Bordeaux (France) – Location, History, Facts

Bordeaux, France.

Country: France
Coordinates: 44.8378° N, 0.5794° W
Country and region: France; capital of Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Departmental role: Prefecture of Gironde
River and setting: Port city on the Garonne in southwestern France

Bordeaux overview

Bordeaux is a city and port on the Garonne River in southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and the prefecture of the Gironde department, giving it both regional and departmental administrative roles. Its public identity also rests on older commercial functions: the settlement developed from Burdigala, a Roman-era center of trade, into a city associated with wine, river access, historic architecture, higher education, and aerospace and defense industries.

Official recorded sales

Residential property prices in Bordeaux

The median recorded residential sale price was €4,599 per m² across 23,700 qualifying transactions in 2021–2025. This is a historical transaction measure, not a live asking price or a valuation.

Apartment median: €4,427/m²
House median: €5,188/m²
Source updated: 2026-07-17

Open the full data analysis and methodology

Bordeaux coordinates

Bordeaux is commonly mapped at approximately 44.8378° N, 0.5794° W, or 44.8378, -0.5794 in decimal degrees.

Degrees: 44.8378° N, 0.5794° W

Decimal: 44.8378, -0.5794

Where Bordeaux is located

The city lies on the Garonne in southwestern France, where its river-port setting connects the urban area with the wider Atlantic-facing region. Administratively, it belongs to Nouvelle-Aquitaine and serves as the prefecture of Gironde. The municipality covers 49.36 square kilometres, while the wider metropolitan structure is Bordeaux Métropole, which includes the central city and 27 suburban municipalities. This distinction matters: the city is the administrative core, while many residents, institutions, and economic activities operate across the metropolitan area.

A regional capital and departmental prefecture

Bordeaux performs regional-capital and departmental-prefecture functions within France’s territorial administration.

As capital of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the city operates at the regional level, while its status as prefecture of Gironde gives it a departmental administrative role. It is also part of Bordeaux Métropole, an intermunicipal structure comprising the city and 27 suburban municipalities. These overlapping scales explain why the place serves more than its municipal population of 267,991 residents recorded in 2023. Its civic function is therefore distributed across commune, department, region, and metropolitan institutions rather than confined to the historic centre.

The Garonne waterfront and the metropolitan city

The Garonne River and the metropolitan boundary are central to understanding Bordeaux’s urban form.

The city occupies a river-port setting on the Garonne, while its metropolitan institutions extend across 27 surrounding municipalities. The historic centre is identified as “Bordeaux, Port of the Moon,” a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2007. The listed area covers 1,731 hectares and has an 11,974-hectare buffer zone, showing that heritage protection concerns a substantial urban setting rather than one isolated monument. Streets, riverfront spaces, civic buildings, and neighbouring districts are consequently understood within a larger protected and metropolitan landscape.

From Burdigala’s trade to a modern service and industry centre

Bordeaux’s public and economic role developed from an ancient trading settlement into a regional city with wine, research, and aerospace functions.

The settlement was known as Burdigala and was associated with the Bituriges Vivisci around 300 BC. Roman rule began around 60 BC, when the place became a commercial centre for tin and lead. Later identity became strongly connected with the vineyards and châteaux surrounding the city, while modern economic activity includes aeronautics, military and space industries. The historical sequence is therefore not a simple replacement of one use by another: river commerce, regional administration, wine networks, and advanced industry have successively enlarged the city’s functions.

Wine networks, universities, and aerospace companies

Wine institutions, a large university population, and aerospace and defense companies shape the city’s contemporary regional role.

The city is surrounded by vineyards and châteaux and hosts Vinexpo, described in the source as the world’s main wine fair. Its institutional base also includes a university population exceeding 130,000 across Bordeaux Métropole. Aerospace, military, and space activity is represented by companies including Dassault Aviation, ArianeGroup, Safran, and Thales. Together, these institutions connect the place to agricultural production, international trade, higher education, research, and strategic manufacturing, giving its regional capital role an economic and knowledge-based dimension.

A civic image built from port heritage and wine culture

Bordeaux represents a convergence of river-port history, protected urban heritage, and the wine culture of southwestern France.

The designation “Bordeaux, Port of the Moon” links the city’s identity to the Garonne and its historic centre, which entered the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007. More than 362 historic monuments are listed in the source, including the Place de la Bourse, Grand Théâtre, Saint-André Cathedral, Pont de Pierre, and Grosse Cloche. Wine provides a second symbolic register through the surrounding vineyards, châteaux, and Vinexpo. Together, these elements frame the city as both a working regional centre and a historical landscape shaped by commerce.