Gironde: what to see and do
47 sites listed in the département. The largest département in metropolitan France, the Gironde combines Bordeaux and its UNESCO-listed wine heritage, the Dune du Pilat, the highest in Europe, and the Bassin d'Arcachon with its famous oysters. This variety of ocean, vines and art city makes it a complete destination.
Bassin d'Arcachon
A large lagoon open to the Atlantic in the heart of the Landes forest massif, Arcachon Bay combines oyster farming, stilt huts (cabanes tchanquées) and the neighbouring Dune du Pilat. A territory of variable geometry, between high tide and low tide.
Cap Ferret
The tip of the Gironde peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and Arcachon Bay, famous for its red-and-brick lighthouse and its oyster huts.
Arcachon
A seaside resort created in the nineteenth century on the shores of the bay, famous for its Ville d'Hiver with extravagant villas nestled in the pine forest.
Banc d'Arguin
A sandbank at the entrance of Arcachon Bay, a nature reserve and bird refuge, facing the Dune du Pilat.
La Dune du Pilat
Nestled between ocean and forest, the largest dune in Europe proudly overlooks the entrance to Arcachon Bay from its 109 m. The beauty of its landscape, endlessly sculpted by wind and tides, makes it a true wonder of nature, ephemeral and fragile.
Aqualand de Gujan-Mestras
Bordeaux, Port de la Lune
The historic centre of this port city in south-west France represents an exceptional urban and architectural ensemble, created in the Age of Enlightenment, whose values lasted until the first half of the twentieth century.
CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux
Bordeaux offers one of the richest contemporary collections in France, in a unique place, the Entrepôt Lainé, a former colonial warehouse inseparable from the history of the city and its port.
Château Deganne
Château Dillon
The Château Dillon estate extends over 185 hectares.
Château Lavison
The château Lavison, a listed historic monument of the thirteenth, fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, stands isolated in the Entre-Deux-Mers vineyard, 7 km from the small town of La Réole.
Château Lescombes
Château Malromé
The château Malromé, built in the sixteenth century, in the heart of the Entre-Deux-Mers, became in 1883 the property of Countess Adèle de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Château Margaux
Known from the twelfth century, it was then called "la Mothe de Margaux" and did not yet own vines.
Château de Blanquefort
A former feudal capital, Blanquefort was, around 1270, then again in 1455–1466, a key point for the defence of Bordeaux.
Château de Budos
Château de Cadillac
Overlooking the Garonne and the bastide of Cadillac, the château de Cadillac is a brilliant example of architecture from the very early seventeenth century.
Château de Cazeneuve
The Royal Château de Cazeneuve, 13th–17th century, near Bordeaux along the Ciron Gorges (Natura 2000), former property of the Kings of Navarre, King Henry IV and Queen Margot, is entirely restored, its Royal Apartments furnished in period style and its outbuildings fitted out: wine store, cellars…
Château de Curton
The château de Curton, in the Entre-deux-Mers 30 kilometres from Bordeaux, is an authentic medieval castle dating from the thirteenth century.
Château de La Brède
The château de La Brède, 20 km south of Bordeaux, is an exceptional building historically, architecturally and naturally.
Château de Langoiran
Built by the Escoussan family, the château de Langoiran was one of the most prestigious elements of Aquitaine.
Château de Malherbes
Château de Malle
The château de Malle, a listed historic monument, is a superb residence surrounded by astonishing Italian-style gardens.
Château de Malleret
Château de Mongenan
Château de Rauzan
A fortress of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, held until the end of the Hundred Years' War by lords loyal to the king of England, remodelled in the sixteenth century in Renaissance style (lords' lodgings) and listed as a historic monument.
Château de Roquetaillade
Roquetaillade, in the heart of Aquitaine, is an architectural ensemble made of two castles of the twelfth and early fourteenth centuries, both within the same enclosure.
Château de Vayres
15 minutes from Bordeaux, the château de Vayres (13th–16th–17th centuries) is one of the most beautiful monuments of Aquitaine.
Château de Villandraut
Villandraut forms, with the nearby château de Roquetaillade, one of the purest examples of castle architecture of the 1300s in Guyenne: the influence of the castles built by Edward III of England in Wales, itself marked by the original Philippian stamp, is manifest there.
Château des Quat'Sos
Château des Rudel
Château du Bouilh
Built in the eighteenth century by the architect Victor Louis, the castle was a commission from the Marquis de la Tour du Pin to welcome Louis XVI.
Citadelle de Blaye
The Blaye citadel is a 38-hectare military complex built between 1685 and 1689 by the military architect François Ferry, director general of the Guyenne fortifications, under the supervision of Sébastien Vauban.
Ferme Exotique
More than a thousand domestic and exotic animals await at the Ferme exotique of Cadaujac, only 15 minutes from Bordeaux: donkeys, pigs, raccoons, kangaroos, porcupines…
Jardin botanique de Bordeaux
A botanical garden is an institution with a scientific and educational purpose, intended to let all audiences discover the world of plants, biodiversity, nature and the sustainable management of natural resources.
Kid Parc
La Cité du Vin
Maison carrée d'Arlac
Musée aquarium d'Arcachon
The Arcachon aquarium museum presents all the exceptional fauna and flora of the region. The Museum part presents the archaeology and history of the region.
Musée d'Aquitaine
The Musée d'Aquitaine presents the history of Bordeaux and its region, from prehistory to the present day, through its collections of archaeology, history and regional and non-European ethnography.
Musée des beaux-arts de Bordeaux
Parc Ornithologique du Teich
Discovery of more than 250 species following one another with the seasons. A site of international importance for bird conservation.
Parc de la Coccinelle
The first European park for children devoted to domestic animals. 800 animals to discover that you can approach, stroke, cuddle...
Phare de Cordouan
A monumental lighthouse at the mouth of the Gironde, nicknamed the "king of lighthouses", inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage.
Saint-Emilion
Saint-Émilion is a commune in south-west France, in the Gironde département and the Aquitaine region.
Zoo de Bordeaux Pessac
A whole African savanna world recreated just for the visitors of the Pessac Zoo. Giraffes, zebras, antelopes, ostriches, pelicans and African birds live there in harmony.
Zoo du Bassin d'Arcachon
The zoological park in fact groups three parks: the zoo, the Ferme de France, and a mini amusement park for children. The Zoo is one of the most important in France; you can see 50 big cats there in semi-freedom.