Pessac is better known for wine than for modern architecture, so it is a surprise to find a small colony of Le Corbusier houses in its southern suburbs. In 1924, the industrialist Henry Frugès, a sugar and timber magnate with a social conscience, commissioned the young architect to build cheap, comfortable homes for his workers, and Le Corbusier designed rows of cubic houses with flat roofs, long ribbon windows and bright colours, inside and out. It was one of his first large housing experiments, an attempt to apply factory methods to building, and it took a few years to finish. The result was a village of around fifty houses.
The place was not an instant success. Residents found the flat roofs leaked, the layouts unconventional and the colours outlandish, and for decades many of the houses were altered or neglected. Gradually, the estate was recognised as a key work of modern architecture, and a restoration brought back the original colour schemes of pale pink, blue, green and ochre. In 2016 it became part of a UNESCO listing of Le Corbusier's architectural works, and one house is kept as a museum, with the original furnishings and fittings to see.
Around it, Pessac is a big suburb of Bordeaux, a university town of nearly fifty-eight thousand with plenty of fuel stations and cafés. Its other claim to fame is Château Haut-Brion, one of the first-growth wines of Bordeaux, whose vineyards lie within the suburb, surrounded by houses, and whose reputation dates back to the seventeenth century, when the English drank it in London. The Graves vineyards of Pessac-Léognan roll away south, and the Saint-Émilion jurisdiction, the other part of the ride, lies on the far side of the city, among limestone plateaus.
Riding around Bordeaux is mostly flat, fast and heavy with traffic, so take the quieter roads, and avoid the ring road at rush hour. Park beside the estate and walk its quiet streets, and you will notice the clean geometry of the houses against the leafy gardens. The estate is quietest in the morning, and on a bright day, the colours seem to hum against the blue of the sky.