Car rental after red-eye

As you are a first time poster, I don’t know if this is a serious post or not. If you are serious, please look at the following link. Driving when jet lagged is so not a good idea and extremely dangerous for yourself and others. Please don’t do it.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/a-cautionary-tale-don-t-drive-after-long-flights

Sorry, but this is a particularly bad idea. From CDG, it’s 3+ hours to Orléans, another hour to Tours, assuming no traffic and no stopping. The real danger is when you are on the autoroute when the sameness of straight ahead driving is very conducive to falling asleep.

Take the train from CDG to Bordeaux. You can rent a car that afternoon if you want, but save a day's rental and pickup your car the following day.

If you really wanted to explore the area around Tours (Orléans is not particularly fascinating), take the train to Tours from the airport and start the next morning.

Just because you are on vacation does not mean bad things cannot happen. Please do not drive when tired.

For most Dordogne destinations, Tours is not quite on the way, and at ~3.5 hours from CDG, it is farther than what I would like to drive after a near-sleepless night.
Orléans is about the limit of where I would want to go (about 45 minutes closer than Tours), and even then, it is pushing it. Chartres is a slight detour off the route, but it is reasonable to drive there on day 1 (about 30 minutes closer than Orléans), and it is more interesting than Orléans.
Alternative suggestion #1: take train from CDG to Tours (Saint-Pierre des Corps), and rent a car there the next morning.
Alternative #2: same, but in Bordeaux.

Yes, it is a serious post. I might be a newbie poster on this forum, but we are no novices to traveling independently in Europe. We aren't leaving until the latter part of August, so I have time for logistics.
Has anyone booked a short-term day stay at a CDG hotel? That option would give us some rest before an afternoon rental car pick up.

What is your age? I am a senior, mid 60s, and I wouldn't attempt this on a dare at my age. Not sure I would have done it back in the day, either...

As for jet lag, sometimes it hits me like a ton of bricks and clouds my brain for several days, but there have been a handful of times I literally suffered no jet lag at all - it is a mystery to me. For that reason alone, I would not risk a plan like yours since I can't predict how I will feel upon arrival.

Good luck.

We have stayed at hotels at cdg many times. There are a number at the end of the internal shuttle service, ranging from budget on up in price. Or, you could book the luxurious Sheraton, which is right inside the airport. Of the ones we’ve tried, only the Hilton was seriously below par.

Now that I think about it, if your goal is just to reach Dordogne by early afternoon on Day 2, besides the options already discussed, you could also be staying in Paris on your arrival day, then take a train to Bordeaux the following morning (~ 2 hours!) and rent a car there (also ~2 hours).

I am sorry that I questioned your post but we get trolls on the forum from time to time and first time posters are sometimes greeted with suspicion. Please read the thread that I posted in first reply. My husband and I travel overseas a lot (6 trips this year) and jet lag seems mild to us when we arrive overseas but then we are not driving. We think we are just fine and coherent. But we tried driving once from Manchester to the Lake District in England and realized we were both zombies 50 miles into the drive. It’s lucky we didn’t kill ourselves or anyone else. The advice to take the train to your first destination and pickup the rental car the next day is excellent. And even then take care that first day driving. I wish you happy and safe travels.

Please do not rent a car and drive when arriving on an overnight transatlantic flight. You put not only yourself and any passengers you have in danger, you do the same for everyone else on the road with you.

Well , I'm late here but the simple answer is " don't "

Has anyone booked a short-term day stay at a CDG hotel? That option would give us some rest before an afternoon rental car pick up.

Not done that, but to me, that sounds no better than just driving off when you arrive. I am in the 'that's a bad idea' group.
For me that plan looks dubious because I would likely not fall asleep quickly ( mind racing with 'will I wake up on time'; 'what will traffic be like'. ) When I did awaken I probably would be 'is it that time already?' and not feel truly refreshed. You may be different.

I join the group advocating to take a train and rent a car close(r) to your ultimate destination.

I'm late here too but what steven said.

Depends on what class you are flying and how and where the connections are. We go cheap on the flights, which means coach and some long connection times. Being in Amsterdam, for a bit, isn't bad, they have places you can actually get some rest. If you are going straight out from the East Coast USA to CDG, and can't sleep on the flight, then your plan is a bad idea for driving. There are trains that go directly to Tours from CDG. Why not use the car rentals in Tours? After you have rested over night. Is lunch in Orleans important?

One more vote for "Don't do it". Apart from the risk involved with driving tired, renting a car is not the best way to get to Dordogne. It is a 6-7 hour drive, compared to 2 hour train trip from Paris to Bordeaux.

Appreciate the sincere feedback. New plan is train from CDG to Bordeaux, hotel for the night, then collect one way car rental the next day for return to CDG 5 days later. Planning on two nights stay in Paris before the rest of our Europe trip begins.

yay!!

Much better plan.

Much better plan. I assume you will pick up your car in the city, but if you choose to pick it up at the airport it couldn’t be easier. I picked a car up on Friday morning. The rental companies are next to the terminal, so no shuttle bus is involved. Beware that taxis seem to be very expensive. Our Thursday night flight from London was delayed and we weren’t able to pick our car up as planned. I had booked a hotel just 2 miles away from the airport so that we could get an early start Friday morning to drive to Sarlat-la-Canéda. We had to take a taxi to the hotel and then back to the airport and it cost us a total of €45. Enjoy the Dordogne. We are leaving Sarlat in an hour and I’m sad to go. I don’t think 5 nights was enough time.

To get to Dordogne, I would not want to rent a car at the Bordeaux airport (opposite side of the city vs. Dordogne!). Renting at the station is totally fine, you will be close to fast roads out of the city.

I only rented at the airport because I was flying to Bordeaux. We didn’t have time to go into the city as our flight, which was supposed to arrive at 19:00 didn’t actually arrive until 22:00. We had to be in Sarlat the following day.

Car rental booked through Budget as is Hilton Garden Inn for the night. We've booked trains throughout Europe in the past, including Thalys, but I am finding the SCNF site to not be very user-friendly. I know we won't be able to book until at 4 months prior earliest, but I like to be ready when reservations open. Any tips for the train from CDG? Should we consider departing from Massy or Montparnasse instead?

Even though there are fewer departures to Bordeaux from CDG than from Montparnasse, I would really aim for a CDG departure even if it means a longer wait. Starting from your scheduled landing time, you need to allow at least:

• 2.5 to 3 hours until a train departure from CDG (this is to have some buffer for border & luggage delays)
• 4 hours until a train departure from Montparnasse (it can take a long time to reach from CDG, especially in the AM rush hour)

Massy is an option as well since there is a direct train from CDG, but it still takes a while to reach (1 hour+ on the RER, not counting waiting times!), and many trains that call at Massy also call at CDG anyway.

To purchase tickets, the revamped SNCF Connect website is less confusing than its predecessor (in my opinion), but there is one key distinction to make: some trains are called "TGV Inoui" and others "Ouigo". Ouigo is low-cost with tighter seating, has a 30-minute check-in requirement and a limited basic luggage allowance: it is a bit cheaper but I would not recommend it, unless the timing suits you perfectly.