Where to stay in Bordeaux

Saint-Pierre is the old town, built around the Place du Parlement, a pedestrian square of 18th century stone houses with terraces around a fountain, and the Place de la Bourse with its water mirror is on the quay beside it. It is under a kilometre from one to the other.

Chartrons runs north along the quay, where the tram crosses grassed tracks with a cycle lane beside it, about 2 km from the Place de la Bourse. Saint-Michel and the Capucins lie the same distance south, around the basilica and its detached bell tower. La Bastide sits across the Garonne on the right bank, about 5 km by road because the car has to use a bridge.

Mérignac is a separate commune on the western edge, with the airport at its far side. It is about 9 km from the terminal and about 7 km from the Place de la Bourse, and it is outside the ring road.

In the paid streets of Bordeaux, parking runs from 9am to 7pm except on Sundays and public holidays, and no car may stay more than 24 consecutive hours on the same space. Every vehicle gets 30 consecutive minutes free a day, taken by choosing 30 minutes at the meter or in the app; after that the first ticket costs EUR 1.90 for 45 minutes, EUR 2.50 for an hour, EUR 6 for two hours, EUR 11 for three and EUR 20 for four. A second ticket on the same day buys less for the same money.

Weight is a separate scale. A combustion or non-rechargeable hybrid car over 1,600 kg, or an electric or plug-in hybrid over 1,900 kg, read from field G1 of the registration certificate, pays EUR 3.30 an hour, EUR 7.80 for two hours and EUR 25 for four. If the meter goes unpaid the charge is EUR 39 for a standard car and EUR 51 for a heavy one, and checks are made on the number plate. Rental cars for the trip are on GetCar's car rental page for Bordeaux.

The low-emission zone covers everything inside the rocade, and the métropole is explicit that the rocade itself is outside the perimeter and stays open to all. Only unclassified vehicles are barred: electric, hydrogen and Crit'Air 1 to 5 cars are not covered, so check that the rental carries a Crit'Air sticker. Parliament voted to repeal the articles that created the low-emission zones in the law of 26 May 2026, and the métropole still publishes its zone; whether it is enforced was unverified as of September 2026. Eleven park and ride sites inside the zone stay reachable even for an unclassified vehicle, by access roads that are excluded from the zone, and a pass allows up to 24 days a year.

For a stay of several days the car is better off parked once. The city owns 56 car parks with close to 25,000 spaces, six of them free for two hours at weekends, and the métropole runs 28 park and ride sites on the tram and bus network.

Bordeaux Métropole charges the tax, not the city, and it does so across 28 communes, Bordeaux and Mérignac among them, so a hotel by the airport is taxed on the same scale as one on the quays. The métropole has applied the legal ceiling rates since 2023, and its 2027 deliberation records that the 2027 rates are identical to those of 2026: EUR 4.90 a night per person for a palace, EUR 3.60 at five stars, EUR 2.60 at four, EUR 1.70 at three, EUR 1.00 at two and EUR 0.80 at one star or in a chambre d'hôtes.

A flat with no star rating pays 5 per cent of the cost of the night per person before tax, capped at the palace rate. On top of the metropolitan rate come a departmental addition and a regional addition of 34 per cent that Bordeaux Métropole passes to the Société du Grand Projet du Sud-Ouest, in place since 1 January 2024. Minors are exempt, as are seasonal workers employed in the métropole, people in emergency housing and people whose rent is under EUR 30 a night.

Bordeaux regulates its furnished lets tightly. Every one, whether the host's main home or a second residence, needs a registration number that must appear in every advertisement and in the lease, and any change to the declaration produces a new number. A second residence also needs a change-of-use authorisation, usually with compensation: another non-residential building turned into housing of at least equivalent size and quality in the same zone. From 1 April 2026 that compensation must be double the area in a reinforced sector in the city centre, the energy certificate joins the documents required, and a new civil fine covers anyone who helps an unauthorised change of use.

A main residence may be let for at most 90 days a calendar year in Bordeaux, lowered from the national 120 by the city council on 8 July 2025. Guests who are not French nationals fill in a fiche de police at check-in, which the host keeps for six months.

A first visit on foot: Saint-Pierre and the old town.

A week with a car that leaves the city each day: Chartrons.

A working quarter and the covered market: Saint-Michel and the Capucins.

The right bank and more room: La Bastide.

An early flight or a late arrival: Mérignac and the airport.