Museum / Gallery Sights in Bordeaux — 8 of Our Favourites

It has a good collection of artefacts and artwork showing the development of customs over time and its relationships with the country's economics, links to the military, transport, smuggling and the port.

An exhibition information booklet is available in several languages to help you navigate and understand the museum, plus audio guides are available to rent and give you a comprehensive one hour tour. 

With over 700,000 pieces, this large collection, divided into sections on history, ethnography and archaeology, is one of the best museums in Bordeaux. Created, in its current form, in 1962 under the guidance of the museologist Georges Henri Rivière, who was responsible for the post-war reorganisation of French history, archaeology and ethnology museums.

The Museum of Aquitaine initially occupied the north wing of the Musée des Beaux-Arts building. In the 1970s it was decided to install the museum in Cours Pasteur. The main space was renovated in 2009 and it is very much considered to be both a heritage museum as well as museum of civilisation.

The Bordeaux museum of fine arts was created by Napoleon at the beginning of the 19th century. Its first curator was Pierre Lacour, a neoclassical painter of the late 17th and early 18th century. It opened at the end of 1810.

The current collection houses works by Delacroix, Daubigny, Van Dyck and Matisse. The main building, the Musee des beaux-Arts in the garden of the city hall has a small but good permanent collection with regular temporary exhibitions being housed across the street in the Galerie des Beaux-Arts.

Many items date from the 17th to 19th centuries, though a new 20th and 21st century section has been opened housing over 150 works in the stables area of the building.

Learn more about the evolution of furniture, ceramics, glass, musical instruments and silverware throughout the centuries. The collection is focused on French pieces, particularly from the Bordeaux area.

"Art and wine brings people together." -Goethe

Behind the beautiful facade of 41 ‘Rue Borie’, you will find the museum in the vaulted cellars which previously housed the barrels for the ageing of wine. Various artefacts and archival documents trace the exceptional careers of the great merchant families as well as the ancestral knowledge of workers in the cellars.

The building offers a new original space of cultural dissemination, meeting, exchange and creation, and from a desire to make contemporary art more accessible to better understand and feel better in a case made of pleasure and contemplation.

With a permanent collection of contemporary art and many temporary exhibitions this mansion in the centre of Bordeaux offers a quiet atmosphere to enjoy art. The small gardens are also very pleasant to wander through. You can enjoy a glass of wine from one of the wineries of Bernard Magrez.

"Museum of France", the CAPC has constituted a collection of 1299 works of 189 artists. It is housed in the former Real Warehouse of Colonial Goods, a customs warehouse, which is a superb example of pre-industrial construction from the 19th century.

Learn about wine companies, wine mythological and sacred wine inspired arts and the wine link between peoples. There is a permanent exhibition as well as temporary exhibitions throughout the year, cultural programming in the auditorium, workshop and shop.

The centre also hosts a panoramic restaurant, gourmet snacks, wine bar and wine cellar.

The City of Wine is also a unique place for business meetings and events. Time for a conference, a meeting, a workshop or a cocktail, the privatized spaces are modulated.