Marché des Chartrons

This guide to the Marche des Chartrons in Bordeaux starts with revolutionary authorities silencing a Carmelite convent's bells in 1792 and handing architect Michel Bonfin the job of turning the seized chapel grounds into a public marketplace. You'll follow the site through an octagonal stone pavilion and then Charles Burguet's 1869 glass-and-iron hall, built to echo the great Paris markets, and hear why the merchants it was built for largely stayed away for years. Stand under the ironwork Burguet raised over a square that started life as a convent garden.