Bordeaux

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Bordeaux (Gascon: Bordèu) is a city in the south-west of France. It's the capital city of the Aquitaine region.

Hitchhiking out

Bordeaux is encircled by a ring road (rocade in french), a fast dual-carriageway bypass, with no places to stop and pick up hitchhikers, and peages are far and not easy to reach by walking or public transport. This makes leaving Bordeaux very tricky, although not impossible. It is best to hitchhike on the approach roads to the ring road in the direction you wish to travel. It is advised to avoid going into the town centre.

North towards Tours, Paris

Total gas station on the ring road

Take the tram A to Gravières stop. Follow the street Rue des Gravières/Rue François Villon which is on the right hand side just before the tram arrives at the stop from the city centre. At a big crossroad, go left down the big crossing road named Avenue de Paris. There is a small road parallel of this street in the industrial estate, take it (rue Jean Raymond Guyon). It ends to a roundabout but here is a small old pedestrian road. Take it. Cross the bridge that crosses the motorway. From it, you can see two Total gas station on different sides of the road. The fences are broken so you can walk easily to the furthest one away for the North (Paris, etc.)

Ask for going to the next BP gas station, just before “Saint André de Cubzac” if nobody takes the A10. At the next petrol station, there is a restaurant, so a lot more people.

For the south one can use the first service station seen from the pedestrian bridge.

East towards Perigeux, Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon

A big outward road leads from the city center over bridges over the Dordogne, over the ring motorway and later becomes the motorway A 89 (E 70) to the east. Shortly after it crosses the ring there is a good spot: There is a junction, where all the eastbound traffic from the ring joins. One may ask waiting drivers at the traffic lights or stand beside the road after that, because it is not a motorway yet. Drivers can see you there and go slow because normally everyone has to stop at the traffic lights, and there is a broad hard shoulder and bus stops, where one can safely stop and continue. A few hundred meters further there is also a small dedicated fStation Carrefour Lormont Fuel station on that road

To get there on public transit, take the purple line A (both lines to Dravemont or La Gardette bassens work) from the city center to the stop Buttinière. The line follows a big avenue (Avenue Carnot) for roughly 3km. At Buttinière you get out and walk along that same Avenue Carnot for another 1-1.5km passing on your left first the Polyclinique de Bordeaux then a gigantic Carrefour supermarket and stop lights.

South towards Bayonne, Toulouse, Barcelona (Spain)

Option 1 Total gas station on the ring road

Take the tram A to Gravières stop. Follow the street Rue des Gravières/Rue François Villon which is on the right hand side just before the tram arrives at the stop from the city centre. At a big crossroad, go left down the big crossing road named Avenue de Paris. There is a small road parallel of this street in the industrial estate, take it (rue Jean Raymond Guyon). It ends to a roundabout but here is a small old pedestrian road. Take it. Cross the bridge that crosses the motorway. From it, you can see two Total gas station on different sides of the road. For the south one can use the first service station seen from the pedestrian bridge.


Option 2

Closer to the entrance of the highway. Take the bus #15 towards "Villenave d'Ornon" and exit at "Pont de la Maye" (you can ask the bus driver to tell you when it is). Then, walk in the same direction that the bus went, on the road. Cross the bridge above the road. Just after the bridge there is a little grassy hill on the right. Walk down the hill. You'll arrive on a roundabout with a road going directly to A62 (Toulouse). There is some space on the roundabout so the cars can stop and pick you up relatively easily.


Option 3

You can take the tram B towards Pessac Centre and get off at Montaigne-Montesquieu stop. Then you can walk through the Ecole D'architecture university to this spot: see map. The cars there will most probably take the A63 that goes south. There is a bus stop (Ecole d'architecture) where you can stand with a sign and the cars will have space to stop and don't go very fast. You can choose a bus stop Ecole de Management, which is just before university


Public transport

In the tramway, there are very few controls, but there is no way to avoid the control when it happens. Therefore, it's wise to travel with a valid ticket to punch in case of need.


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French cities with more than 70.000 inhabitants

> 1.000.000: Paris

200.000–1.000.000: BordeauxLilleLyonMarseilleMontpellierNantesNiceRennesStrasbourgToulouse

100.000–200.000: Aix-en-ProvenceAmiensAngersBesançonBrestCaenClermont-FerrandDijonGrenobleLe HavreLe MansLimogesMetzMulhouseNancyNîmesOrléansPerpignanReimsRouenSaint-ÉtienneToulonTours

70.000–100.000: AjaccioAntibesAvignonBéziersBourgesCalaisCannesDunkirkFort-de-FranceLa RochelleMamoudzouPauPoitiersRoubaixSaint-Denis (Réunion)Saint-NazaireSaint-PaulTourcoingVersailles

If you search cities with less than 70.000 inhabitants, have a look at the seperate Région articles. You find them at the bottom of this page.