Bordeaux Audioguides

The Romans named Bordeaux's curve of the Garonne River the 'Port of the Moon,' and standing on the Quais at dusk with the 18th-century limestone facades reflected in the Miroir d'eau, the name still makes sense. The Miroir d'eau is the world's largest reflecting pool, 3,450 square meters of a few millimeters of water on a flat granite surface that alternately mirrors the Place de la Bourse and fills with fountains every 23 minutes. It has been photographed more than any other thing in Bordeaux since it was installed in 2006, which is somewhat predictable, and also entirely justified.

Bordeaux made its money over seven centuries selling wine to Britain, and the architectural confidence of the 18th-century city center is directly proportional to how much claret passed through its docks.

The entire historic center was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007, covering 1,810 hectares of nearly continuous classical and neo-classical architecture, one of the largest such urban protected zones in France. The Grand Theatre, built in 1780 with a peristyle of 12 Corinthian columns, anchors the Place de la Comedie in a way that makes it obvious what this city thought of itself.