A day of discovery in Bordeaux with the CityPass
Located in the heart of the Gironde department, Bordeaux has many tourist attractions (monuments and places), most of which are accessible through the Bordeaux Métropole CityPass, which now allows you to visit the city at low prices.

With an architectural heritage unique in Europe, and known throughout the world for its famous vineyard, the city of Bordeaux is rightly considered “the Pearl of Aquitaine”.
Located in the heart of the Gironde department, Bordeaux has many tourist attractions (monuments and places), most of which are accessible through the Bordeaux Métropole CityPass, which now allows you to visit the city at low prices.
During our stay in the Médoc, more precisely in Montalivet on the Côte d'Argent, we wanted to discover the beautiful city of Bordeaux and at the same time test this Bordeaux Métropole.
Our discovery of Bordeaux
If there is one thing that must be acknowledged, it is that Bordeaux is a city very well served in terms of public transport and, for visitors like us arriving by car, various park and ride facilities are available on the outskirts so that you can park and then easily reach the city centre via the TBC trams and buses.
From the Porte de Bourgogne, the walk up the left bank of the Garonne towards the Tourist Office Free walking tour bordeaux has already allowed us to quickly discover the architectural and cultural wealth of the city of Bordeaux: from the stone bridge to the Place des Quinconces, via the Porte Cailhau and the Palais de la Bourse, it is indeed a beautiful range of historical monuments that was offered to us. The presence of a cruise ship flying the flag of the Bahamas, the Crystal Symphony, even confirmed the world renown of the city of Bordeaux...
For the use of the CityPasses, we had planned two major activities allowing us to get a good overview of the city of Bordeaux and its history:
- a panoramic tour aboard a double-decker bus
- a guided walking tour
Montalivet being about 1h30 drive from Bordeaux, with a tram journey of about 30 minutes, we unfortunately did not have enough time to plan more activities among those offered by the CityPass... too bad for the Flèche Saint-Michel where I would have liked to climb to enjoy a superb view of the city.
“Visiotour” open-top bus tour
Departing from the Tourist Office, the Visiotour double-decker bus allows you to take a guided tour of Bordeaux lasting around 70 minutes. The proposed route allows you to discover both historic Bordeaux and modern Bordeaux:
The upper deck of the bus is open and allows you to enjoy a beautiful panoramic view throughout the circuit, each seat has headphones available offering 10 choices of languages for the commentaries during the journey (commentaries provided by an art historian guide).
On the way back from the Visiotour bus ride, a visit to the Wine and Trade Museum (with an introduction to tasting) was included in the service, but we didn't do it because lunch was planned at the Epicerie Bistrot with another travel blogger living in Bordeaux (Alexandre Vendé)...
Guided walking tour
Our guide was at least interesting and humorous, he also managed to make me follow his explanations throughout the tour even though I am personally not very keen on history, unlike Valérie.
The outing lasted a little over two hours but the circuit mainly focused on the historic district of Bordeaux with many stops at strategic points for explanations. There was therefore no long tedious walk, which was all the more appreciable since it was quite hot.
Personally, I found this outing to be a good complement to the panoramic tour of the city of Bordeaux because the guided tour really allows you to admire the city's prestigious monuments, to immerse yourself in its history, to go where the bus cannot go, to stop at architectural details on every street corner... all while benefiting from explanations given by a passionate guide.
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