Car Return Bordeaux

Since you dont know where to return your car, is it correct to assume you haven't yet rented it? If you dont want to drive in the city, rent from a company that has an office at the airport. You can get into the city by taxi, tram, or shuttle bus (see airport website)

The two main places to return the car in Bordeaux are the Saint Jean train station and Mérignac airport. In my opinion, from a practical point of view, if you're coming from Sarlat, you'd be much better off returning the car at the train station by following the signs for "Bordeaux Centre" and then "Gare Saint Jean".

Upon arriving in Bordeaux, once you've crossed the Garonne River bridge (Pont François Mitterrand), follow the riverbank to the right. It's a wide, three-lane avenue that you should follow for about a mile. Then, leaving this riverbank towards "Saint Jean", you won't have to drive more than half a mile within the city itself to reach the train station. The entire journey from the bridge takes about 10 minutes.

The downside of the airport is that it's on the other side of the Bordeaux ring road when coming from Sarlat. This means you'll have to drive around Bordeaux on this ring road, which is prone to traffic jams, making the journey longer.
And finally, once you've returned the car, you'll have to get to the city center by public transport or taxi.

We lucked out with traffic returning our car to the airport from St Emilion, it was about 9am on a weekday and we sailed through freeway traffic and easily found a gas station near the airport to fill the tank. If I understand correctly the 'F' tram now has a station at the airport to take you into town. The station is easily accessible from the rental lot.

The airport is very convenient. I wouldn't want to return a car at the main train station.

Two years ago we rented a car at the train station in Bordeaux, arriving by train from Paris on a Saturday and returning 5 days later. It's a little tricky dropping off at the station, also getting gas just before drop off in the city wasn't easy. At the time there was a lot of construction around the train station and the signage wasn't great. I made the mistake of missing the left turn into the garage (all rental companies had the same return garage but the signs weren't clear) so I had to make a very long loop around the station to get back to the garage.
The good part was that from the train station it's easy to get around the city. The tram service is excellent, although not sure how it would be with luggage. Our hotel was a few blocks 'behind' the train station so I dropped off everyone else with luggage.

If you decide to drop off at the train station be aware of the closing times of the rental agencies there. Our pick up was on a Saturday afternoon, our train from Paris was 1.5 hours delayed and we ended up getting to the rental desk with only 30 minutes to spare before they closed (around 6pm on a Saturday, I think but double check).

We returned our rental car in Sarlat and took the train from Sarlat to Bordeaux. We used Europcar which was within walking distance of the train station (but it was uphill) Very easy and we totally avoided driving in Bordeaux!