Local area

La Cité du Vin invites you on a lively, eye-opening journey around a world of wine and culture : to promote and share the cultural, universal and living heritage that is wine with the broadest possible audience. to focus on emotions, sensations and imagination. The founding principles of the tour experience: to pass on knowledge interactively, to experience things at your own pace, to learn according to your personal wishes.

By far the city's eeriest and most menacing sight, this mammoth hulk of a submarine base (1941–43) was one of five built on the Atlantic Coast by the Germans during the WWII. Designed as a bunker to protect German U-boats from aerial attack, it pens base proved impossible to destroy – by British forces during WWII and subsequently by the city, who now use the eyesore reinforced-concrete structure as a seriously cool, underground cultural centre, art gallery and music concert venue.

The Cathédrale St-André, a Unesco World Heritage Site prior to the city's classification, lords over the city. The cathedral's oldest section dates from 1096; most of what you see today was built in the 13th and 14th centuries. Enjoy exceptional masonry carvings in the north portal.

A fountain of sorts, the Miroir d'Eau is the world's largest reflecting pool. Covering an area of 3450 sq metres of black granite on the quayside opposite the imposing Palais de la Bourse, the 'water mirror' provides hours of entertainment on warm sunny days when the reflections in its thin slick of water – drained and refilled every half-hour –- are stunning. Every 23 minutes a dense fog-like vapour is ejected for three minutes to add to the fun