Hôtel Majestic

Victor Hugo Lodged Here, Twenty Metres from the Opera

Rue de Condé is a short street behind the Grand Théâtre, the kind that carries no traffic because it leads nowhere in particular. The building at number 2 went up in the eighteenth century, when this quarter was being laid out around Victor Louis’s new opera house, and in 1843 Victor Hugo took lodgings in it on his way through the south west. The hotel that occupies it now has been stripped back and rebuilt over a long renovation, and it has come back with a theme it could hardly avoid: opera, borrowed from the neighbour twenty metres away.

Why It Works

We kept this address for the combination of position and quiet, which in central Bordeaux almost never come together. Twenty metres from the Grand Théâtre means the Triangle d’Or, the Quinconces and the whole eighteenth-century centre are at the door; being on rue de Condé rather than on the Cours means the room is silent. The house is small enough to feel like one, forty-five rooms plus a suite and an apartment, and every room has been redone rather than refreshed. Dogs are accepted and families are catered for.

Why This Location

The Grand Théâtre and the Opéra National are twenty metres away, and the Esplanade des Quinconces, the largest square in the city, opens at the other end of the street. From that point the Triangle d’Or runs west, with the Cours de l’Intendance, the Allées de Tourny and the restaurants of the Place des Grands Hommes; the rue Sainte-Catherine runs south; and the quays of the Garonne, the Place de la Bourse and the miroir d’eau lie a few minutes east. The Chartrons wine quarter is a walk north along the river.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: Eighteenth-century, operatic, freshly rebuilt, quiet street

• Rooms: Forty-five rooms with an opera theme, plus a suite and an apartment, all air conditioned with private bathrooms

• Best For: Couples, opera and theatre travellers, families and dog owners who want a heritage address

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The fact that Victor Hugo slept in this building in 1843 and that the Grand Théâtre is still twenty metres from the door

• Dining: Breakfast on site; the restaurants of the Triangle d’Or and the Place des Grands Hommes are a few minutes on foot

• Amenities: Air conditioning throughout, a suite and a self-contained apartment, dogs accepted, family rooms

• Attractions: The Grand Théâtre and Opéra National twenty metres away, Esplanade des Quinconces, the Triangle d’Or, rue Sainte-Catherine, the Place de la Bourse and the miroir d’eau

Forty-Five Rooms on an Opera Theme

The theme could have gone badly and does not, because it is carried in colour, fabric and reference rather than in costume. Rooms are individually decorated within it, air conditioned, with flat-screen televisions and private bathrooms, and they differ in size and outlook as they do in any converted eighteenth-century house. Above the rooms sit a suite and a self-contained apartment, which is the option for a longer stay or for a family that wants a kitchen. Ask about the floor and the aspect at booking: the street side and the courtyard side are different propositions.

A Quiet Street in the Loudest Part of Town

The Quinconces end of the centre is where Bordeaux concentrates its crowds, its trams and its evenings out, and rue de Condé sits inside that perimeter without being part of it. That is the practical argument for staying here rather than on a boulevard: the walk home from dinner takes three minutes and ends on a street with nothing on it. For anyone with tickets at the Grand Théâtre, the geometry is close to ideal, and for everyone else it is simply the shortest distance to everything worth seeing.