Will Bordeaux city be too hot for sightseeing in early July?

[Realhousewife1978]

Have booked a 5 night holiday in Bordeaux city at the beginning of July and am now getting worried it’ll be too hot to do any sight seeing , vineyards, waking etc ..?

Am now thinking that we maybe should’ve booked a beach/pool short break?

Anyone been to Bordeaux in July ,?

I was there last July. It was lovely. There's plenty of ways to keep cool; the reflecting water splash area, the esplanade, boat trips down the river, plus an amazing wine bar which is subsidised by the local government. A temple of wine, cool inside, with the most amazing and cheap selection of Bordeaux wines by the glass.

The canicule is set to end next week, so hopefully temperatures will come down a bit.

I lived in Bordeaux in July. I’m the sweatiest person I know and I still managed just fine, including going to work in business casual clothes. It’s obviously warm but has an almost coastal breeze down by the river. It’s quite an open feeling city with lots of squares and the river front, and not too crowded with people so doesn’t feel as intense as a British city in heatwave.

If you’re visiting Arcachon or any other coastal bits the temperature is very pleasant there.

My parents used to have a holiday home in SW France and Bordeaux was the nearest airport/train station. It doesn’t get too hot to
not walk around in (though it does get very hot, it was 40 degrees there the other day). I did find it humid, even near the river. The plus/minus points is that it’s big (spread across out) with tram stops. You could walk between different parts but it may be too hot to do this comfortably in the heat. The court (legal) area I found cool and Place des Quinconces.

I’d say if in central Bordeaux plan your day well and have plenty of stops for coffee, lunch, Pernod with water, ice cream. If you’re not driving or not staying in central Bordeaux then beware that trains often don’t run after eg 9pm.

You should be fine going on wine vineyard tours, they’re usually good on water if you need any (or bring your own).

Just checked and Bordeaux is indeed humid in summer. I’m not great with humid heat. If you get a chance to go to nearby La Rochelle (marina city) then especially by the harbour it’s very cool with the breeze, with excellent seafood and its historic too.

Hi
thank you for your replies and ideas, am feeling a bit happier about it now :)

I’m not certain of your definition of “near by”.
I have to do the trip between Bordeaux and La Rochelle regularly in the summer and the two hour trip, plus fighting through heavy traffic to get out of then back into Bordeaux never feels like a breeze! Maybe I’m a light weight.

It will be hot and humid.

If someone had asked you a month ago whether planning a short break in the UK for late June would be OK for sightseeing, what would you have said?

Apologies for picking your thread out of all the threads about the weather, and I'm not having a pop at you specifically, but the reality is that nobody knows. Sure there are weather trends and averages, but "the weather" is constantly changing and this shouldn't be a surprise.

Leaving aside the current heatwave threads, I see so many posts saying "We booked a holiday to X but now it's raining/too hot/too cold - should we cancel?" as if there is this strange expectation that the weather (usually in other countries) is totally predictable and set in stone.

Just make sure your accommodation has aircon. I messed up last year and sleeping is hard in 25 degree heat!

This is the most important point.

To be fair I always did that journey on tourist time and drove or train to La Rochelle from Bordeaux and only did it a few times. I don’t recall it taking 2 hours but my parents holiday home was at Jonzac, inbetween Bordeaux and La Rochelle, near Pons donjon so we often went straight there. Royan I recall being fairly fair to drive too I think. Having said that, I now recall that La Rochelle is further up from Jonzac so I agree your journey would take longer. We rarely drove straight from La Rochelle to Bordeaux only a few times, no general need for us to do so.

Also, the La Rochelle knowledge was when we used the airport there (tiny!) when there were super cheap flights and we visited places as tourists, and when parents bought their holiday home they flew to Bordeaux, or got ferry and drove down (St Malo?) or once Eurostar then train from Paris to Bordeaux and then train to Jonzac.

According to Bordeaux weather general info it’s sub tropical humidity there and humid.

The old parts of Bordeaux are fairly close together and walkable. So it’s fairly easy to walk around. However if you’re lost, relying on trams and being pestered by beggars at St Jean station offering to show you how to use the tram ticket machine, your temperature and character soon rises! It is very pretty, a little Paris, as someone online said, and I agree. Charming. As I said before walking in the heat there I found it too much to do non stop, had to have pit stops along the way. Even though my parents had a holiday home there for many years, and spent months at a time there, Bordeaux was a “day out” for them and their friends.

I went to Bordeaux last summer during a heatwave. It was very hot (around 40C) but actually there were plenty of places to go to cool off and lots of places had air conditioning. HIghly recommend the Cité du Vin as mentioned above - really interesting!