Car rental

Also, which city did you pick up from?

Where are you going? If you are going to Caen, then a recommendation of a rental car place in Nice, is mostly useless

We have rented from Hertz (Orly to Paris), Enterprise (Caen to CDG), Hertz (Avignon TGV), AutoEurope (Strasbourg to Avignon TGV). Hertz has a discount for AAA members.
Remember that not all rental agencies will let you pick up and return from/to every location.

If you tell the Forum people where you are going they will be able to help you better.
Mike

Sorry! I would like to rent a car outside of Paris to travel to the Loire Valley and Normandy.

We rented a car from Hertz at Orly to drive to Amboise. It was very easy to get out of the Orly airport and a smooth, easy drive to the Loire Valley. (So easy that I got a speeding ticket, so be careful of your speed on those nice, straight, well-maintained roads!) A couple of factors went into that decision: We needed an automatic and it's easier to reserve those at airports or large train stations. And I really, really didn't want to drive in Paris. So we took an Uber to Orly and picked up the car there. While it wouldn't be everyone's choice due to the added travel time and expense, it worked really well for us.

Edited to add: We returned the car in Bordeaux and took the TGV back to Paris. When I've rented from Hertz in France and Italy, it hasn't yet been an issue to return the car to a different location, though sometimes there is a not insignificant extra charge.

Another vote for Orly. We used from CDG Hertz and got a very nice car last year. But I have traveled from Orly to the Loire and it was easy.

I would suggest looking at Auto Europe (www.autoeurope.com), a consolidator, which I (and many others here), have used frequently. I've found their rates to almost always be lower than the rates charged by the respective car companies themselves.

I think picking up a car from one of the Paris airports works out well, I just wouldn't rent from in the inner city. CDG is actually quite far outside the ring, so you just end up driving on the outer part for a bit before heading to Normandy, which even my 60 year old father found manageable. (And he hates city driving no matter the location). We've rented Hertz and Avis out of CDG and had no problems, though I felt Avis had the better customer service. Hertz rental was specifically for a Normandy/Loire trip like you are doing. I would recommend scheduling for an early pick up time if you can. Otherwise, you could consider training to Rouen or even Caen and picking up a rental car there. We rented out of CDG because we wanted to Giverny, Rouen, and the Abbey de Jumiege (it's amazing!!!!!) before going into Bayeaux and the D-Day Beaches.