Last checked: Thursday 30 July 2026. The situation is changing daily, so please check the official links at the bottom before you plan anything. I’m posting updates on Instagram as things change, so follow along there if you’re here now.
If you’re in Bordeaux this week and every headline you read says Gironde is burning, the first thing worth knowing is how big this département actually is. Saint-Émilion, where most visitors go for their vineyard day, sits more than 80 km from the fires. Its tourist office has been fielding cancellations all week anyway, including groups booked for September.
Both things are true at once. Despite being the largest wildfire in France since 1949, much of the surrounding region is continuing with daily life.
This article is for people who are already here, or arriving in the next few days, and want to know what a day actually looks like. It doesn’t try to tell you whether to travel. That depends on your health, your dates and your tolerance for uncertainty, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.
Where the fire actually is, and where it isn’t
The fire started at Saumos on 22 July and has burned around 42,000 hectares. Everything that has burned is west and southwest of the city: the Cap Ferret peninsula, Lège, Le Porge, Lacanau, Saint-Jean-d’Illac, and on into the Landes.
Bordeaux itself was never evacuated. Around 100,000 people in seven suburbs outside the rocade were moved as a precaution on 25 July, which is where a lot of the alarming footage came from. As of Thursday morning, the préfecture, the branch of the French state that runs the département and makes these calls, has authorised another 84,000 people to go home across nine towns. More than half of everyone evacuated since 22 July is now cleared to return.
The wine regions people actually visit have not burned. Saint-Émilion, the Médoc, Pauillac and the Entre-deux-Mers are all untouched. The Libournais is about 70 km from Cap Ferret and the châteaux there have been running tours through the whole thing.
How to check the air before you plan your day
This is the part that actually decides what you do, and it changes within hours depending on the wind.
The smoke has been reaching Bordeaux in waves since 24 July. Wednesday 29 July was rated mauvais on the European index. Thursday 30 July is forecast at dégradé, which is a real improvement, though fine particles were still measuring badly at six in the morning. Some days the city smells like a bonfire and the light goes strange and orange. Other days you’d barely know.
Two things worth doing before you leave your hotel:
- Check IQAir’s Bordeaux page, which the tourist office is pointing people to, or the ATMO Nouvelle-Aquitaine index for the commune.
- Look at the wind direction. Bordeaux gets Atlantic westerlies most of the time, which is exactly why the smoke has been arriving here, and also why it clears within a day or two when the wind turns.
If you want a mask, any pharmacie sells FFP2. They’re the ones that filter fine particles, and you’ll see plenty of people wearing them at Saint-Jean station. A surgical mask won’t do much.
Note – if anyone in your group has asthma or a respiratory condition, this is a conversation for a doctor and not for a travel blog. The Gironde prefecture runs an information line on 09 70 80 90 40, and it works from abroad on +33 9 70 80 90 40.
What to do in Bordeaux when the air is bad
Normally I’d tell you the best of Bordeaux is outside and free, and that the museums come second. This week is the exception, and it feels odd to write it.
On a heavy-smoke day, the indoor options are genuinely good ones:
- Bassins des Lumières in Bacalan, the immersive art space inside the old submarine base. It’s enormous, it’s cool inside, and the building alone carries the visit even if the exhibition isn’t to your taste.
- La Cité du Vin, where the building itself is a piece of modern art. Its shape is inspired by the movement of wine swirling in a glass; you can see it from a long way off, and it lifts the whole grungy port around the Bassins à Flot. I’ve written a full guide to visiting it.
- Les Halles de Bacalan, directly across the road from the Cité du Vin, where you can eat oysters and cannelés and drink your way through a few producers without going back outside.
- Musée d’Aquitaine for the city’s history, including the parts about the slave trade that Bordeaux took a long time to talk about openly.
- CAPC, the contemporary art museum in a converted colonial warehouse, where again the space does a lot of the work.
- Marché des Capucins in the morning for oysters and white wine at the counter, which is indoors and is what people here do anyway.
Note – on a clear day, take the self-guided walking tour and get outside while you can. The forecast is improving, and the architecture is still the reason people fall for this city.
Wine country is east, and it’s open
If you came for vineyards, you can still have that day. You just go east instead of west.
Saint-Émilion by train takes about 35 minutes from Gare Saint-Jean, and the line east is running normally. The walk from the station to the village is around 20 minutes. A lot of people assume you need a car for the wineries, but that’s not entirely true here: there are châteaux within walking distance of the village, and the wine boutiques in Saint-Émilion will pour you plenty without going anywhere.
Book ahead. That’s true in August in any year, and it matters more now because staff have been reorganising around cancellations.
You can find the full picture in my complete Saint-Émilion guide and in 10 day trips from Bordeaux by train, both of which were written for a normal summer and hold up for the eastern half of the list. Also, most of the châteaux on my list of wineries you can reach by public transport are east or south of the city and taking visitors as usual.
What isn’t possible right now
Being clear about this is more useful than a long list of alternatives.
- Festivals, concerts, sporting events, or organised cultural events in Gironde. The préfecture has banned all of them until 06:00 on Saturday 8 August, on the grounds that air quality is bad for prolonged outdoor gatherings and that events pull resources away from the fire. If you have a ticket for anything in the next week, assume it’s off and check with the organiser rather than the venue.
- The Bassin d’Arcachon (the town of Arcachon is open but air quality can deteriorate quickly), Cap Ferret, Lacanau and the Dune du Pilat. The Cap Ferret peninsula was fully evacuated and around a hundred businesses there have lost the season entirely. Two of ten campsites burned. This is not a “check and see” situation.
- Anything in the forest. Gironde has been at vigilance noire, the top level, since midnight on 25 July. Access to forest massifs and sensitive natural areas is prohibited until further notice, and sports, leisure and cultural events in forest communes are banned. That covers the cycling routes through the pines, the coastal trails and most of what people plan around Lacanau.
The beach is not happening this trip. If that was the whole point of your holiday, the honest answer is that the Atlantic coast north of the Bassin will still be there next summer, and the people who run it will be very glad to see you.
Getting around this week
Air travel and the eastern rail lines are the reliable parts.
- Bordeaux airport is operating and flights are running to schedule. Check before you set off anyway.
- Trains east to Libourne, Saint-Émilion, Périgueux, Agen and Toulouse have been running. You can book tickets online if you’d rather not deal with the SNCF site in French.
- Trains south and west are the problem, and this is the part most likely to catch you out. TER services in the Bordeaux, Arcachon and Morcenx triangle have been suspended since 26 July, and SNCF has said nothing runs south of Bordeaux until Sunday, apart from the Agen and Toulouse lines. Crews still can’t reach parts of the track to inspect it. Affected tickets can be cancelled or exchanged free of charge.
- Roads. The A63 reopened from 14:00 on Thursday. Other roads across Gironde and the Landes are still closed or restricted, and some areas are simply inaccessible.
- In the city, trams and buses are running normally.
Alternatives to the Bordeaux region
If all of this has worn you down and you’d rather spend the rest of your holiday elsewhere, that’s a fair call, and the southwest is big. The Dordogne, Cognac, La Rochelle, Biarritz and Toulouse are all well away from the fire and still easy to reach by train. My list of the best getaways from Bordeaux was written for weekends away, but any of them works as an alternative to the region for a longer stay.
Official sources to check before you go
- Gironde Prefecture wildfire FAQ (French), information line 09 70 80 90 40
- Bordeaux Tourism wildfire information page
- Bordeaux Airport updates
- SNCF disruption information
- IQAir Bordeaux air quality
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Note — Some of the links in this article include affiliate links for which I earn a small commission. It adds absolutely nothing to your cost and helps me continue writing about this amazing region. Don’t worry, I’m not getting rich here, I’ll never recommend anything I don’t believe in!
