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Tips on returning rental car at Bordeaux St. Jean train station

It appears that I might be the first to do this and live to write about it, so here goes. All of the major rental car firms now have their return lots in a NEW, multi-story "car-park" adjacent to, but on the other side of the tracks from the main train terminal. So if you navigate to the station on GPS, you'll be on the wrong side of the tracks! Entrance to the car park is from street called Terres Bordes, BUT THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO SIGNAGE TO INDICATE RENTAL CAR RETURN. We navigated to the car return address for Europcar: 137 R TERRES BORDES, HALL 3, N -1, CARPARK P3 INDIGO-BELCIER 6E ETAGE (137 was too new for the GPS to recognize the address number), but it got us close enough to guess that we were at the right place. Then, once you are inside the parking deck, there are small paper signs taped to support columns near the circular UP ramps that indicate CAR RETURN. Hallelujah! From there, I think it's on level 5 or 6 to the return areas. From there, it's easy as long as your luggage has wheels....no luggage trolleys or porters available. Take the parking deck elevator down to street level (0 as I recall), then down a long ramp toward the platforms, and you can walk to the platforms easily from there. With large, heavy bags, I was concerned about stairs, lifts, etc., but there are easy ramps up to the platforms from a corridor beneath the tracks with great signage showing which train to which destination, etc. Just before you enter this corridor, there's a nice new little coffee/pastry shop on the corner with a seating area where you can check your platform assignment on a nearby screen.

Posted by
2916 posts

I've returned a rental car to that location w/o any trouble, but it helped that on a previous trip I had picked up a car at that location, so I knew how to get there. But from what I remember, finding the right return level and area for Europcar was harder than finding the car park.

Posted by
35 posts

I posted this b/c I could find absolutely no detail on the new & improved station, and I was mainly concerned about how to get 6 large pieces of luggage from the car return area to the platforms...distance, stairs, lifts, escalators, etc. So I decided to "give-back" a little to the travel forum that has really helped us on numerous European trips.

Posted by
32813 posts

Sounds like you survived and were kind enough to share those foibles.

Thanks

That big luggage'll get you.... Don't hurt yourself

How was the rest of the trip?

Posted by
32813 posts

By the way - a smidgen of French might have helped.

The details are there in the address - CARPARK P3 INDIGO-BELCIER 6E ETAGE

You needed to find carpark P3, operated by Indigo (one of the Big 3 in European carparks), P3 is known as Indigo Belcier, and the big key is 6e Etage is French for 6th floor.

Posted by
10208 posts

That is so nice of you to give the heads up. I think it was two years ago that we picked up in Bordeaux with the construction going in, and it was a mess. Luckily a car service took us, but finding our way out of there wasn’t easy.

Those return garages in France can be quite elusive. Gare du Nord, Gare de Montparnass, Toulouse among others come to mind.