Welcome to Visit-Aquitaine .com

Five counties in the South West of France on the Atlantic coast make up the province of Aquitaine.Since the Roman invasion, Bordeaux has been its administrative capital. However the landscape in Aquitaine is by no means uniform.

To the South you find the Pyrénées Atlantiques; in the Basque part they are green with rounded gentle slopes whereas in the Béarn country they form cirques and have jagged crests. Going Northward you meet the Landes, vast stretches of sea pine planted at the end of the C19th to fix the sand dunes.It is the biggest forest in Europe, a million hectares. Then you have a succession of marshland and lakes till the land ends at the point where the Gironde estuary merges with the Atlantic ocean.
To the East of the Gironde and the Garonne are the alluvial plains that roll gently as far as the Dordogne and the Lot-et-Garonne. First of all you find vineyards then market garden holdings where cereals, fruit and vegetables are cultivated. They stop at the chalk cliffs, the edge of the Perigord plateau. There, forests of oak and chestnut take over. A countryside of valleys and hills that dominate the surroundings as far as the Quercy region.

Aquitaine lies in the path of the ocean winds which bring with them a certain mildness in winter and a breath of fresh air in summer. Spring is mild too but the frequent showers are welcomed by the wine producers and market gardeners. The sun is present all summer and goes on shining till late in the season. But the region can suffer from drought or storms, which was the case in the winter of 99.
Aquitaine can be reached by T.G.V. from Paris, by the A10 motorway from Paris and the A63 motorway from Toulouse. The Mérignac airport is 20 to30 minutes away from the town centre of Bordeaux by shuttle.