Natural features
Dune du Pilat
La Teste-de-Buch, Gironde
Europe's tallest sand dune, about 100 m high and nearly 3 km long, between the Atlantic Ocean and a pine forest at the entrance to the Arcachon Bay.
Travel tips in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France
About Nouvelle-Aquitaine · All tips in France
France › Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Country facts
Historic sites
Font-de-Gaume and the Vézère valley
Saint-Cyprien, Dordogne
The Vézère valley around Les Eyzies holds an exceptional concentration of prehistoric caves and shelters, a World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Lascaux IV cave paintings
Montignac, Dordogne
The cave of Lascaux, discovered in 1940, holds some of the finest prehistoric paintings in the world: bulls, horses and deer painted about 17,000 yea…
Historic sites
Monolithic Church, Saint-Émilion
Saint-Émilion, Gironde
The largest underground church in Europe, carved out of the solid limestone hill beneath Saint-Émilion in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Historic sites
Brouage
Marennes-Hiers-Brouage, Charente-Maritime
A star-shaped fortified town in the marshes of Charente-Maritime, once a busy salt port, whose sea has since retreated, leaving it stranded in the fi…
Historic sites
Château Royal de Cognac (Baron Otard)
Cognac, Charente
The castle where King François I was born in 1494, beside the Charente River in the centre of Cognac.
Historic sites
Corderie Royale, Rochefort
Rochefort, Charente-Maritime
The 374-metre-long royal rope works of the naval arsenal founded by Louis XIV at Rochefort, on the Charente estuary.
Attractions
Hennessy cognac house tour, Cognac
Cognac, Charente
Cognac, a small town on the Charente River, is the home of the brandy of the same name, and the great cognac houses offer tours in several languages.
Natural features
Marais poitevin
Coulon, Deux-Sèvres
The 'Green Venice': a maze of canals shaded by poplars and ash trees in the marshes west of Niort, best explored by flat-bottomed boat or canoe.
Historic sites
Place de la Bourse and Miroir d'eau, Bordeaux
Bordeaux, Gironde
Bordeaux's grand 18th-century Place de la Bourse faces the Garonne river, and in front of it the Miroir d'eau, the world's largest reflecting pool, a…
Historic sites
Saint-Émilion village and vineyards
Saint-Émilion, Gironde
A medieval hilltop village of honey-coloured stone and steep cobbled lanes, surrounded by some of the world's most famous vineyards, a UNESCO World H…
Historic sites
Towers of La Rochelle
La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime
Three medieval towers guarding the old harbour of La Rochelle: the Saint-Nicolas and Chain towers on either side of the entrance, between which a gre…
Historic sites
Abbaye de la Sauve-Majeure
La Sauve, Gironde
The romantic ruins of a Benedictine abbey founded in 1079 in the vineyards of the Entre-deux-Mers, on the route to Santiago de Compostela.
Historic sites
Château d'Oiron
Plaine-et-Vallées, Deux-Sèvres
A Renaissance château in the countryside of Poitou with a long gallery painted with scenes of the Trojan War, and a collection of contemporary art, C…
Historic sites
Château de Cadillac
Cadillac-sur-Garonne, Gironde
A grand early 17th-century château built for the Duke of Épernon, a favourite of Henri III, in the walled town of Cadillac on the Garonne.
Historic sites
Château de Puyguilhem
Saint-Pardoux-la-Rivière, Dordogne
A small Renaissance château in the green Périgord, built in the 1510s and often compared with the châteaux of the Loire.
Historic sites
Grotte de Pair-non-Pair
Marcamps, Gironde
A small decorated cave near Bourg in the Gironde, with engravings of horses, ibex and mammoths around 30,000 years old, among the oldest cave art in …
Buildings
Tour Pey-Berland, Bordeaux
Bordeaux, Gironde
The free-standing bell tower of Bordeaux's Saint-André Cathedral, built in the 15th century apart from the church so its bells would not shake the bu…