Bordeaux

Bordeaux in 2026 is two hours from Paris by TGV, a limestone port city that put trams along its rebuilt quays and wine country on its train timetable. It costs more than you'd like, but Saint-Émilion is a 45-minute ride away and you won't need a car.

Updated October 2026

BootsnAll Scorecard

7.1 / 10

Bordeaux scores best on the things that move you around it, trams and regional trains, and worst on value, because a French city of 268,000 with a famous wine name prices its beds and its tours accordingly.

Value
5.5
Near the 5 anchor, since dorms on Hostelworld start around US$23 to $37 and the Cité du Vin costs €22, but the €1.90 tram fare and a 45-minute train to Saint-Émilion keep the day-trip budget sane.
Getting around
8
Six tram lines covering about 79 km, a €1.90 fare from the airport, river shuttles on the same ticket and regional trains to Saint-Émilion, Pauillac and Arcachon put it at the 8 anchor; the scattered Médoc châteaux are what stop it going higher.
Crowds and timing
8
Crowding is local, mostly the Place de la Bourse and Rue Sainte-Catherine on summer weekends, and most months work, though November brings 4.5 inches of rain and August brings closures.
Safety and hassle
7
Ordinary French-city caution; the UK government flags pickpocket teams and drink spiking nationally, and strikes can stop trains with little warning, but there's no tout culture to wear you down.
Food and drink
7.5
Oysters and white wine at the Capucins market, canelés on every block and steak with bordelaise sauce make everyday eating good, though dinner rarely starts before 7:30 and cheap eating takes some looking.
Indie fit
6.5
Between the 5 and 8 anchors, because the city itself rewards wandering, but much of the wine world still sells itself through guided tours at €55 to €165 a person.

Editorial scores, 1 to 10, against the same written anchors for every city. Half points allowed. The overall is the plain average of the six.

Overview and Things to Consider

Bordeaux is a city of pale limestone facades lined up along a crescent bend of the Garonne, the bend that gave it the name Port of the Moon. About 268,000 people live in the city and 1.4 million in the metro area. UNESCO listed 1,731 hectares of it in 2007, about 40 percent of the city, which made it the largest urban area on the World Heritage list as of 2021. Walk from the Place de la Bourse up the quays to the Chartrons and you'll see why. The whole waterfront reads as one 18th-century set piece, with trams gliding past and no overhead wires to spoil it.

You'll love Bordeaux if you want a French city that runs at a walking pace, if you like wine without needing to be an expert in it, or if you want a base for the Atlantic coast and the vineyards that doesn't require renting a car. You'll find it dull if you need nightlife that goes until dawn or museums on a Paris scale. The city's charm is in its unity, and by day five the honey-colored stone and tasteful shopfronts can start to feel like a very well-kept stage set.

The 2026 moment is a city that finished its big projects. The high-speed line from Paris opened in 2017, the Cité du Vin turned 10 in June 2026, and the airport finally got its tram in 2023. Bordeaux also changed mayors in March 2026, when Thomas Cazenave unseated the left-wing mayor Pierre Hurmic after a single term. The vineyards around the city are going through a harder time, with Bordeaux's planted area shrinking from about 103,000 to 95,000 hectares between 2023 and 2024 as people drink less red wine.

Some of the famous stuff is overrated. The Miroir d'eau is a thin sheet of water on granite that makes a lovely photo and holds your attention for about ten minutes. Rue Sainte-Catherine, the long pedestrian shopping street, is mostly the same chain stores you have at home. Spend that time in Saint-Michel or on the right bank instead.

How Bordeaux Got Here

Bordeaux started as Burdigala, a settlement of the Celtic Bituriges Vivisci, and grew under Rome. The decisive chapter came in 1152, when Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry Plantagenet, the future Henry II of England. For the next three centuries Bordeaux was effectively English, shipping red wine north in such quantities that the English word claret came from it. The arrangement ended at the Battle of Castillon in 1453, when France took the city. The wine trade with Britain, the Netherlands and the north never stopped, and you can still feel it in the Chartrons, the old merchants' quarter where the négociants kept their warehouses along the quay.

The facades you're admiring were paid for in the 18th century, when Bordeaux was France's busiest port and second in the world only to London. Much of that money came from the colonial sugar trade and from slavery. Bordeaux shipowners deported about 150,000 Africans in some 500 expeditions, and the Musée d'Aquitaine has permanent galleries on Bordeaux, Atlantic trade and slavery that are the best single hour you can spend understanding the city.

The modern Bordeaux is mostly the work of Alain Juppé, who became mayor in 1995. His city opened its tram in 2003, using a ground-level power system so the historic streets wouldn't need overhead cables, and rebuilt the old port quays as a promenade in the 2000s, with Michel Corajoud's Miroir d'eau added in 2006. UNESCO listed the center in 2007, and since 2017 the high-speed line has put Paris about two hours away. Polished quays first and fast trains second is why the city now feels more like a weekend destination than a working port.

Getting There and Around

Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (BOD) sits about 15 km west of the center, with flights across Europe and North Africa plus seasonal transatlantic flights to Montreal on Air Transat. Tram line F stops right outside the terminals near Hall B and reaches the Hôtel de Ville stop in about 35 minutes and Gare Saint-Jean in about 45, every 10 minutes on weekdays and Saturdays and every 15 on Sundays, from 5 a.m. to midnight and until 1 a.m. Thursday to Saturday. The fare is the ordinary €1.90 ticket, or €15.70 for 10 rides. If you're heading straight to a train, the 30'Direct coach runs from Hall B to Hall 2 of Saint-Jean in about 30 minutes from €8. A taxi to the center costs about €35 by day and €45 at night.

Most people should arrive by train. TGVs run from Paris Montparnasse to Bordeaux Saint-Jean roughly every hour in as little as 2 hours 4 minutes, with advance fares from about €20 in second class. From London you can take Eurostar to Paris and change stations, which gets you from central London to Bordeaux in as little as 5 hours 45 minutes, or take Eurostar to Lille and a TGV of about 4 hours 30 minutes, usually from Lille Flandres, that avoids crossing Paris but runs only a few times a day. Saint-Jean has been handsomely restored inside, and tram line F stops outside it.

Entry rules are Schengen rules. EU citizens need only an ID card. Americans, Britons, Canadians and Australians can visit for up to 90 days in any 180 without a visa, and days in other Schengen countries count toward that. The UK government says your passport must have been issued less than 10 years before you arrive and be valid for three months after you leave. The EU's Entry/Exit System started on October 12, 2025 and became fully operational on April 10, 2026, so expect fingerprints and a photo at your first Schengen entry. ETIAS, the €20 online authorization, isn't running yet, and the EU says it will announce a start date several months ahead. France can also ask to see proof of accommodation, funds and a return ticket.

Inside the city, walk. The old center from the Chartrons to Saint-Michel follows the flat riverbank, and most of what you'll want is on foot. For longer hops, TBM runs six tram lines, buses and the Le Bato river shuttles (the old BAT3) on the same tickets. On December 6, 2025 the tram network gained lines E and F, carved out of old line A and C routes, so check line letters against any map older than that. Le Vélo shared bikes, the old V3, cost €1.70 for 24 hours, with the first 30 minutes of each ride free and €2 an hour after that.

What's Changed Since 2016

July 2017 changed the city more than anything since the tram. The LGV Sud Europe Atlantique opened on July 2, 2017, running trains at up to 320 km/h and cutting nearly an hour off the trip from Paris. Paris to Bordeaux now takes as little as 2 hours 4 minutes, which turned the city into a weekend trip from the capital. An extension to Toulouse began preliminary construction in May 2024 and isn't expected to carry trains until about 2032.

The river's north end has been rebuilt. The Cité du Vin opened in 2016 in Bacalan, had received 3.5 million visitors by 2026 and marked its 10th anniversary with celebrations on June 5 to 7, 2026. Farther north, the Bassins des Lumières projects digital art inside the old Second World War submarine base, with a new park finished behind it and a Matisse show that opened on February 7, 2026.

The tram finally reached the airport on April 29, 2023, on a 5 km, €72 million branch. Then on December 6, 2025, TBM reorganized the whole network without laying new track, creating line E from Floirac-Dravemont to Gare de Blanquefort and line F from Gare de Bègles to the airport via Gare Saint-Jean. Old blog posts telling you to take tram A to the airport are now wrong.

The Tour de France came on July 10, 2026, when stage 7 rolled 175 km from Hagetmau to finish in Bordeaux, crossing the new Simone-Veil bridge on the way in. The last of the scaffolding on the restored Saint-Michel spire was scheduled to come down by spring 2026, after more than three years, and the decorative arts museum, MADD, closed since January 2023, was set to partly reopen in 2026 ahead of a full reopening planned for 2027.

Politics and wine both shifted. Pierre Hurmic, elected in 2020 as the first left-wing mayor after 73 years of right-wing rule, lost in March 2026 to Thomas Cazenave, who replaced him on March 27. Out in the vineyards, Bordeaux's planted area fell from about 103,000 to 95,000 hectares between 2023 and 2024 as growers pulled up vines, a reminder that the region's famous names sit on top of an industry with too much wine and too few buyers.

What the Usual Advice Gets Wrong

"You need a car or a pricey guided tour to see Bordeaux wine country." Saint-Émilion's station is about a 45-minute local train ride from Bordeaux and a 1 km walk from the village. The line to Le Verdon reaches Pauillac and the Maison des Vins du Médoc, the Langon line stops at Podensac and Barsac for Graves and Sauternes, and the Roger Lapébie cycle path runs from the city into Entre-Deux-Mers. Château Luchey-Halde is on tram A.

"Take tram A from the airport into town." The airport branch has been tram line F since December 6, 2025. It runs through the center to Gare Saint-Jean and on to Bègles. The fare is the standard €1.90 ticket, and the 30'Direct coach is still the faster way if you're going straight to a train.

"The Cité du Vin is where you go to drink Bordeaux." It's a museum of wine cultures around the world, and your €22 ticket buys one glass at the panoramic Belvédère. It's a good museum. If you want to taste Bordeaux, the Bar à Vin in the Maison du Vin on Cours du XXX Juillet pours about 30 Bordeaux wines by the glass, Monday to Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

"Search Bordeaux to San Sebastián on a booking site." Nothing sensible comes up, because French trains stop at Hendaye on the border. Book Bordeaux to Hendaye, about 2 hours 35 minutes from €24 in advance or around €40 on the day, then walk 50 meters to the Euskotren platform and pay €2.90 for the metro-style train that runs every 30 minutes to San Sebastián.

"Take bus line 1 from Arcachon to the Dune du Pilat." The dune's own site sends you on Baïa bus line 3 from Arcachon station toward Plage de la Salie, about 25 minutes to the Dune du Pilat stop, with tickets on board or in the Baïa app. Arriving by bike on the Vélodyssée is free.

Ideas to Consider for Your Visit

Have you thought about doing Saint-Émilion on your own, by train? Local trains take about 45 minutes from Saint-Jean, and the bus takes twice as long. Walk the 1 km up through the vines, then book the English tour of Underground Saint-Émilion at the tourist office, because the monolithic church, carved out of the limestone and billed as the largest in Europe, is only opened for guided groups. The bell tower costs €2 extra. After that, the Bordeaux tourist office sells a six-wine introductory tour and tasting from €20 a person.

Eat at the Marché des Capucins, the covered market south of the old town. More than 80 traders open Tuesday to Saturday from 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and Sunday until 1 p.m. Get there late morning, find an oyster counter such as Chez Jean-Mi, and order a dozen with a glass of white. For the outdoor version, the Chartrons quay market lines its stalls along the Garonne.

Cross the Pont de Pierre to the right bank and spend an afternoon at Darwin, a converted barracks at 87 Quai des Queyries, a short walk from the Stalingrad tram stop. It holds an indoor skatepark for 300 skaters that costs €5 a day and closes on Mondays, an Emmaüs secondhand shop, a surf shop, a bookstore, street art on most surfaces, and the Magasin Général, a big bistro that says 92 percent of its ingredients are organic. It's the one place in Bordeaux that doesn't feel curated by the heritage office.

Spend a morning in the Musée d'Aquitaine at 20 Cours Pasteur, where the permanent collection costs €5 and is free on the first Sunday of each month except July and August. Montaigne's tomb is here, and the galleries on the 18th-century slave trade explain whose money built the facades outside. Then walk to Saint-Michel, to my mind the most mixed neighborhood in the old town, where the restored spire is back on the skyline after years under scaffolding and the cafés around the basilica feel a long way from the polish of the Bourse.

Try the city's two signature foods properly. L'Entrecôte at 4 Cours du XXX Juillet serves one menu, a walnut salad, steak in two servings with its house sauce and unlimited fries, and takes no reservations, so expect a line. Canelés, the small rum-and-vanilla pastries with a dark caramelized crust, are a Bordeaux specialty sold in every bakery. Buy one at a time and eat it on the street.

Take the 53-minute train from Saint-Jean to Arcachon for a day on the Atlantic. Walk past the Belle Époque villas and up to the Parc Mauresque, then take Baïa bus 3, about 25 minutes and not on Sundays or holidays, to the Dune du Pilat, the highest dune in Europe. Climb it in the late afternoon, when the light goes gold over the Atlantic side, and leave time for seafood back in town before the train.

For a wine afternoon without a tour bus, take tram B to La Cité du Vin stop, then ride it back into town for the Bar à Vin. If you still want guided tasting, the tourist office's in-city Bacchus Wine Tour covers four appellations in three hours for €69, and a half-day trip to the châteaux starts at €55.

The Part Most Guides Miss

Most guides treat the Garonne as scenery. Ride it. Le Bato, the river shuttle that used to be called BAT3, runs daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the same TBM ticket as the tram. One line links Stalingrad on the right bank with Quinconces, Bastide-Darwin and Les Hangars, and another links the Cité du Vin with Lormont. For €1.90 you see the Port of the Moon facades from the water, the angle they were designed to be seen from, and the whole crescent at once. Take a late-afternoon boat, then get off at Stalingrad and walk back over the Pont de Pierre.

Where to Base Yourself

Saint-Pierre and the old town. The narrow streets between the Place de la Bourse and the cathedral put you within walking distance of nearly everything, with tram stops at the edges. It suits a short first visit. The catch is noise and price. Bars on the small squares stay loud on weekends, and small rooms in old buildings tend to cost more here than elsewhere in town.

Chartrons. The old wine merchants' quarter north of the Quinconces has the quay market and short rides to the Cité du Vin and Bacalan. It suits couples and anyone staying a week who wants a neighborhood with bakeries and quieter evenings. The catch is that you'll walk or ride in to the old town most days.

Saint-Michel and Capucins. The mixed, less polished district around the basilica and the market, close to Gare Saint-Jean. It suits budget travelers and anyone doing day trips by train, and hostels such as Auberge Barbey on Cours Barbey are in this end of town. The streets right by the station are the least appealing in central Bordeaux, so pick a block nearer the market.

La Bastide, right bank. Across the Pont de Pierre, around Darwin and the Jardin Botanique, you get the best view of the left-bank facades, and hostels such as Eklo sit here. Tram A crosses the river in minutes. It suits younger travelers and longer stays, but the right bank has far fewer restaurants, so you'll cross the river most evenings.

Realities to Be Aware Of

Budget roughly €60 to €90 a day if you sleep in a dorm, eat from markets and bakeries and use trams and TER trains. Hostelworld lists Bordeaux dorm beds at about US$23 to $37 a night in October 2026. A mid-range trip runs €150 to €220 a day for two, covering a chain hotel double near Saint-Jean, a sit-down lunch and a museum. Comfortable travel starts around €300 a day, since a four-star room near the Quinconces eats most of that and the tourist office's full-day Bordeaux Wine Trail costs €165 each.

Bordeaux is low-risk by European standards, but the usual French-city cautions apply. The UK government warns that pickpockets work in teams, with one distracting you while the other goes into your bag, and that drinks in bars can be spiked, so keep your drink in sight around Place de la Victoire, the main bar district. Strikes are frequent in France and can cancel trains with little warning, which matters if you've booked a Saint-Jean departure to catch a flight elsewhere. The UK government also warns of a high national terrorism threat.

Etiquette is the main cultural hurdle. Start every exchange, even buying a canelé, with bonjour, or bonsoir in the evening, and you'll be treated better than the visitor who launches straight into English. Service is included in restaurant bills, so tipping is optional. Lunch runs about noon to 2 p.m. and dinner from 7:30, and arriving at 3 p.m. hungry means a bakery.

Crowds come in two forms. Summer weekends pack the Bourse, the Miroir d'eau and Rue Sainte-Catherine, while the Chartrons and the right bank stay calm. August brings the reverse problem, when many independent restaurants and shops close for their fermeture annuelle, so a list of places from a blog may be half shut. Autumn is grape harvest season in the vineyards, the most rewarding time to visit them and the busiest for the people who work there.

What things cost in Bordeaux

Prices checked October 2026. Each links to where we read it.

ItemPriceSource
Hostel dorm bedUS$23-37 (about €21-33) a nightHostelworld Bordeaux listings, Oct 2026
TBM tram or bus ticket, including line F from the airport€1.90 (about $2.15), or €15.70 for 10 tripsBordeaux Airport tram page, Oct 2026
30'Direct coach, airport to Gare Saint-JeanFrom €8 (about $9) per personBordeaux Airport, Oct 2026
Taxi, airport to city centerAbout €35 (about $39) by day, €45 (about $50) at nightBordeaux Airport taxi page, Oct 2026
V3 shared bike, 24-hour pass€1.70 (about $1.90), first 30 minutes of each ride free, then €2 an hourTBM, Oct 2026
Cité du Vin permanent tour with a Belvédère tasting€22 (about $25) adult, €17.60 reduced, glass of wine includedBordeaux Tourist Office, Oct 2026
Musée d'Aquitaine permanent collection€5 (about $5.60), free first Sunday except July and AugustBordeaux Tourist Office, Oct 2026
Half-day guided château tour from BordeauxFrom €55 (about $62) per personBordeaux Tourist Office, Oct 2026
TGV, Paris Montparnasse to Bordeaux, advance fareFrom €20 (about $22) in second classThe Man in Seat 61, 2026

Dollar figures use about US$1.12 to €1, the European Central Bank reference rate of October 2, 2026.

If Bordeaux Is Part of a Longer Trip

Bordeaux sits on the main rail line between Paris and Spain, which makes it a natural stop on an overland route south. Hendaye on the Spanish border is about 2 hours 35 minutes away, from €24 in advance, and the Euskotren carries you on to San Sebastián for €2.90. For Madrid you change again at Irun, 2.7 km from Hendaye, since French trains don't currently cross the border. Biarritz and Bayonne are about 2 hours away, and Toulouse is served by regular TGVs and Intercités trains.

Heading east is less direct. There's no direct train to Lyon, so you either ride a TGV toward Paris and change at Massy or Marne-la-Vallée, or take the slow southern route. A direct Intercités train reaches Marseilles in about 6 hours by way of Toulouse, Narbonne and Montpellier, with fares from €20, and from Marseille the coast runs on to Nice and Italy. Done that way, it's a scenic, cheap crossing of the south of France rather than a commute.

If Bordeaux is one stop on a bigger trip, it pairs well with Iberia. Barcelona and Porto are both reached by train through Spain, and Bordeaux airport adds seasonal Air Transat flights to Montreal. For a multi-stop route that lands in one city and leaves from another, open-jaw tickets are where AirTreks can save you a backtrack to the same airport.

Yearly Things to Consider

Bordeaux's seasons are driven by the Atlantic. Winters are mild and wet, with highs around 51°F (11°C) and November the wettest month at 4.5 inches, and summers are warm rather than scorching on average, with August highs near 82°F (28°C). The averages hide the heat spikes, though, and the city's record is 42.5°C (108.5°F) in June. The Miroir d'eau only runs from April to October, the Cité du Vin is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily through October, and the next Bordeaux Fête le Vin is set for July 7 to 11, 2027.

The counterintuitive move is to come in late September or October, during the grape harvest, when September highs still reach 76°F (24°C), and the summer crowds and August closures are gone. Late May is the other sweet spot, before the Arcachon beaches and the road to the Dune du Pilat jam up in July and August.

Bordeaux month by month

MonthTempRainfallSeasonNotes
January51°F (11°C)3.4 inLowMild, gray and the quietest month of the year.
February54°F (12°C)2.6 inLowQuiet, cheaper rooms, rugby at Chaban-Delmas.
March60°F (16°C)2.5 inLowDrier and brightening. Few crowds.
April64°F (18°C)3.0 inShoulderMiroir d'eau switches on for the season.
May71°F (22°C)2.8 inShoulderGood month for the vineyards and Arcachon before summer.
June77°F (25°C)2.8 inHighLong evenings, terraces full, heat spikes possible.
July81°F (27°C)1.9 inHighDriest and sunniest month. Coast traffic heavy.
August82°F (28°C)2.2 inHighHottest month. Many local restaurants close for holidays.
September76°F (24°C)3.2 inShoulderGrape harvest season. Warm, crowds thinning.
October67°F (20°C)3.3 inShoulderHarvest season. Connect skateboarding festival.
November57°F (14°C)4.5 inLowWettest month. Museum time.
December52°F (11°C)4.2 inLowShort days and wet, but quiet museums.

Ideas for Itineraries

3 Days in Bordeaux

Day one, walk the quays from the Place de la Bourse to the Chartrons, then loop back through Saint-Pierre and finish with a glass at the Bar à Vin on Cours du XXX Juillet. Day two, start at the Capucins market for oysters, spend the late morning in the Musée d'Aquitaine, then cross the Pont de Pierre to Darwin and ride Le Bato back to Quinconces before the boats stop at 7 p.m. Day three, take the train to Saint-Émilion, do the underground tour and a tasting, and be back for dinner.

5 Days in Bordeaux

Do the three-day plan, then add the Atlantic. On day four, take the 53-minute train to Arcachon, walk past the Belle Époque villas and ride Baïa bus 3 to the Dune du Pilat, coming back on an evening train. On day five, head north on tram B to the Cité du Vin, then finish at the Bassins des Lumières in the old submarine base, a bus ride farther north, or swap the museums for a Médoc day by train to Pauillac.

1 Week in Bordeaux

A week lets you split the vineyards by bank. Give one day to Saint-Émilion and its neighbor Pomerol, another to the Médoc via the Le Verdon line to Pauillac and the Maison des Vins du Médoc, and a third to Sauternes and Graves by the Langon line, stopping at Barsac and Podensac. Fill the other days with Arcachon, a long morning at the Chartrons quay market, and an afternoon riding a V3 bike along the river or out the Roger Lapébie path into Entre-Deux-Mers.

2 Weeks or More in Bordeaux

Two weeks is long enough to live somewhere. Rent in the Chartrons or the Bastide, buy a 7-day TBM pass, and treat the city as a base. Darwin's bistro and the right bank's quieter streets make a good working routine. For weekends, go south by train to Biarritz and Bayonne in about two hours, cross into San Sebastián through Hendaye, or take the 45-minute train north to Angoulême, the comics capital, for a day. Use weekdays for the châteaux, when visits are calmer.

Sources

What this guide is built on. Every page below was read for this guide; prices and rules were checked in October 2026.

Bordeaux Travel FAQ

No. The underground church, catacombs and hermit's cave are kept locked and only opened by a tourist office guide, so book the Underground Saint-Émilion tour, which runs in English, at the office on Place des Créneaux or online. Children under six go free but still need a ticket. The bell tower above it isn't included and costs €2 at the office desk.

As little as 5 hours 45 minutes, center to center. The usual route is Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord, the metro to Montparnasse and a TGV that takes about two hours. Changing at Lille onto a TGV of about 4 hours 30 minutes avoids crossing Paris, but there are only a few a day, most leave from Lille Flandres, a 500-meter walk from the Eurostar, and it's usually more expensive.

No, only from April to October. The 3,450 square meter pool holds just 2 centimeters of water over granite slabs and makes a cloud of mist every 15 minutes, which is when the photos happen. Come early morning or after dark, when the Place de la Bourse is lit and the crowds have gone.

It depends on how many paid sights you'll hit in its 24, 48 or 72 hours. The tourist office says it includes unlimited trams, buses and river shuttles, the Cité du Vin, the Bassins des Lumières, 15 museums and monuments and one city tour. If your plan is walking, one museum and a train to Saint-Émilion, single €1.90 tickets and the €5 Musée d'Aquitaine will cost you less.

Yes, and the split is easy to learn. The left bank, Médoc and Graves, makes reds based on Cabernet Sauvignon, and the right bank around Saint-Émilion and Pomerol makes softer, Merlot-heavy reds. Merlot covers about 62 percent of the vineyard area. Taste one of each side by side at a wine bar and you'll understand more than a day of tour patter teaches.

A small, ridged cake baked in a fluted copper mold, with a dark caramelized crust and a soft, custardy middle flavored with rum and vanilla. It's the city's signature sweet. The Gironde alone ate an estimated 4.5 million of them in 1992, so you won't need to hunt for one.