Now that I’ve covered the two main things I wanted to talk about for my Bordeaux Trip (the visit to St Emilion and the Wine museums), it’s time to try to cover everything most in this one post. I was only in Bordeaux for two full days, so here’s everything else I did and all the food I liked:

Bordeaux City Pass

I know these passes aren’t run by the same company and experiences may vary, but I really liked the French Riveria pass and how convenient it was, so when I was planning my trip to Bordeaux, I went to see if they had a pass as well!

The Bordeaux City Pass was really worth it in my opinion. I bought the 48-hour pass for 39 euros and it included:

• Free entrance to all the places we planned on visiting (although the Pey-Berland tower was closed due to COVID-19, which was a bummer)
• Free transport on the trams and buses
• One free tour – either a walking tour or an electric train tour. The booklet did give two other options but these were the two that the Tourism Office presented to me.

Booking the Pass & the Free Tour

Buying the Pass was really easy – I bought it online and picked it up at the Tourism Office. There is a line on the website that asks you for the date you’re picking it up but I went a day early and had no issues getting the pass early. And even if you pick it up early, the card isn’t activated until the first time you use it (on the bus or at an attraction entrance).

As for the free tour included with the pass, you have to book it at the Tourism Office. The walking tour is at 10:30am every day while the electric tram tour runs several times throughout the day. We had a morning tour on Day 1 and wanted to go to the Cite du Vin on the morning of Day 2 (if you go after 12, there’s an additional charge of 5 euros) so we ended up opting for the electric tram tour, which we booked 15 minutes before the tour started. It was pretty fun but the traffic can be a bit loud and slow at times.

Places Visited With the Pass

We weren’t really aiming for a hectic “see everything in Bordeaux” trip, so apart from the Cité du Vin and Wine and Trade Museum, we only went to two other places.

Aquitaine Museum

This was chosen mainly because I really like history. The Aquitaine museum covers the history of the region from prehistoric to modern day times. It’s a really big place, but we didn’t spend a very long time there because there weren’t that many English explanations.

I thought the Roman section was the most interesting, because of all the statues and artefacts, but that was a realy test of written French!

Porte Cailhau

This 15th century gate was small but really cool! It consists of three small floors explaining the history of the gate and the fourth floor is the garret from which you can look out at the river. If you have the City Pass, there’s no reason not to visit because it’s a really charming spot. There are English audio explanations and an English written guide for each floor too, so understanding what was going on was not an issue.

Food Reviews

Obviously, I can’t write a travel post without talking about food! Here are some of the places we visited and enjoyed.

L’Autre Salon de Thé

This was our favourite place! We went there twice in two days because the food was delicious, the service was friendly and quick, and the prices were reasonable. I loved the banoffee pie and the fudge slice was extremely decadent, like a deluxe version of millionaire’s shortbread. The tea selection – which is from Palais des Thé – is also fairly extensive so I had fun going through their menu.

Plus, their teaware is really cute!

Restaurant Ishikawa

I didn’t really set out to eat Japanese in Bordeaux but I was hungry and the restaurants that I wanted to eat at weren’t open till seven. But no regrets because Restaurant Ishikawa was really good! The chef and most of the staff are Japanese (and if they aren’t Japanese, they speak Japanese), and so everything was authentic and delicious.

La Brasserie Bordelaise

If you’re looking for meat, this is the place to go! Their steak rivalled the one that I had at Robert et Louise, which is to say, it was amazing! I really liked their mashed potatoes as well.

And since this is Bordeaux, there’s a really nice selection of wine to go with the steak.

Le Bistro du Musée

We read that the lamb here was good and that internet person was definitely right! I ordered the braised lamb and it was very tender and juicy. I really liked the potatoes and carrot mash that went with it – the potatoes were baked with cheese and the carrot mash was very sweet.

I had the set meal which included one entrée and one main for 25 euros and I thought it was worth it! This is near the Pey-Berland tower and I think it would be a good place to stop for a meal while exploring the city.

And that’s about it for my trip! Although I was only there for two and a half days, I really enjoyed every minute of it and would love to go back one day.