There are countless reasons to love Bordeaux – its languid pace, balmy climate, 290,000 some acres of vineyards and its storied architecture. But what’s most interesting about the wine capital today is less the ways in which the past is being preserved and rather how the city is defining its future, driven to earn the spotlight as a cultural fixture among leading European capitals.
In the years following Mayor Alain Juppé’s venerated urban regeneration project, which effectively revived a lifeless, soot encrusted town from irrelevancy, Bordeaux has been gestating ambitious plans for continued cultural improvements.
In 2015, the region will inaugurate a striking new multifunction stadium (the largest on the French Atlantic coast) for sporting events and concerts, a space already set to host the EURO 2016 (European Football Championship). In 2016, their Center for Wine and Civilization will open to honor its century-long tradition of winemaking and 2017 will mark the completion of the TGV high-speed train line, putting Bordeaux only two hours from Paris. And that’s saying nothing of the expanding dining and artistic class.
Last summer was my first introduction to the city and we returned for a long weekend in early September to explore what we missed the first…
