Meredith052013

I will be taking the TGV from Paris to Aix-en-Provence and then renting a car from there for my visit in Provence. My issue is that I would like to spend some time in Aix the day I arrive by TGV before driving to my hotel in Lourmarin. I will have luggage and I don't know whether to rent the car right when I arrive in Aix and then drive into the Town Centre and leave my belongings in the car while I visit (Is this safe?).....OR....wait to rent the car at the end of my visit in Aix, but then what do I do with my luggage?

ParisAmsterdam

The TGV station is over 15 km from the town center. For me, that makes the decision easy. Pick up the car, put the luggage in the trunk and use a monitored car park in Aix.

Christina

I agree with that, I don't see how you could do it otherwise. I mean where would you leave your luggage in-between arriving at the TGV station outside Aix and leaving the city later on? Okay, perhaps there is some place to leave luggage at the TGV station, I don't know. It is possible there is a luggage check service or lockers. Seems like a lot of trouble to me (you'd have to take a taxi to/from Aix although I imagine they have some shuttle bus service, also). I'm sure theft is always a possibility, but the odds would seem low to me if you were in some parking garage. I think theft from cars usually occurs from cars parked in some large outdoor lot at tourist attractions or, in any case, an outdoor lot.

I don't know your schedule, but if you are staying in the area a while, you might just go to your hotel in Lourmarin and check in and visit Aix as a day trip while staying there. It isn't that far that this should be a big obstacle (I think probably around a 30-45 minute drive from Lourmarin to Aix). I would probably do that myself unless your itinerary made this impossible as I don't like checking into hotels late in the day or evening, you can get the worst rooms that way. Besides, the TGV station is to the SW of Aix and Lourmarin to the north, so if you visited Aix from Lourmarin, you wouldn't have to be going all the way back to where the TGV is on that drive. Just depends which you are most comfortable with. I know other things you may want to see aren't in the direction of Aix, most likely, but maybe you could see things closer to your hotel that day instead.

Meredith052013

Thank you so very much for the input. I didn't realize there are monitored indoor car parks so that will definately work. I thought about driving to our hotel and back (we don't really have room in our itinerary to visit another day). That is a possibility since it's not too far if we feel uncomfortable leaving our belongings even in a parking garage. We are staying at a small B&B though in Lourmarin so don't need to worry about getting a bad room. We would probably only do that if we feel uneasy about the parking garage. Thank you again!

joannyc

Make sure nothing is visible in the rental car. Back it into a parking spot close enough to the wall so that the trunk cannot be opened.

Christina

I don't know about monitored indoor car parks in Aix, either, and I've been there and parked there. I was staying in a country inn just outside Aix so did drive into town a couple days and parked in a parking garage. These are just covered parking garages, that's all, they weren't monitored in any way. I mean people weren't standing around guarding cars or anything, in fact there were hardly any people as everything is automated now (ticket machines, etc). I think it was the type of garage where you had to take a ticket to get in, then you pay at the machine before leaving, and you put it into the machine to open the gate to leave. If that is your idea of monitoring, okay.

If you are expecting guards or something, or people watching the cars, you might ask where are these garages that are monitored. I just parked in city garages.

Christina

oh, I just thought that maybe there are cameras? I don't know, that could be.

Meredith052013

Hmmmm. I'm not sure what level of security is sufficient. Indoor vs cameras vs manned parking? This website below shows a manned lot in aix called Centre Ville, but it's not covered.
http://en.parkopedia.fr/secure/aix_en_provence/parking/

Also, I did some more digging and found a website that says " secure, pricier covered parking is plentiful". Where though, I do not know.