Bordeaux, France

The city long known as La Belle Au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty) is well and truly awake after years of slumber.

The turn of the millennium was a major turning point for Bordeaux, when the former mayor, controversial ex-Prime Minister Alain Juppé, roused this graceful city, pedestrianising its boulevards, restoring its neoclassical architecture, and implementing a high-tech public transport system.

These days, bolstered by its high-spirited university student population, La Belle Bordeaux never seems to sleep at all.