We are staying in Paris and then traveling to Bayeux and need to rent a car to get from Paris to Bayeux (and to then complete our two-week trip in France). Wondering what are the best places to rent a car in or near Paris. We are reluctant to rent one in central Paris (where we are staying) since we don't want to drive in the city if we can help it. We thought about taking a taxi to CDG and going from there?
Thanks
Hop on the train to Caen (on the way to Bayeux) and rent a car in Caen. There are plenty of rental facilities, you'll be closer to the beaches and you won't have to deal with driving in maddening Paris.
Caen is a good idea if you don't mind paying a train fare and car rental for the same day. Gare St-Lazare would be the place to get the train.
Or, in Paris, look for a rental office at Porte Maillot, on the Peripherique west of the Etoile. Or at La Defense further outside the Peripherique. Both places are easily reached by Metro if you don't mind taking your bags along. Or by taxi for an easier transfer. No need to go all the way out to CDG and pay the airport surcharge.
Auto Europe is a good source for rental info. If you search for a car in Paris it will give you a choice of many locations and show them on a map.
10 years ago, a friend and I spent a few days in Rouen and picked up our rental car there. (We later dropped it in Tours and took the train from there back to Paris.) Rouen is an interesting small city and on the way to Normandy.
Even if you didn't want to spend the night there, it would be fun to just walk around, maybe have lunch, and then pick up the car and move on to Bayeux.
Thanks for the help everyone.
You also could take the RER (like the Mêtro) to a town close to Paris called St Germain-en-Laye and pick up a rental car there. You'd have to take a very short taxi ride from the RER station to the car rental place. We've done this, as well as a train to Caen where we got a rental car, and another time a train to Bayeux and a taxi ride to the car rental place there. Lots of ways to do it.
PS.. We've also rented in Paris twice and had no problem finding our way with a good map.
You also could take the RER (like the Mêtro) to a town close to Paris called St Germain-en-Laye and pick up a rental car there. You'd have to take a very short taxi ride from the RER station to the car rental place. We've done this, as well as a train to Caen where we got a rental car, and another time a train to Bayeux and a taxi ride to the car rental place there. Lots of ways to do it.
PS.. We've also rented in Paris twice and had no problem finding our way with a good map.
We rented from Europcar and picked it up on ave Foch in 2012. It is just beyond the Arc de Triomphe, easy to walk to from the metro stop at the Arc with our minimum luggage, and was almost a straight shot out to the ring road (without having to circle the Arc).
We picked it up on a Sun morning, so traffic was light...the only bad thing is we got turned around by the GPS and ended up in the middle of Paris (car had integrated GPS and somehow we ended up going to the last destination of the vehicle - the GPS was speaking German and it took us a bit to change it over), but had we just followed the instructions from the folks at the rental office, we would have been fine, because we were initially heading in the correct direction and it was simple to get to the ring road. Also able to get an automatic there, if that's a concern - some smaller pick up spots may not have the selection...
Personally, I wouldn't want to pay for train tickets if I planned on renting anyways...just an extra expense (but could be a time saver, mind you).
