The Miroir d'eau holds a record that sounds almost too mundane to be true: it is the world's largest reflecting pool.

Inaugurated in 2006, it stretches 130 metres across blue granite beside the Place de la Bourse. Its shallow sheet of water cycling through four distinct phases every 25 minutes: liquid mirror, spray, dry stone and refilling. Children dart through the mist; everyone else stands still, watching the Place de la Bourse's 18th-century façade double itself perfectly in the water.

The pool was part of a sweeping transformation that earned Bordeaux UNESCO World Heritage status in 2007, with the Miroir d'eau itself listed as a contemporary heritage site alongside the city's classical architecture. That combination of old grandeur and quietly radical public design tells you a great deal about modern Bordeaux.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours use the Miroir d'eau to frame Bordeaux's renewal, connecting its contemporary ambitions to the UNESCO-listed neoclassical cityscape it reflects.