Bordeaux central area was awarded its UNESCO World Heritage status for the completeness of its 18th century urban landscape. That architecture has at its core the site of the roman port and around that the medieval walled city which survives in the street plan and many of the narrow streets.

Bordeaux and its countryside include domestic buildings that are an integral parts of the landscape and the local culture. Its unlikely that you would travel far through the rural backroads without encountering a village lavoir - a communal laundry facility where the luxury of cold running water is supplemented by a roof and a stone wash trough.

No region lacks some native sons or daughters who have made it into the history books and Bordeaux is no exception. The roman poet, Ausonius is claimed by Bordeaux as one of theirs. The Romans had arrived in 57 BC and by the 4th century Bordeaux boasted a university at which he taught while enjoying the fruits of a wine-producing estate near St Emilion. His life is honoured by a modest monument at the bottom of the Cours D'Alsace and Lorraine, outside the Frog and Rosbif Public House. As elsewhere, poets and pubs seem to be natural associates.