Bordeaux

Bordeaux spent years living down its reputation as a stuffy pilgrimage for collectors who cared more about labels than pleasure. The city that quietly renovated itself into a UNESCO site has become one of France's most interesting places to eat, and the arrival of a second Michelin star at L'Observatoire du Gabriel in March 2025 makes it worth the trip for reasons that go well beyond the Médoc.

Stay - Château Léognan

Twenty minutes south of the city in the Pessac-Léognan appellation, Château Léognan puts you on a working wine estate without making you feel like a paying guest at someone's agricultural project. The 17 rooms occupy a handsome manor house, but book one of the seven treehouses built on stilts in the surrounding forest if you want to wake up somewhere that genuinely doesn't feel like anywhere else. Chef Robin Bos turns what the estate grows into cooking worth staying for: verbena from the kitchen garden in a trout tartare, beef fillet smoked over estate vines, hake steamed with Gironde saffron.

From around £165 a night

Eat - L'Observatoire du Gabriel

The best argument for dining in Bordeaux rather than just drinking there. Chef Bertrand Noeureuil, who trained with Arnaud Donckele, earned his second Michelin star in March 2025, and it's the kind of restaurant where the distinction feels earned rather than expected. His cooking is rooted in the produce of Aquitaine with a pull towards the sea: order the hake mimosa with morels and razor clams, and don't dismiss the sardines. His Bacalan fillets in escabèche broth are a lesson in what to do with a fish most kitchens ignore. Whatever you do, stay for the cheese course: sommelier Pierrick Chapel pairs a rotating selection from a genuinely surprising cellar with wines from Madeira, Jura, and Gaillac by the glass, and it's one of the better fifteen minutes you'll spend in France.

Do - Cycle the Pessac-Léognan Grands Crus

Book a private half-day cycling tour through the Pessac-Léognan vineyards - not the coach itinerary that stops at the same three grand names, but a ride with a local guide who can get you a tasting at a family-owned Cru Classé that doesn't take walk-ins. The cycle itself takes a couple of hours; the tasting takes as long as you want. You're staying on the estate anyway, so the timing writes itself.

Bookable via GetYourGuide - search for Pessac-Léognan private wine cycling tour

Know

On Sunday mornings, the entire stretch of the Quai des Chartrons becomes a working food market where locals eat breakfast from stalls - oysters shucked and plated on the spot, a glass of Entre-deux-Mers, the newspaper. Nobody is posing for photographs. Get there before 10am and join whichever oyster queue is longest; that's the one the regulars already know about.

Practical

• Best time to go: May to June, before the summer heat turns the city drowsy. September is equally good - harvest season means the châteaux are working and the whole region has that particular smell of fermenting grape that you either love immediately or learn to.

• Getting there: Eurostar to Paris Montparnasse, then two hours on the TGV to Bordeaux Saint-Jean. Door-to-door it's borderline quicker than flying and considerably less grim. Direct trains run roughly once an hour.