explorer.
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