Christmas Markets in the Dordogne, SW France

 European Christmas markets are world famous and France boasts some of the best inlcuding our favourite in the Beautiful city of Bordeaux – just one and half hours drive from our lovely holiday cottages – La Treille Gites.

The Bordeaux Christmas Market or ‘Marche Noel’ is held every year and is ideally placed right in the heart of the city, it’s open during the whole month of December with the stalls trading their unique wares up till 8pm on weekday evenings and 10pm at weekends.

We went with friends and had a lovely time browsing around the pretty market kiosks searching for ’special gifts’, having lunch in one of the numerous bistro restaurants and then sipping hot mulled wine later in the evening.

Getting to Bordeaux was a breeze with 90% of the journey on the motorway.  We drove straight into the centre of the city and parked in the underground car park at the Allee de Tourny  – this was immediately below the market stalls – perfect!  We purchased ourselves a Sat Nav a few weeks earlier and although we took it we really didn’t need it – we found our way directly to our chosen car park with not a single wrong turn… an unusual feat for us!

In between visiting the markets we stopped for lunch in a lovely little bistro restaurant.  The prices are amazingly good for city centre dining – in our eatery we chose the menu de jour which consisted of 3 courses including a bottle of wine for just 11 euros each. Fully refreshed we hit the streets again and made our way to the famous ‘rue St Catherine‘ – one of the longest pedestrianised shopping streets in Europe.  Here we discovered France’s top department store ‘Galeries Lafayette‘ and many other trendy French high street stores… A shopaholics mecca!!!

There are so many interesting places and buildings to see in Bordeaux including The Grande Theatre, museums and many churches and monuments including this beautiful bell tower ‘Gross Cloche’ and Cathedral Saint Andre… Here’s a link to a very good site with lots of information.

We had such a lovely time and would definately recommend a visit to Bordeaux – especially at this wonderfull time of year… we’ll definately be coming back to explore more that this amazing city of culture and all it has to offer.  If you want to come too you’re in for a treat!