Car pick up location for 3 day trip to Bayeux

We took the train to Caen and picked up our rental car there. We had arrived in Paris via Eurostar after a week in London, so this was quite simple. We also returned the car in Caen before returning to Paris to continue our vacation, eventually flying out of CDG.

Where are you spending the night after arriving at CDG? If you're going in to Paris, then the train to Caen, from Gare St-Lazare, would make sense the next day, and rent the car there. (The car rentals in Caen are close to the station, not so in Bayeux.)

If it's a late-in-the-day arrival and you're spending the night at or near CDG, then your best bet is to rent from there and take the highways around the north end of Paris to the west. It's not the easiest driving in France but it's no worse than NY or LA or any big urban outskirts in the US. A GPS will help, supplemented by maps as appropriate. As I recall there's a long tunnel, with a stiff toll, that bypasses a lot of congestion between east and west. Generally speaking, paying tolls will buy you thinner traffic and save your nerves.

Glad you're not trying to drive to Normandy right after an overnight flight. It can be done, especially by successful plane-sleepers, but it's not the safest idea. Better to get a good sleep first.

Car rental is Bayeux is not easy. I know because I did it. The only car rental is a Hertz at a local petrol station NOT at the train station. They do not speak English at the petrol station, and they are super busy with petrol customers and you must wait until the other customers have been taken care of. My B&B host was kind enough to take me there, wait for me, and translate for me. It would have been nearly impossible for me without him.

We rented from Europcar (via AutoEurope) located on ave Foch (or Etoile Foch as they call it on their website). It is just past the Arc de Triomphe, so it was easy to get to via the metro. No, we did not have to circle the Arc...thank God.

We went the day before to locate it - it's underground, so it threw us off as we were searching the street. If we hadn't messed up the GPS (we were heading towards Caen as well) it would have been an easy out, around a roundabout or two, then onto the highway/ring road. As it was, it took us a bit to figure out how to change the language from German to English (integrated GPS) and we ended up programming it to take us to the last spot it was - which was somewhere in the middle of Paris - luckily, it a Sun morning and traffic was light. We actually had been heading in the right direction - but at least we can say we drove in the middle of Paris (we were a few streets away from Eiffel...lol)

My thinking was - why pay for two train tickets to Caen to pick up a car when we were already in Paris. And other than our GPS error, it was smooth sailing.

We rented a car in Caen; the rental office was across the street from the train station which was very convenient. We visited the Memorial in Caen before driving to Bayeux. The drive from Caen to Bayeux was well marked and did not take long at all.

We too took the train to Caen and rented our car there. Easy process with rental car agencies across the street and around the corner from the train station. Personal preference, but I would not want to drive in Paris. Train tickets to Caen were not that expensive.

Another vote for taking the train to Caen and renting there. Our Taxi ride from CDG to our hotel near the Arc de Triomphe convinced me that I didn't want to drive anywhere near Paris - even the suburbs are busy, busy places.

The train ride was not particularly expensive (140 Euro for 2, 1st class, roundtrip Paris to Caen) and took less time (2 hours) than driving. As has been mentioned the car rental locations are directly across a couple of bus lanes from the station and are right next to a lovely café that was handy for lunch when we took the train back to Paris. Driving out of Caen to a divided highway was not difficult and the drive to Bayeaux was just a double handful of minutes on excellent roads.

As an alternative to taking the train to Caen, you could take the train to Rouen and pick up the car there. You would have to shop a little to see which fits your itinerary and schedule better.

I like the idea of planning your first night somewhere in Paris close to the train station out of town. You really should only plan so much for your arrival day. Get into Paris, spend the afternoon outdoors walking, biking or doing a tour with Paris greeters, then get a good night's sleep before starting toward Bayeux.

You might check out this thread; several people suggest Caen, with others opting for renting in Paris. Last summer, I took the train from Paris to Rouen and rented there to drive t Bayeux. Getting out of Rouen was not too difficult, but getting back to the train station to return the car was confusing. There are lots of one way streets.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/where-to-drop-off-rental-headed-to-paris-from-bayeux