How the low-rise working class homes of Bordeaux went upmarket

These products of the region’s late 19th and early 20th century expansion have become not just sought after, but even objects of adoration for devotees.

Feargus O'Sullivan

May 25, 2023 – 3.35pm

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If you travelled back in time 50 years to tell residents of Bordeaux’s échoppe houses that their streets would one day become world heritage monuments, they would probably be flabbergasted.

Small, often single-floor houses that form a belt around Bordeaux’s historic heart, these modest limestone homes built for the city’s working class long struggled with a reputation for shabbiness, dinginess and provinciality.

Bloomberg Citylab