Quai des Chartrons

The Quai des Chartrons wears a long, pale limestone facade that faces the Garonne River. Wealthy merchants built these townhouses in the eighteenth century to store barrels of wine destined for the Caribbean and Northern Europe. One resident, a merchant named Nairac, grew incredibly rich through this trade. He owned ships that carried enslaved people across the Atlantic, anchoring his prosperity in human suffering. Today, the street remains a physical record of the city's shift from a colonial port to a quiet neighborhood.