L'Atelier des Citernes can be hired in full for evening events of 200 to 450 guests, such as product launches, seminars, gala evenings, incentives, cocktails and dinners. A meeting room for 26 people is available on the first floor for working days and workshops. The venue is a converted railway workshop of 800 m² at 45 rue de la Compagnie du Midi, in the Amédée Saint-Germain district of Bordeaux, close to Gare Saint-Jean.
Seminars and company events
The venue offers two formats for companies. The first is the meeting room, on the first floor, equipped for 26 people, with daylight and a modern fit-out. It suits a working day, a training session or a workshop, and the team can add catering from the counters downstairs.
The second is full hire of the hall for an evening. The site lists working days, workshops, conferences, dinners, gala evenings, showrooms, launch parties and cocktails among the events it organises, with a services offer around them. Full hire is available on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, outside the busiest public opening nights. The hall includes a multipurpose stage that the Atelier uses for its own music and arts programme, which can serve a talk, a band or a DJ during a company evening.
Rooms and capacities
The main hall, with its counters, bars and stage, takes 200 to 450 guests on full hire. The meeting room on the first floor seats 26. The site does not publish layouts by room, so confirm the seated and standing figures for your format with the team. Spaces for associations, artists' residencies, exhibitions and classes also share the building.
Catering
Food comes from the counters that operate in the hall every day. There are eight: Le Bar des Citernes, the Pépin wine bar, Le Panier de Nana with Syrian cooking, Au Gré des Saisons as a seasonal pop-up, Marie Curry for street food, Téra with South-West dishes, Nicuzza with Sicilian food and Big Boss with Vietnamese food. For an event, this gives a food-hall format with several cuisines and a bar, rather than a single plated menu. Ask how the counters work together for a seated dinner.
History and setting
The site belongs to the railway history of Bordeaux. The Compagnie des chemins de fer du Midi, founded on November 5, 1852 by the Pereire brothers, set up its workshops and sheds in this part of the city. Its water tower, known as Les Citernes, was built between 1854 and 1857 to supply the steam engines and the fire service. It has been listed as a historic monument since 2018 and gives its name to the square in front of the Atelier.
The Atelier occupies a former SNCF workshop with stone façades, brick walls and an Eiffel-type steel frame. The CoBe architecture agency carried out the conversion for the Foncière Ville Envie, as part of the Bordeaux Euratlantique urban project around the station.
Getting there
Gare Saint-Jean, the main station of Bordeaux with high-speed trains from Paris, is a short walk away. The venue's address is 45 rue de la Compagnie du Midi, 33800 Bordeaux. In winter, from October to March, the public opening hours run from 11 am, with late evenings from Thursday to Saturday.
