Le Verdon (for Bordeaux) cruise port, France
The mouth of the Gironde, where the estuary meets the Atlantic, and a deep water quay built for cargo rather than for a town. Bordeaux is ninety kilometres upriver, which is why nearly everybody gets straight on a coach. The Medoc vineyards start a few miles behind the dunes.
Worth knowing. The Germans held this point until 20 April 1945, weeks after most of France was free. Whoever held the mouth of the Gironde closed the river to Bordeaux, so the pocket was worth holding to the end.
What to do in Le Verdon (for Bordeaux) for free
Be honest with yourself about this one: the quay is three kilometres from the nearest village and the free half of the day is mostly whatever the ship's bus can reach. Soulac-sur-Mer is the one worth the ride, a seaside town of shuttered villas with a Romanesque church that spent centuries buried in a sand dune and was dug back out.
What costs money
The ship's own excursions usually cost more than booking the same trip yourself. Two things come with the price. The ship waits for its own excursions and does not wait for you. And if the port is missed, P&O refunds its own without you asking. A trip you booked yourself is a claim on your travel insurance, so check what your policy covers. The ship sells its own trips to all of these, and the desk is open on board if you would rather do it that way.
Bordeaux. Ninety kilometres upriver and a good hour and a half each way by road. There is a train from Le Verdon as well, nearer two hours and only a handful a day, which is a long way to be from the ship on a timetable that thin. The old centre is a World Heritage site, and the sheet of water on the Place de la Bourse that reflects the whole facade is the thing everybody photographs.
A Medoc chateau. The vineyards start behind the dunes and the names on the labels are half an hour inland. A tasting is the usual shape of it, and from this quay there is no practical way to arrange one yourself.
Which ship calls at Le Verdon (for Bordeaux), and when
Every call here between 15 August and 28 November 2026, with the hours ashore P&O published. These times are a guide, not a promise: the captain gives the real ones the day before.
| Ship | Sails | Day | Ashore |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arvia | 28 May 2028, 14 nights | Day 11 | 09:00 to 22:00 |
| Arvia | 4 June 2028, 7 nights | Day 4 | 09:00 to 22:00 |
| Arvia | 4 June 2028, 14 nights | Day 4 | 09:00 to 22:00 |
| Arvia | 25 June 2028, 14 nights | Day 11 | 08:00 to 23:00 |
| Arvia | 2 July 2028, 7 nights | Day 4 | 08:00 to 23:00 |
| Arvia | 2 July 2028, 14 nights | Day 4 | 08:00 to 23:00 |
| Arvia | 23 July 2028, 14 nights | Day 12 | 08:00 to 23:00 |
| Arvia | 30 July 2028, 7 nights | Day 5 | 08:00 to 23:00 |
| Arvia | 30 July 2028, 14 nights | Day 5 | 08:00 to 23:00 |
| Arvia | 20 August 2028, 14 nights | Day 13 | 08:00 to 22:00 |
| Arvia | 27 August 2028, 7 nights | Day 6 | 08:00 to 22:00 |
| Arvia | 27 August 2028, 14 nights | Day 6 | 08:00 to 22:00 |
| Arvia | 17 September 2028, 14 nights | Day 11 | 08:00 to 23:00 |
| Arvia | 24 September 2028, 7 nights | Day 4 | 08:00 to 23:00 |
| Arvia | 8 October 2028, 7 nights | Day 5 | 08:00 to 23:00 |
How long you get ashore in Le Verdon (for Bordeaux)
The published times give you between about 13 and 15 hours alongside, depending on the sailing. Take off the time it takes a few thousand people to get off, and the time you need to be back on board before the ship leaves, and that is your day. P&O give the real hours the day before, and the all-aboard time is earlier than the departure time.
The other stops on these cruises
Every one of these is on at least one of the sailings that calls at Le Verdon (for Bordeaux).
- AlesundThe whole town burned down in one night in January 1904 and was rebuilt at speed in Art Nouveau, with materials Kaiser Wilhelm II sent by ship.
- Cobh (tours to Cork)Titanic's last port of call, on 11 April 1912, when the town was called Queenstown.
- Getxo (tours to Bilbao)Basque country, at the mouth of the river up to Bilbao.
- HaugesundNorway calls this its birthplace: Harald Fairhair, who pulled the country into one kingdom in the 870s, had his seat at Avaldsnes, just down the coast.
- HellesyltA waterfall runs straight through the middle of the village and into the fjord.
- KristiansandLaid out as a grid in 1641 by Christian IV of Denmark-Norway, who wanted a fortress town guarding the entrance to the Skagerrak and had one built on the sand at the river mouth.
- La RochelleThree medieval towers stand at the mouth of the old harbour, and a chain was slung between two of them to shut the port at night.
- Le HavreFour fifths of the town was destroyed in September 1944 and Auguste Perret rebuilt the centre in reinforced concrete on a grid, which is now a World Heritage site, listed for the planning rather than for anything old.
- OldenA village of a few hundred people at the head of Nordfjord, 100 km in from the open sea.
- SkjoldenThe innermost point of the Sognefjord, about 200 kilometres from open water.
- StavangerA herring and sardine-canning town that struck North Sea oil in 1969 and became Norway's richest city.
Money and language in France
Euro (EUR, €). Cards are fine almost everywhere. A boulangerie queue moves faster if you have coins. Onboard is always charged in sterling, so this only matters ashore.
A greeting in French before you switch to English is worth more here than anywhere else on these itineraries.
| English | French | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| Hello | Bonjour | bon-ZHOOR |
| Goodbye | Au revoir | oh ruh-VWAR |
| How much? | Combien ça coûte? | kom-BYAN sa KOOT |
| Thank you | Merci | mair-SEE |
| Please | S'il vous plaît | seel voo PLEH |
Free, and it works with no internet. Give it the dates you sail and it works out your own stops and saves the street map for each one. It shows you round the ship too.
All the ports written up so far, the things to do before you sail, or the ship pages for Iona and Arvia.