Not to miss

Musée des Beaux-Arts

Occidental art buffs can trace its evolution from the Renaissance to the mid 20th-century at Bordeaux's exceptional Musée des Beaux-Arts. Occupying two wings of the 1770s-built Hôtel de Ville, either side of the elegant public park, Jardin de la Mairie, the 1801-established museum houses a superb collection of paintings, particularly 17th-century Flemish, Dutch and Italian works.

Temporary exhibitions are regularly hosted at its nearby annexe, Galerie des Beaux-Arts at place du Colonel Raynal.

Basilique Saint-Seurin

Austere and imposing, the Basilique Saint-Seurin is an architectural treasure, classed by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. The basilica's style is predominantly Romanesque, but many Gothic elements pertain - the result of successive additions to the structure over the centuries. Its history goes back as far as the beginning of Christendom in the 6th century.

On the western façade of the building, superb columns form two archways allowing access to the nave, whose beautiful Romanesque capitals date from the 12th-century. The southern portal recounts the Last Judgement, while, inside the basilica, the massive pillars in the nave have a striking countenance. To the left of the choir, the 15th-century Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-la-Rose is a superb example of flamboyant Gothic ornamentation - of particular note are the fine sculptures and keystones. The crypt is the oldest part of the basilica, where you can admire some very beautiful Merovingian sarcophagi in marble.

Esplanade des Quinconces

The most prominent feature of esplanade des Quinconces, a vast square laid out in 1820, is the fountain monument to the Girondins, a group of moderate, bourgeois National Assembly deputies during the French Revolution, 22 of whom were executed in 1793 after being convicted of Counter-Revolutionary activities.

The entire 50m-high ensemble, completed in 1902, was dismantled in 1943 by the Germans so the statues could be melted down for their 52 tonnes of bronze. Restoration took years and was not completed until 1983.