Les Halles de Bacalan: Bordeaux's Food Hall Next to the Cité du Vin, With About 20 Stalls and No Mondays

Walk out of the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux and the next building along is where you eat. Les Halles de Bacalan opened on November 9 2017 at 10 Esplanade de Pontac, on the old docks of the Bassin à flot. It's run by Biltoki, a Basque group that operates food halls in the southwest, together with the Bordeaux restaurateur Nicolas Lascombes.

The building is about 2,600 square metres. Inside are roughly 20 stalls, 23 when it opened, plus a brasserie called Familia with its own 780 square metres. Oysters, cheese, charcuterie, a butcher, a fishmonger, bakers, and of course wine.

The bar in the middle of the hall on a busy day. Stools full along the counter, chalkboards hanging overhead, glasses racked upside down, people standing two deep waiting for a gap. Most of them have a plate from one stall and a glass from another.

How it works

It's the Time Out Market idea, done smaller and more French. You buy from whichever counter you like, carry it to a shared table, and the bar sells the drinks. There's no menu to sit through. A dozen oysters and a glass of Entre-Deux-Mers is lunch.

Hours vary by stall, which is the one annoying part. The hall is closed on Mondays. On other days it opens from breakfast, often with a break in the afternoon on quieter days, and stays open later at the end of the week. Sunday is a lunch day. Check the current times on the hall's site before you plan dinner around it.

Why it's here

The Bacalan district used to be the working port north of the centre: warehouses, shipyards and a wartime submarine base. Bordeaux has been rebuilding it for fifteen years, with the Cité du Vin as the landmark, new flats and offices around the basins, and a tram line connecting it all to the centre.

A food hall is how you get people to stay. Visitors finish the Cité, need lunch, and walk next door. Residents of the new flats shop there. It works because both crowds turn up.

Take tram B to Cité du Vin. Go at noon on a Saturday and you'll see the place at full volume.