Bordeaux: sleep no more

(A text by Mandi Keighram read at the magazine N by Norwegian issued in July 2017)

It's easy to see that Bordeaux is having a moment. Foodies flock to weekend markets in the redeveloped riverside district; kids hit up the skate park on Quai des Chartrons; hipsters eat organic at Darwin, a former army barracks turned co-working space. Practically every touchstone of urban cool can be found here right now, from locally distilled whiskys aged in old wine barrels, to young chefs pioneering a new food scene; plus thriving eco-communities and creative start-ups.

And yet, a decade or so ago, there was none of this. For much of the 20th century, the city was known as La Belle Endormie - "Sleeping Beauty" - thanks to its neglected appearance, as the city's golden sandstone buildings were hidden under a centuries-old blanket of soot and grime. Its charms lay largely dormant as tourists favoured the delights of Paris and Lyon, or skirted the city on their way to the wineries of nearby Saint-Emilion and the Médoc.

But it seems that Sleeping Beauty has woken up to a bright future - certainly as far as tourism goes. [In 2017] the city was awarded top spot in Lonely Planet's Best in 2017, their annual list of places to visit in any given year.

"It's an amazingly attractive city because of its architecture, its gastronomic scene, and its cosmopolitan vibe now," says Lonely Planet writer Jean-Bernard Carillet. "There are many elements that make Bordeaux so special."

Judging by the impact on past cities so fêted, the Lonely Planet accolade is likely to attract more tourists to the city than last year's six million (up from around 2.7 million in 2007). And this number is surely set to go up even more later this year when the LGV Sud-Ouest line - a new high-speed rail link from Paris - launches, cutting the journey time between the two cities by one third.

As tourist numbers have soared over the past 10 years, so too has the number of hotels - from 169 in 2007 to 887 in 2017. That's an astonishing 424 per cent increase in number. There is, however, only a 27 per cent increase in the number of rooms - meaning that over the past decade there's been a boom in smaller, boutique hotels and apartments, rather than high-rise atrocities blighting the landscape.

Bordeaux's dramatic yet understated renaissance has its roots in the mid-1990s when the city's old town was restored, bringing the 18th-century buildings back to their former glory. In 2007, over half the city was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, in recognition of the fact that Bordeaux has 347 heritage-listed buildings, more than any other French city besides Paris.

More recently there's also been what Lonely Planet calls the "impressive redevelopment of the Garonne riverfront", which incorporates dozens of boutiques, restaurants and gardens across the left-bank quays.

Central to this has been the much-hyped La Cité du Vin, a wine museum with a striking, curvaceous form. According to the architects, this references the swirling of wine in a glass, although to the untrained eye it looks, charmingly, like a rubber duckie floating on the river. The new wine museum has encouraged wine buffs, who once might have eschewed the city in favour of the vineyards, to pay a visit, while opening up the region's most famous feature to a wider audience.

"We want to give people access to the world of wine," says Olivier Kollek, the museum's director of marketing and sales. "It's a drink, but we want people to discover that it is also about history, people and culture." The museum even has a children's programme so tiny oenophiles can learn about grape growing and have a taste - of juice, of course.

Alongside wine, there's been a diversification of alcoholic output in the city - think craft beer with food pairings at Jacien, or local whisky aged in old wine barrels from Moon Harbour. Initiatives like these have opened up the city's artisan drinking scene, which has long been dominated by the grape, to those who prefer an alternative tipple.

"Bordeaux is very big on creativity, and is one of the biggest cities for small businesses in France," says Cedric Mate, who co-founded craft-beer shop and bar Jaqen in 2014. "Young people are doing inspiring things and are keen to stay in the city. It's an exciting time to be here."

This youthful entrepeneurship can also be seen in the "gastronomic revolution", which - as Lonely Planet says - "keeps building on its own success". A new wave of "bistronomy", or neo-bistro restaurants, champions local produce and innovation in the kitchen. The movement got its start back in the 1990s, when chefs decided to take gastronomic food to a more casual setting (fine dining minus the tablecloths). Today, you can find prime examples at restaurants like Milo's, where four international chefs prepare a tasting menu with global influences, or in the pared-down dishes at restaurant Solena, which celebrate local ingredients.

Importantly, these initiatives aren't done solely for the benefit of tourism, and the local population is also enjoying the city's renewed lease of life. Recently, daily newspaper Direct Matin reported that 54 per cent of the French public would choose to head to the region if they were to move somewhere else in the country. "Everyone is happy to be here, whether they're visitors or locals," says Mate. "And we are proud to be from Bordeaux."

bordeaux-tourisme.com