A Week in Bordeaux Wine Country: Médoc to Blaye, Day by Day

Start at the Bordeaux tourist office, open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays and public holidays. Its Châteaux & Terroirs half-day coach tour costs €55 ($59), leaves at 1:30 p.m. and returns at 6:30 p.m.

The tour's destination changes by weekday: Bourg and Blaye on Monday, the Médoc on Tuesday and Saturday, Graves and Sauternes on Wednesday, Saint-Émilion on Thursday and Sunday, and Entre-Deux-Mers on Friday.

In the afternoon, take tram line B to the La Cité du Vin stop, a two-minute walk from the entrance at 134 Quai de Bacalan. From April 3 to October 31, 2026, the Cité opens every day from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. From November 1, it closes at 6 p.m. on weekdays and Sundays and at 7 p.m. on Saturdays.

Adults pay €23 ($25) for the permanent exhibition and the Belvédère, and children aged 6 to 17 pay €9 ($10). The average visit takes 2 to 3 hours. The Belvédère, on the 8th floor and 35 meters above the ground, looks out over the city and the Garonne.

The Introduction to Tasting workshop runs every day at 3 p.m., lasts 1 hour, costs €20 ($22) and is for people 18 and over. In the evening, Restaurant Le 7, on the Cité's 7th floor, serves dinner Wednesday to Saturday from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. More on the building and tickets is in La Cité du Vin Bordeaux.

Drive north on the D2 through Blanquefort and Macau: Margaux is about 45 minutes from Bordeaux, and Pauillac is 50 minutes by the D2 or the D1215. Without a car, TER line 42 stops at Margaux and Pauillac, and the fastest train to Pauillac takes 1 hour 4 minutes, with 12 trains a day.

In the Médoc, a visit is always by reservation unless a château clearly announces visits without an appointment, and some estates are booked up for several days. Book as early as possible.

In the morning, stop at Château Kirwan in Cantenac, near Margaux. Its 1-hour Prestige tour costs €30 ($32) with two wines. From May to October it opens Monday to Saturday, and from November to April Monday to Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Bring warm clothes for the cellar tastings.

In the afternoon, Château Lynch-Bages in Pauillac runs a 1-hour-30-minute cellar visit for €25 ($27), Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., booked online. The village of Bages next to the estate has Café Lavinal and bicycle rental.

The Maison du Tourisme et du Vin in Pauillac books visits to its partner châteaux and provides a map of the Grand Cru châteaux. Château Margaux and Château Mouton Rothschild receive visitors Monday to Friday only, and Mouton Rothschild tours must be booked at least two months ahead. The full drive is in Médoc Route des Châteaux.

The Graves and Pessac-Léognan vineyards lie just outside the city. In the morning, Château Haut-Bailly in Léognan runs a 30-minute tasting of two estate wines for €20 ($22) and a 1-hour-15-minute classic visit with a vineyard walk and cellar tour for €50 ($54), both booked online.

Sauternes is an appellation within the Graves wine region, where fall morning mists encourage noble rot, which increases the grapes' sugar content. In the afternoon, head to the Maison du Sauternes in Sauternes, 47 km south-east of Bordeaux. It opens every day from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., with a free visit and tasting, and closes on Christmas Day and January 1.

Château Guiraud, a 1er Grand Cru Classé in 1855, opens every day, public holidays included, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with or without a booking. In Barsac, Château Climens's Discovery visit of the vineyard and cellars lasts about 1 hour and costs €45 ($49); book it on the website, by email or by phone.

Without a car, the TER Bordeaux–Agen line serves Barsac, from 42 minutes. On November 14 and 15, 2026, Sauternes estates open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. with free tours and tastings and no reservation.

TER trains reach Saint-Émilion from Bordeaux Saint-Jean in 29 minutes, with about 16 a day and tickets from €9.50 ($10). The station is about 1.5 km south of the village, a 20-minute walk, and the Tuk-Tuk des Cordeliers transfer costs €5 ($5) per person.

The Jurisdiction of Saint-Émilion was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on December 2, 1999, as a cultural landscape of eight villages and about 5,000 hectares of vines.

In the morning, book the Saint-Émilion Souterrain tour: the monolithic church opens only with a tourist office guide. The tour lasts 45 minutes to 1 hour, starts on Place de l'Église Monolithe and covers the hermitage of Émilion, the Trinity Chapel, the catacombs and the monolithic church.

In the afternoon, use the tourist office's château-of-the-day list, which shows 2 to 4 estates open to the public each day. Reservations with them are compulsory. Clos Systey, one of the estates on the list, charges €15 ($16) and opens from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Château Villemaurine's 1-hour Visite Patrimoine costs €25 ($27) and takes in its underground quarries; it closes on Wednesdays. Château Troplong Mondot's 1-hour-30-minute Getaway visit, with a vineyard walk and two wines, costs €50 ($54). See also Bordeaux to Saint-Émilion.

Pomerol covers 813 hectares of vines, makes only red wine and has never established a classification. About 80% of its vines are merlot and 15% cabernet franc. Libourne station, 7 km from Saint-Émilion, is on TER line 33 from Bordeaux.

In the morning, Château de Sales receives visitors by appointment Tuesday to Saturday, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Its 1-hour public tour with two wines costs €15 ($16), and The Soul of Sales tasting costs €9 ($10). It closes on Sunday, Monday and public holidays.

In the afternoon, Château Ferrand takes appointments every day of the week, at €15 ($16) for 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes. Château Bonalgue takes appointments Monday to Saturday, at €20 ($22) for 1 hour. More estates are in Visiting Pomerol.

The Entre-deux-Mers covers over 7,000 hectares between the Garonne and the Dordogne, with dry and sweet whites, reds, rosés, clairets and crémants.

In the morning, visit the abbey of La Sauve-Majeure, founded in 1079 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Routes of Santiago de Compostela. Tickets cost €7 ($8), free under 18, and it closes on January 1, Easter Monday, May 1 and December 25. Transgironde bus line 473 serves the abbey from Bordeaux-Stalingrad, at the Bourg stop in La Sauve.

The Maison des Vins de l'Entre-deux-Mers is in a 14th-century tithe barn next to the abbey. A twin ticket for the abbey and a wine tasting there costs €11 ($12).

In the afternoon, Château Thieuley in La Sauve takes visits and tastings by appointment; its cellar visit and tasting costs €10 ($11) and lasts 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.

To ride, rent a bike at the Station Vélo de Créon on the Roger Lapébie path, a former railway line with a low gradient: classic bikes from €10 ($11) and electric bikes from €20 ($22). Créon is a bastide founded in 1316 around an arcaded square, with a market on Wednesday. Routes are in Cycling Entre-deux-Mers.

Bourg is 35 km north of Bordeaux, and the Côtes de Bourg vineyard extends over 15 municipalities. Malbec is the appellation's historic grape.

In the morning, Château de La Grave in Bourg pours a 6-wine tasting for €10 ($11) without an appointment, Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Its guided cellar visit with the same tasting costs €20 ($22) by appointment, and it closes on Sunday.

The Corniche road (D669) from Blaye toward Bourg-sur-Gironde runs nearly 10 km between limestone cliffs and the estuary, past the troglodyte villages of Plassac and Mombrier.

The citadel of Blaye, above the Gironde estuary, was built between 1685 and 1689 under Vauban's supervision and was listed by UNESCO in 2008. It is always open and free.

In the afternoon, the Blaye tourist office's 75-minute tour of the citadel's underground passages, in French, costs €7.50 ($8) for adults and €5.50 ($6) for children. From September 21 to November 15, 2026, it runs daily at 2:30 p.m., and from November 16 to December 31 on Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. Meet at the Place d'Armes 5 minutes before the start.

The Maison du Vin de Blaye, 12 cours Vauban, opens Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., except public holidays, with a free tasting of its featured château's wine.

To return through the Médoc, take the Blaye–Lamarque ferry, a 4.5 km crossing of about 20 minutes. From April to October an adult foot passenger pays €6 ($6) and a car €25 ($27); from November to March, €4 ($4) and €13 ($14). The car fare does not include the driver. More is in Blaye and Bourg.