Beautiful Bordeaux with Uniworld

I recently set sail around the Bordeaux region with Uniworld on the beautiful S.S. Bon Voyage. We covered all 3 rivers, the Garonne, Dordogne and Gironde and visited some of the highest rated wine regions in the world including Medoc and Saint Emilion.  

Amongst the beautiful scenery and stunning wine traditions dating back hundreds of years, we learnt about the important role Bordeaux played in World War II. This was highlighted in many of the excursions, we even had a historian come on board to fill an afternoon of sailing with a detailed lecture about this topic, which was fascinating.  

On the last night of the cruise, Uniworld host an exclusive event at The Bordeaux Submarine Base. This was built during World War II by German forces due to its strategic position and was a complex construction featuring seven central cells that functioned as a dry dock for the maintenance and repair of submarines.  

American forces bombed the submarine base in May 1943 as the site posed a major threat to allied forces. Although it had devastating effects on the surrounding area, the Germans continued to use the base during the war.  

In all this sadness and trauma, the city of Bordeaux has decided to create something positive out of this space and it's now an impressive cultural, tourist centre. Currently, it houses Bassins de Lumieres, the world’s largest digital art gallery.  

I knew this was an experience Uniworld offered but I was still in absolute awe of the size of the space when we walked in. The area is around 600,000 cubic meters of reinforced concrete so it was incredibly impressive for us, 90 Uniworld guests who had exclusive after hours access! This is quite a speciality of Uniworld and they give customers access to some of the most impressive sights around the world such as this one and St Marks Basilica in Venice. 

The base has been kitted out with a high spec of visual projection and audio equipment to really feel immersed in the art work of renowned artists such as Gustav Klimt and Paul Klee. We were there for over an hour wandering between the different rooms and watching the art work jump from the gigantic walls, across the water of the bases and over the floors that connected each segment.  

It was without a doubt one of the most unique experiences I have had the pleasure of being part of on a river cruise and its an absolute credit to Uniworld for securing such a unique and exclusive event.