Loyal readers will remember past adventures in the company of Bordeaux2066’s Vincent Bart, which include travelling to the point in Puynormand where the Greenwich Meridian converges with the 45th Parallel, and cycling the full length of the Eau Bourde river.

Meeting up once again, the challenge we set ourselves this time was to set out on a day-long road-trip that would take us to the extreme northern, eastern, southern and western points of the Gironde (mainland France’s vastest département), secretly hoping that something interesting might happen somewhere along the way. To achieve this, we plotted our route and set out early on a Sunday morning from Saint-Aubin-de-Médoc, knowing full well that we were about to drive almost 600 kilometres together, i.e. the equivalent of travelling to Paris.

“Bordeaux Safari” is a distinctive yellow guidebook which can be spotted in bookshops in and around the city. Its publishers, Deux Degrés, recently got in touch with me to find out whether I would feature the book on the blog. Of course, I don’t simply produce book reviews upon request, but in this instance I did think that, by putting the book to the test, I would be able to get some interesting results.

Bordeaux Safari’s tagline is that it is “le guide dont vous êtes le héros”, in other words the reader is the central character and the book serves as an interactive roleplaying device that moves the aforementioned hero from point to point throughout Bordeaux, seeing and experiencing the different facets of the city. And so it was that early on a sunny Sunday morning, I set off on my bicycle without knowing where exactly I was headed.

The annual European heritage days take place on September 17th and 18th. Hurrah! As always, there are hundreds of options available, making it difficult to know where to start.

So, to make things easier for you, Invisible Bordeaux has once again been looking closely at what’s on offer and here is a small selection of some of the more unusual and eye-catching visits... although this year’s choices come with a twist: all of these activities lie outside Bordeaux. Meanwhile, the full list of venues and visits - in Bordeaux and beyond - can be found on the official event website.