Nouvelle-Aquitaine: the largest vineyard in the world

Bordeaux has built its identity on wine with the same ambition with which it built its eighteenth-century quais: the result is a city inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its architectural ensemble, where neoclassical arcades are mirrored in the Garonne in a magnificent play of light. The Place de la Bourse and the Miroir d'Eau — the world's largest reflecting pool, mirroring the façades of the nineteenth-century stock exchange — are the city's defining image. But Bordeaux is also a labyrinth of medieval lanes, markets (Marché des Capucins, the city's «belly»), wine shops and bar à vins where the great reds of Médoc, Pomerol and Saint-Émilion are poured. The Cité du Vin, a bold and scenic museum-monument dedicated to the world's wine cultures, overlooks the river. Letting oneself drift downstream on a Garonne boat at sunset is the most eloquent way of understanding why Bordeaux has become one of Europe's most coveted destinations.

Saint-Émilion rises on a limestone plateau in the Bordelais, surrounded by vineyards producing some of the world's most celebrated red wines, classified by UNESCO as a Cultural Landscape of Vine and Wine. The medieval village — also a UNESCO World Heritage Site — is arranged around a central square with a Romanesque bell tower, stone-paved lanes and cellars carved into the rock. The monolithic church, entirely hewn from underground sandstone, is one of France's architectural rarities. Tasting a Saint-Émilion Grand Cru in the cellars of the surrounding châteaux is a ritual that transforms a visit into a fully sensory experience. Local gastronomy also offers the famous almond macarons, a speciality of the village.

Cognac is the name of both a spirit and a city: this small town on the banks of the Charente in Nouvelle-Aquitaine is the world capital of the brandy that bears its name, produced here according to methods codified over centuries. The historic maisons — Hennessy, Martell, Rémy Martin, Courvoisier — open their chais to the public for tasting tours among oak barrels and archives of excellence. The black mould that forms on the buildings — the «part des anges» that evaporates during ageing — gives the facades a dark, almost mysterious patina. The Château des Valois, birthplace of Francis I, and the historic centre with its half-timbered houses complete the visit. Cognac is a city that smells of distilled spirit and history.

Pauillac is the beating heart of the Médoc, the celebrated peninsula stretching northward along the left bank of the Gironde estuary between the river and the Atlantic Ocean. Three of the five Bordeaux Premier Cru Classé wines are born here — Château Lafite Rothschild, Latour and Mouton Rothschild — in a mosaic of vineyards that succeed one another without interruption between river and Landes forest. The small town of Pauillac, with its harbour and riverside bistros, is the natural base for the Route des Châteaux: a journey through the finest French wine, between monumental cellars, tastings and scenery of rare elegance.