Bordeaux Wine Weekend: The City, Cité du Vin and Saint-Émilion

Morning: the UNESCO-listed city

Bordeaux has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2007. The listed area covers 1,810 hectares, almost half the city's surface.

The tourist office's walk through UNESCO-listed Bordeaux is 5 km and takes 3 hours. Its steps run from the Monument aux Girondins on Place des Quinconces past the Grand Théâtre, Palais Rohan, the cathedral and Pey-Berland Tower, the Grosse Cloche, Porte Cailhau and Place du Parlement.

The walk ends at Place de la Bourse and the Miroir d'eau, which lies across from the square between Quai de la Douane and Quai Louis XVIII. The landscape artist Michel Corajoud designed the water mirror, which holds 2 cm of water.

The Bordeaux tourist office opens daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays and public holidays.

Afternoon: La Cité du Vin

Take tram line B from Quinconces to the La Cité du Vin stop, a two-minute walk from the building at 134 Quai de Bacalan, on the Garonne. The stops on the way are CAPC, Chartrons, Cours du Médoc and Les Hangars.

For lunch on site, Restaurant Le 7 serves Monday to Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. The Latitude20 brasserie on the ground floor opens daily from noon to 3 p.m.

The permanent exhibition and Belvédère ticket costs €23 ($25) for adults, or €27 ($29) with two glasses. Ages 6 to 17 pay €9 ($10), and children under 6 go free. The ticket includes the Visit Companion, a multimedia guide in 9 languages.

Allow 2 to 3 hours for the permanent exhibition, the average visit. The visit ends at the Belvédère on the 8th floor, 35 meters above the ground, with a 360° view of the city and the Garonne and one glass of wine or organic grape juice.

Saturdays, Sundays and long weekends are the Cité's busiest days. Buy your ticket online: it gives direct access to the exhibition entrance on the 2nd floor without lining up at the ticket office.

The Cité also runs one-hour tasting workshops for adults 18 and over:

• Discovery workshop: every day at 3 p.m., €20 ($22), or €37 ($40) combined with the exhibition.
• Bordeaux 360°: every Saturday at 2:30 p.m., in English, with four Bordeaux wines, €22 ($24), or €38.40 ($41) combined with the exhibition.

Workshops start on time, and latecomers are not admitted.

From April 3 to October 31, 2026, the Cité opens every day from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. From November 1, 2026 to January 3, 2027, it opens from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and Sundays and until 7 p.m. on Saturdays. It closes at 4 p.m. on December 24 and all day on December 25.

Evening: back in the center

Le Bar à Vin du CIVB is on the ground floor of the 18th-century Maison du Vin de Bordeaux, at 3 cours du XXX Juillet. Its list of thirty Bordeaux wines, from reds to dry and sweet whites, rosés, clairets and crémants, changes regularly, with service in English, Spanish and Italian.

The bar opens Monday to Saturday until 10 p.m. and closes on public holidays.

Morning: the train to Saint-Émilion

About 16 TER trains a day run from Bordeaux to Saint-Émilion on line 33. The fastest takes 29 minutes, and tickets start at €9.50 ($10). For timetables, the coach and the car, see Bordeaux to Saint-Émilion.

Saint-Émilion station is about 1.5 km from the village. The walk takes about 20 minutes, uphill, with sidewalks only in parts. The Tuk-Tuk des Cordeliers runs transfers between 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. for €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.

The monolithic church can only be seen on the tourist office's guided Saint-Émilion Souterrain tour. It covers four monuments: Émilion's hermitage, the Trinity Chapel with its medieval paintings, the catacombs and the monolithic church.

The tour lasts about 1 hour and starts on Place de l'Église Monolithe at the time on your ticket. Book it in the tourist office's online shop, and pick up a written translation at the tourist office before the visit. Photography is not allowed inside.

As an alternative, the tourist office's guided village tour lasts 1 hour 30 minutes. It covers the old streets, cloisters, city gate, fortifications, a viewpoint and the underground monuments, and it starts at the tourist office on Place des Créneaux.

The bell tower is not part of the underground tour. Access costs €2 ($2) per person, paid at the tourist office.

Afternoon: a château visit

The tourist office's château-of-the-day list shows 2 to 4 wine estates open to the public each day. Reserve directly with the estate; reservations are currently compulsory.

• Château Villemaurine, a Grand Cru Classé, runs its 1-hour Visite Patrimoine, including the château's underground quarries, in English at 4:30 p.m. and in French at 11:30 a.m. It costs €25 ($27) for adults, and children under 12 go free. Visits are by appointment, booked online or by email. It closes on Wednesdays.
• Château Troplong Mondot, which overlooks the village, runs a 1-hour 30-minute Getaway visit, with a vineyard walk and two wines, for €50 ($54) per person, in English.
• Château Figeac charges €80 ($86) per person for a visit of 1 hour or 1 hour 30 minutes, ending with a guided tasting of two or three wines, in English and Spanish.
• Clos Systey, with organic and Demeter labels, runs visits of 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes for €15 ($16), by reservation.

The tourist office advises booking restaurants in advance, especially on weekends.

Evening: the train back

The last train from Saint-Émilion to Bordeaux leaves at 8:50 p.m.

By car, allow around 35 minutes from Bordeaux, depending on traffic. Parking near the collegiate church and on Place Bouqueyre costs €2 ($2) an hour, and parking is free at the Gendarmerie lot, Espace Guadet and the station parking lot. If you drive, spit as you taste or choose a designated driver.

The Bordeaux tourist office's Châteaux & Terroirs half-day coach tour goes to Saint-Émilion on Thursday and Sunday. It costs €55 ($59), leaves 12 Cours du 30 Juillet at 1:30 p.m. and returns at 6:30 p.m., and includes one château tour with two wines and the monolithic church. Its full-day Saint-Émilion tour starts from €99 ($107).

Or the Médoc

The Médoc wine route follows the D2 from Blanquefort through Margaux, Saint-Julien, Pauillac and Saint-Estèphe. By car from Bordeaux, Margaux takes about 45 minutes via ring road exit 7 or 8 and the D2, and Pauillac 50 minutes.

TER trains from Bordeaux reach Margaux in about 42 minutes and Pauillac in 1 hour 4 minutes at fastest, with 12 trains a day. The same half-day tourist office tour goes to the Médoc on Tuesday and Saturday, with two château tours and two wines at each, for €55 ($59).

Médoc visits are by reservation unless a château clearly announces visits without an appointment. Château Margaux and Château Mouton Rothschild receive visitors Monday to Friday only and close on weekends and public holidays.

• Château Lynch-Bages in Pauillac runs a 1-hour 30-minute cellar visit for €25 ($27), Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Book on its website.
• Château Duhart-Milon, in Pauillac village near the docks, runs a 30-minute Guided Tasting for €20 ($22) with no reservation required, Monday to Friday, subject to availability.
• Château Kirwan in Cantenac runs its 1-hour Prestige tour for €30 ($32). From May to October it opens Monday to Saturday, and from November to April Monday to Friday. Bring warm clothes for the cellar tastings.

The Maison du Tourisme et du Vin in Pauillac books visits to its partner châteaux and provides a map of the Grand Cru châteaux. For the route in detail, see Médoc Route des Châteaux.