Car Rental Advice for Two Trip Segments

It's a shame that you need a car with an automatic transmission because of sporadic availability and excessive cost. Where you rent the car might be determined by which rental office has automatics. Not all do.
1) In Paris, many of the rental agencies have offices open until 10 PM on Saturday. I would drive to my hotel, drop my bags and then return the car. I'm fine with driving in Paris and other European cities, but some folks aren't. If you are uncomfortable driving in the city, you could drop the car at a place like La Defense or leave it in Versailles and take the RER.

2) If there's a car with auto available in town, there's no advantage to going to the airport to pick one up.

What Philip said about automatic -- we often pick up cars at larger train stations (Caen, Avignon) or airports to be sure an automatic is available. Yes, even with the surcharge. Dropped off at Gare de l'Est in Paris ONCE --and driving in Paris is not something we want to do again! Airports seem to have better signage for rental car return. Love driving on French countryside roads, but long distances on highways feel like work. .

Having rented automatics dozens of times in France, I'm aware of that issue. The availability of automatics seems to have improved over the years, but you still aren't likely to find them in smaller cities, and you do need to reserve ahead in even most larger cities to get one. I would guess getting one in Strasbourg would be easier than in Colmar. Nice should be no problem, whether airport or city.

Thank you for your helpful responses! Regarding Disney Paris to Strasbourg to Colmar, would you advise that we take the train rather than renting a car in Marne-la-Vallee and driving to Alsace?

yes. I would.

There are direct, fast TGV trains from Marne-la-Valee-Chessy station to Strasbourg at approximately 10:30 and 11:30 a.m., and from there, a connection to Colmar takes another half hour. So my first choice would be to pick up the car in Colmar a day or two later, when you're side-tripping or otherwise departing from that town. Strasbourg train station does offer bag storage.

Thanks, Nigel and Laura. It does seem like taking the train to Strasbourg and Colmar would cut our travel time and be a great option. Regarding driving into Paris, I'm on the fence. I have driven in large cities (NY, Boston, and Chicago most recently), but not routinely. Seems like it might be best to drop off the car in Versailles, if I can work out the rental hours/luggage storage.

Jennifer, I've driven in NY, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, and other large US cities, but none of them compared to Paris in my opinion. There's no way I'll drive in Paris again.

If you thought driving in Paris was bad don't go to Rome.
Mike

I love aggressive driving and the only thing better than driving in Paris is driving in Italy. Don't be timid, drive with confidence like you own the road.

I have been to Rome, Mike, but I wasn't foolish enough to dare driving. On that at same trip, my Italian cousin's husband picked me up at the Genoa train station to drive me to their house, and I got a taste of what Italian driving is like. And that was probably nothing like Rome.

Jennifer, ever thought about just renting one car for 3 weeks ? France is big but you can rent a car in Paris and drop it in Nice for about the same as returning to the same location. Sounds like by the time you pickup and drop 2X you could just drive from Paris to Nice and see a lot en route. But the main reason i write is driving in Paris is not a lot different from Atlanta or LA and it is worth it. The only thing I would say is mandatory (other than the automatic) is a GPS. It saved us and we drove all over the city of Paris and never got lost with the GPS. We just plugged in the apartment we rented as the base, and we were not afraid to go anywhere. I know they are not cheap but its worth it. We picked up the car at the airport, drove to Versailles, and then made a big loop around the northern tier. I just checked Alamo/Enterprise and the rate for an automatic with GPS for 3 weeks was about $ 1100 total picking up at CDG and dropping at the Nice airport. Thats a pretty good deal !
Good luck
Chris

Thanks, Chris. No, it had not occurred to me to rent a car for the three week trip! I thought I would want to avoid driving the middle week (Paris 4 nights and Nice 3 nights) and thought it would be fun to take the train from Paris to Nice. I will look into it! Yes, good advise re: GPS - that will be a must for me. I appreciate your thoughts!
Jennifer