The sea-horses
Wild bronze with fish bodies — among France's most alive sculptures.
Jibi44 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Romainbehar — CC0 · Nguyenhuuthanh — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Víctor Perea Ros — CC BY-SA 4.0
At the edge of the Place des Quinconces — among Europe's largest squares — rises a 43-metre column crowned by winged Liberty in flight, honouring the Girondin deputies of Bordeaux executed in the Revolution's years of Terror. The monument's glory is its two basins: roaring fountains centred on bronze chariots drawn by wild sea-horses with fishes' bodies — these 'horses' are among France's most famous and most kinetic bronzes; you can almost hear them. The Germans dismantled them in the war for melting; resistance workers hid them piece by piece until they returned. The square around is Bordeaux's great ground for fairs and seasonal funfairs, the monument its permanent theatrical edge — a dazzling free stop between the centre and the Chartrons quarter.
Wild bronze with fish bodies — among France's most alive sculptures.
43 metres crowned by Liberty in bronze flight.
Dismantled by the Nazis for melting, hidden piecemeal by resisters.
Place des Quinconces, 33000 Bordeaux
Grand ThéâtreThe finest building in Bordeaux and the one that most defines it. The **Grand Th4 minutes walk4.5
CAPC Museum of Contemporary ArtHere the building matters as much as what is in it. **CAPC** occupies the *Entre5 minutes walk4.0
The Entrepôt LainéA vast colonial goods warehouse of 1824, converted into the CAPC museum of conte5 minutes walk4.4
Jardin PublicThe Jardin Public has been Bordeaux's lung since 1746: laid as a royal French-st6 minutes walk4.5
Muséum de Bordeaux — Science and NatureIt stands inside the **Jardin Public** in a small eighteenth-century mansion, an7 minutes walk4.7Moderate Revolution deputies, mostly from Bordeaux's Gironde, who wanted revolution without bloodbaths and were devoured by it: guillotined in 1793. A century later Bordeaux memorialised them as extremism's victims — the monument is a political lesson as much as an artistic one.
The Quinconces was laid as a military parade ground in the nineteenth century over an old fortress, and its vast emptiness became its use: book and antiques fairs, twice-yearly funfairs, concerts — an events ground, not a garden.
The Chartrons quarter north, with its antiques and Rue Notre-Dame — Bordeaux's stylish district — or the tram from the square towards the Cité du Vin. South, the great shopping street starts minutes away.