Things to See in Bordeaux

Occidental art buffs can trace its evolution from the Renaissance to the mid 20th-century at Bordeaux's exceptional Musée des Beaux-Arts. Occupying two wings of the 1770s-built Hôtel de Ville, either side of the elegant public park, Jardin de la Mairie, the 1801-established museum houses a superb collection of paintings, particularly 17th-century Flemish, Dutch and Italian works.

Austere and imposing, the Basilique Saint-Seurin is an architectural treasure, classed by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. The basilica's style is predominantly Romanesque, but many Gothic elements pertain - the result of successive additions to the structure over the centuries. Its history goes back as far as the beginning of Christendom in the 6th century.

Installed in the magnificent Hôtel de Lalande, built in 1779, the Museum of Decorative Arts contains a fantastic collection of faïence, porcelain, silverwork, glasswork, furniture, weapons and the like, dating mainly from the 18th- and 19th-centuries. The location - an elegant private mansion - renders the visit all the more interesting and informative.