Driving in Bordeaux

France: 1 scheme to know about before you drive in.

The short answer for Bordeaux

Bordeaux has one driving restriction on our books: the Zone à Faibles Émissions (ZFE) de Bordeaux Métropole (low emission zone). What is a low emission zone?

What it means for your car

Petrol or LPG. A petrol car first registered before 1 January 1997 may not drive or park inside the rocade, because it is too old to be given any Crit'Air sticker. Every petrol car from that date onwards — Crit'Air 1 through 5 — is unaffected.
Diesel. The same date, and that is the point: Bordeaux draws its line where a vehicle stops being classifiable, not by fuel. A diesel car first registered before 1 January 1997 is banned; one registered on or after it is Crit'Air 5 at worst and may enter. The corresponding dates for other categories are 1 October 1997 for vans, 1 June 2000 for powered two-wheelers, and 1 October 2001 for lorries, buses and coaches.

Sources last read on 2026-09-11, from Bordeaux Métropole. The next scheduled check is 2026-12-11.

The schemes, one by one

• Zone à Faibles Émissions (ZFE) de Bordeaux Métropole Low emission zone

  Bordeaux's zone is set at the mildest level a French ZFE can be set to: since 1 January 2025 only 'non classés' vehicles are barred — the ones too old to be given a Crit'Air sticker at all, which for a car means first registered before 1 January 1997. Everything from Crit'Air 1 to Crit'Air 5, plus electric and hydrogen, may drive and park inside.

  The perimeter is the intra-rocade, and the Métropole is explicit that the rocade itself is outside it and stays open to everyone. Even a banned vehicle is not shut out entirely: eleven park-and-ride sites inside the ring are reachable on access roads deliberately excluded from the zone, and a Pass ZFE buys up to 24 days a year.

Driving to Bordeaux?

Starting from

Check the route to Bordeaux

Lists the schemes on the road you would take, and when you would reach them.

Before you set off

France also has a national requirement

• Certificat qualité de l'air (vignette Crit'Air)Every vehicle class the nomenclature covers — cars, two-wheelers, tricycles and quadricycles, light commercial vehicles and heavy vehicles including buses and coaches. The class depends on the vehicle type, its engine and its Euro emission standard, and once assigned it is valid for the whole life of the vehicle.

This is owed on the country's roads, not inside this scheme. What France asks, with the source

Other cities in France

• Toulouseabout 211 km away, 1 verified scheme
• Nantesabout 275 km away, 1 verified scheme
• Angersabout 292 km away, 1 verified scheme
• Clermont-Ferrandabout 307 km away, 1 verified scheme
• Rennesabout 373 km away, 1 verified scheme
• Montpellierabout 379 km away, 1 verified scheme

And 8 more in France