Bordeaux Grand Riverfront Walk

The Monument aux Girondins features a towering bronze column topped by a gilded statue of Liberty breaking her chains. It commemorates the Girondin politicians who perished during the Reign of Terror after clashing with the Jacobins. When…

Twelve massive Corinthian columns support the portico of the Grand-Théâtre, topped by statues of nine muses and three goddesses. Victor Louis designed this structure in the seventeen seventies, stripping away the cramped, flammable wooden…

The Place du Parlement features a central fountain topped with a cast-iron lamp post, surrounded by facades from the eighteenth century. Merchants built these townhouses to display their wealth, carving mascarons—grotesque or beautiful…

The Place de la Bourse features a wide, horseshoe-shaped facade of cream-colored limestone that mirrors itself perfectly across the central fountain. King Louis the Fifteenth commissioned this plaza in the seventeen twenties to open up the…

The Miroir d'eau spreads out as a shallow sheet of water, barely two centimeters deep, resting on a slab of black granite that perfectly reflects the eighteenth-century facade of the Place de la Bourse. Designed by landscape architect…

The Porte Cailhau stands out for its high, slate-covered spire and ornamental stone carvings, appearing more like a palace gate than a defensive fortification. It served as a grand entrance to the city of Bordeaux, constructed in fourteen…

The Porte de Bourgogne stands at the end of the Pont de Pierre with heavy limestone arches and rusticated masonry that mark the historic entrance to the city. Built between seventeen fifty and seventeen fifty-five, the gate celebrated the…

The Pont de Pierre stretches across the Garonne River with exactly seventeen stone arches. Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its construction during the early nineteenth century to move his troops toward Spain, and the number of arches honors the…