We have been looking at vacation rentals in Bordeaux, and we keep seeing reviews that mention mosquitoes.
For anyone who has been to Bordeaux in the early summer, are mosquitoes a big problem? Lots of bites? Can you sit outside at a café comfortably? Can we have our windows open at night?
Thanks!
We rented a place for a week to the north of Bordeaux, outside of Saint-Andre-de-Cubzac. It was late Spring, mid to late June, 2003. We ate dinner outside our gite each night, and mosquitos weren’t a specific problem, but when we slept with the bedroom window open the first night (no screen), other bugs virtually ate us alive during the night, and we kept the window closed after that. Insect repellent wouldn’t be a bad thing to have, or to pick up over there. Maybe things have changed a bit since 2003, but other places we’ve stayed in other parts of France haven’t had window screens, either, and were otherwise very nice places.
For what it’s worth, 3 years ago in Pont Aven, Brittany, as people gathered near the water for the Bastille Day fireworks that evening, “moustiques” came out and starting sucking blood. The wind picked up a bit and blew away the mosquitoes, so the evening was saved!
Thanks, Cyn. We have been to Paris, Normandy, Alsace & Champagne and never had mosquito issues, so these apartment reviews in Bordeaux are worrying us a bit - we love to open the windows!
Keeping light off (or to a minimum) seems to help lessen the gnats and other flying bugs, but for mosquitoes, bug repellent might be your best bet, if you go and they’re causing any grief. All that said, that’s a wonderful part of France. We had one drenching rainy night, so mosquitoes might not be the only thing to watch out for.
I'm super late to the game replying to this! However, we had the same problem, staying in a hotel in the city! We were there in September, and it was quite warm. Slept with the window open (top floor room at Hotel Mama Shelter) and I was eaten alive. Mosquitoes at home don't usually bite me. The Bordeaux mosquitoes are tiny and vicious. I was super glad I had my first aid kit with bug bite stuff in it.
I was there last June and didn't have any noticeable issues with mosquitoes. I was outside most of the time, at the wine festival. It was a very wet spring last year so that may have led to an unusual amount of mosquitoes later in the year?
My complaint was with public transportation. They have some bus lines and a couple of tram lines, not nearly as useful as Paris. The systems seem to shut down around 9, even on weekends, so getting home after dinner is an issue. Doing it over I would have made sure I stayed closer to the center. Instead I had a lot of long walks to and from the center.
