Bordeaux · Self-guided audio walk

Saint-Michel and the Capucins: The Market Quarter

A river gate, a Romanesque abbey, a 114-metre bell tower, and the two markets where Bordeaux shops and eats.

6Stops
1.6 kmDistance
25+ minTime

Photo by Matthias v.d. Elbe on Wikimedia Commons

This walk crosses the working half of southern Bordeaux, where the city's money gate once opened onto the quay and the market quarter grew up behind it. You start at the Porte de la Monnaie on the river, step into the Romanesque calm of the old Benedictine abbey at Sainte-Croix, then come out under the 114-metre bell tower of Saint-Michel.

From there it's all stalls: the flea market around Place Canteloup and the covered hall of the Marché des Capucins, where you can eat your way through the morning. The whole route stays south of the Grosse Cloche, in a small, working quarter where the food and the crowd matter as much as the stone.

Hear it on the street

Get the turn-by-turn audio guide in the app. The narration plays itself as you reach each stop, hands-free and offline.

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Stop by stop

The route

Interactive map of the route. The full stop list below works without it.

Must see

Photo by marsupilami92 on Openverse

Porte de la Monnaie

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An 18th-century gate cut through the old city wall so the quarter could reach the Garonne, named for the mint that once stood beside it.

You're standing at the Porte de la Monnaie, the money gate, and the name is literal. The gate went up between 1758 and 1759 so the streets behind you could reach the river; before it, the old wall cut this quarter off from the port. The intendant Tourny ordered it in 1752, and the architect André Portier drew it with a sober Doric order, rusticated stone, and a frieze of triglyphs and metopes. A royal mint workshop had just been moved a few steps away, and the gate borrowed its name. Look at the shape: it's a ceremonial doorway punched through a medieval wall, not a defensive tower. It's been a protected historic monument since 1965.

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≈4 min walk to the next stop

Must see

Photo by GO69 on Wikimedia Commons

Église Sainte-Croix

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A former Benedictine abbey church with a Romanesque facade, older than most of Bordeaux and once a major pilgrimage site.

This is the abbey church of Sainte-Croix, older than almost everything else you'll see in Bordeaux. A Benedictine monastery stood here from the Merovingian age, though the first buildings were destroyed by Saracen raids around 730 and again by the Normans in the 9th century. The church in front of you went up at the end of the 11th century or the start of the 12th, and its facade is the Romanesque of the Saintonge, readable in the tiers of blind arcading. The abbey drew pilgrims to the tomb of Saint Mommolin, a 7th-century abbot who died here around 679 and was invoked to heal mental illness. Later the nave was re-vaulted in the Gothic manner, but the west front keeps its older rhythm. The monks drained the marshes here and, over centuries, their estates stretched across the Gironde.

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≈8 min walk to the next stop

Must see

Photo by Alexander Baranov from Montpellier, France on Wikimedia Commons

Basilique Saint-Michel

0:00

The quarter's great flamboyant Gothic church, second largest in Bordeaux and a stop on the pilgrim road to Santiago.

This is the Basilica of Saint-Michel, the second largest church in Bordeaux and a fine piece of flamboyant Gothic. Building began around 1330, then stalled through the plague of 1348, the Hundred Years' War, and floods, and the church only rose in the 1430s, when the parish raised the nave and made it a basilica. Louis XI came here in 1462 and gave the church money, since he had placed the kingdom under the protection of the Archangel Michael. The church also sat on the pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostela, one reason it's listed with UNESCO today. Around it grew a quarter of merchants and craftsmen, carpenters and coopers, living outside the old walls. And you'll notice what's missing from the building itself: its bell tower stands fifteen metres away, on its own.

Open in Google Maps

≈1 min walk to the next stop

Free preview ends here · stops 4 to 6 continue in the app

Flèche Saint-Michel

The basilica's detached 114-metre bell tower, the tallest in the south of France, rebuilt after a hurricane took its top.

in app

Place Canteloup

A small square beside the bell tower where the Saint-Michel flea market sets up four mornings a week.

in app

Marché des Capucins

Bordeaux's largest covered market, where you eat oysters at a counter and the city does its daily shopping.

in app

Good to know

Before you go

When should I visit the Marché des Capucins?

In the morning, when the hall is at its busiest and the oyster counters are shucking. The market winds down by early afternoon, so treat it as a breakfast or early lunch stop.

What should I eat there?

Oysters and a glass of white wine at a counter, or a canelé and coffee if you want something sweet. The market is where the city does its daily shopping, so follow the locals.

Can I go inside the basilica of Saint-Michel?

The basilica is a working church on the pilgrim road to Santiago, so step inside quietly, and note the detached 114 metre bell tower across the square.

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Provenance · last verified August 22, 2026

Built from the Wayside route itself: the stops, their order, and the walk between them.

Photo by Matthias v.d. Elbe on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0

Photo by marsupilami92 on Openverse · CC BY 2.0

Photo by GO69 on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo by Alexander Baranov from Montpellier, France on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

Photo by Pline on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Photo by Remi Jouan on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0

Photo by Grand Parc - Bordeaux, France from France on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

Photo by Coyau on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Photo by Ardfern on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Photo by Matthew Perosi on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0