Musée d'Aquitaine

The Musée d'Aquitaine, at 20 Cours Pasteur in the university quarter of Bordeaux, is the city's principal history museum and covers the story of Bordeaux and the Aquitaine region of France from prehistory to the present day. It is housed in a 19th-century building that once belonged to the faculties of science and letters and was converted to a museum, opening in this form in the 1980s. The collections run chronologically through several major periods. The prehistory galleries include objects from the Palaeolithic era found in the Dordogne and Pyrenees, among them the Venus of Lespugue, a carved ivory figurine of about 25,000 years ago. The antiquity section presents Gallo-Roman Burdigala, with mosaics, inscriptions, tombstones, sculpture and everyday objects that show the town as a Roman commercial centre. Medieval and Renaissance rooms cover the Aquitaine of Eleanor and the Plantagenets and the growth of the wine trade. The 18th-century and later sections address the port of Bordeaux, the Atlantic trade in wine and sugar, and the colonial economy. A significant gallery is devoted to slavery and the slave trade, and Bordeaux's role as one of the major French slave-trading ports, with documents, objects and testimony that present the city's history openly. Later galleries explore the 19th and 20th centuries, including the Second World War, and extend to the question of how the region has changed. The approach is mainly chronological with thematic touches, and the labelling is clear and based on research by regional archaeologists and historians. The building has been renovated over time, and the collections are generally well preserved and presented with modern displays. Visitors will find that the museum gives a strong grounding in local history before they walk the quays, which makes it a useful first stop in the city. The cathedral and the Place Pey-Berland are close by, and a visit can easily be combined with the nearby Musée des Beaux-Arts. Admission is a few euros and is free on the first Sunday of the month outside July and August.