Brive to Paris Train Question
 

All the pieces for our September trip to Toulouse, Rocamadour and Sarlat are coming together nicely, thanks to Stu, St. Cirq, Tower, Carlux and so many others! One last piece to the puzzle...which train to take from Brive to Paris. We will be leaving Sarlat and returning a rental car to the train station in Brive. My questions are: How long should I plan for the trip to the train station, returning the rental car, and getting to the right platform? I am debating between the 9:30 am. train or one of the later ones at 2:10 or 2:38 pm. I believe the rental car offices would still be closed for lunch if I choose the afternoon train. How far away are the after hours return areas? I think Avis or AutoEurope/Kemwel are the only car rental agencies with offices at the Brive train station. I am leaning towards the morning train...but I am wondering how early we would need to get going that morning. Thanks for any advice!

I would allow myself 2.5 hours to drive, turn in the car, and get to the platform. The offices don't have to be open to drop off a car - they almost always have a drop-off box where you can leave the keys and the insurance packet. Make sure, if you do that, you take pictures of the car so they can't come back later and say there was new damage.

Europcar has an office in Brive, about 50 yards from the train station. If you are using AutoEurope or Kemwel as your broker, it is likely that this will be the rental agency.

I was taken by surprise that where I needed to return the car was not right at the train station. It might have been the one Michael mentions above. In any case, I hadn't mapped it out, the drive from Sarlat took longer than I thought it would, I ended up taking the longer way (very pretty, though), we needed to gas up the car before returning, couldn't find a manned gas station, etc., etc.--and we ended up sprinting to catch the train.

We made it though.

So I would give myself 2.5 or even three hours if you are at all disorganized as I sometimes am.

Have a great trip! I'd love to return to that area someday.

Refill your gas tank on the outskirts of Brive, at one of the supermarket stations. Once in Brive, just follow the signs to the train station, and you will not find any gas stations on that route; or Google map your itinerary to Brive and print it out.

Thanks, St. Cirq, Michael and Leely. You made my decision easy. We will take one of the afternoon trains and leave plenty early!

Have lunch in Brive. Walking down the mains street from the RR station you come to a circular street obviously built where the ramparts used to be. Go to the right and you'll find a series of restaurants meant for the office lunch crowd. You'll have a good variety of choices.