Minvielle 2G DUP

Morning light fills the duplex through tall windows, landing on the private garden below — a rare thing in the city, yours alone.

Upstairs, a bedroom with crisp linens; downstairs, a whirlpool tub for the end of long days walking the quais. The kitchen is properly equipped, and the garden comes with a plancha for grilling under the plane trees.

Le quartier des Chartrons unfolds just outside: Sunday mornings at the antiques market along rue Notre-Dame, coffee at one of the wine bars that line the old merchant streets, the Garonne a few blocks west.

A duplex with a garden suits two couples splitting a long weekend, or a small family who want space to breathe. You'll remember the evenings outside, glass in hand, the city quieting down.

Step out onto rue Minvielle and you're in the quiet grid behind Saint-Pierre — limestone façades the colour of pale honey, scooters leaning against carriage doors, the smell of coffee drifting from somewhere on rue des Faures. Two minutes south, the lanes open onto place du Parlement, where the fountain runs all day and the waiters set tables before le matin service.

For the marché, walk to Capucins on a Sunday — Bordelais call it "le ventre de Bordeaux" for a reason. Pull up a stool at Chez Jean-Mi for half a dozen Arcachon oysters and a glass of Entre-deux-Mers before noon. That's the ritual; the rest of the day arranges itself around it.