Museum / Gallery Sights in Bordeaux — 14 of Our Favourites

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 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.

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. 

Archeology: pre and proto-historic as well as the Gallo-Roman periods in the Medoc. A unique museum in the Medoc where you can discover rare period pieces.

Modern Art: exposition of modern art bringing together the work of local artists from Aquitaine with those form artists of national and international renown.

The collection includes over 3,000 pieces, some of major interest, such as wild boar-taught Gallic found on the beach of Amelie in 1989. The collection of modern art , organized under the leadership of Jean-Claude Lasserre, Chief Curator of the General Inventory of Aquitaine, includes more than 300 works (paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures) of Aquitaine artists before and after the war (Armande Marty Joseph River, Jac Belaubre).

The fact that wine is produced here is all thanks to the efforts of Baron Philippe, who introduced "entire château bottling" in 1924 and built an impressive 100m barrel hall.

In 1974, its wine was formally classified as Premier Cru. The château has a private museum of wine in art and offers tours with wine tasting.

The museum and gallery created by Baron Philippe de Rothschild and his wife Pauline, inaugurated in 1962 by André Malraux, features paintings, porcelain, ceramics, glassware, ivories, bronzes, sculptures, jewellry and tapestries. Three millennia of precious objects related to wine are gathered there. The tour is included with the discovery of the caves.

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.

The domain Malagar has been donated by the four children of the writer to the Aquitaine Regional Council in 1985, the following year, the Regional Council of Aquitaine created an association whose mission was the preservation and promotion of the area: François Mauriac Centre Malagar. Classified as an "historical monument" in 1996, the area has benefited from major restoration and development.

Malagar is a beautiful mansion that sits within a four-acre park and a vineyard of around fourteen hectares. There are guided tours available of the residence where you can find out more about the life of the Nobel Prize winning author, you can also enjoy the historical museum which is situated in the converted wine cellar. The grounds themselves are worth a look around and you can enjoy some of the same views that inspired Mauriac on his visits to the mansion.

The museum consists of information panels (photos, documents, maps, etc ..), showcases containing items from the time of occupation and an audiovisual retrospective 'fighting for the release of the pocket of the Médoc'. Guides and trilingual booklets can guide you to the best understanding of the museum.

Site visits are conducted from the museum. A guided and narrated tour from the standpoint of military architecture and the human point of view through the story of the life around the building and fighting for the liberation of one of the 37 German positions. The position (S 307), coastal battery, has 22 bunkers.

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.

History, heath, modern forestry and current resorts, the fascinating story of the Médoc man, evoked through memories of his past labours and looking to the future. Enjoying learning more about the area that was once a hive of farming and is now now of the west coasts most popular beach resorts!

The exhibition includes:
The formation and evolution of the Médoc geography,
The flora and fauna of the moor and lake areas,
The territory and urban centers of the town of stanchions,
The rural domestic and laborious life of old,
The forest-related activities, major economic powerhouse.

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.

"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.

"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.

With seven ports along its coastline, numerous oyster farms, the school of the sea, traditional huts and oyster tastings, Gujan-Mestras is the capital of oyster of Arcachon Bay.

Inside the museum you will find a film about the history of the area, you can get a guided tour of the museum or if you prefer you can take an independent walk through the displays.