The perfect reflection
The palaces doubled in the water sheet โ the image that defines Bordeaux.
Patrick Despoix โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท W. Bulach โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Ibex73 โ CC BY 4.0 ยท FrDr โ CC BY-SA 4.0
Roughly April to October through day and evening, in alternating cycles: flood, mirror, mist. It rests in winter and occasionally for maintenance โ if you find it dry, give it minutes before concluding.
Mid-mirror facing the palaces at full reflection, low near the water surface. After dark the power doubles. And the mist shot with children inside it is its equal.
Rue Sainte-Catherine โ Europe's longest pedestrian shopping street โ starts nearby, the Porte Cailhau is five minutes south along the river, and the old town spreads behind the palaces. It is the ideal anchor for a Bordeaux walk.
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The Place de la Bourse is Bordeaux's royal face: a half-circle of symmetrical eighteenth-century palaces on the Garonne bank, built to dazzle arrivals from the river with golden Bordeaux โ still doing the job three centuries on. Facing it on the quay lies the Miroir d'eau โ the world's largest water mirror: a 3,450-square-metre granite sheet flooded with centimetres of water that reflects palaces and sky perfectly, then turns to a mist that wraps whoever stands in it. The water-and-fog cycle repeats every few minutes, and children (and adults) never tire of it. This scene โ the palaces and their mirror โ is Bordeaux's famous image and its finest free sight, peaking in the evening when the lit faรงades double in the water.
The palaces doubled in the water sheet โ the image that defines Bordeaux.
Water recedes and mist rises around the standers โ the children's favourite game.
The long pedestrian riverfront โ the city's finest evening walk.
Place de la Bourse, 33000 Bordeaux