Car rental return

I'm renting from Avis, picking up from CDG and returning to Gare de Lyon (train station). It was a better choice for me because I will have bags that I'll be dropping off at our hotel in 5th, across from Notre Dame, and return to CDG in rush hour plus the train ride back didn't seem like such a good idea. This way I will only be driving a short distance to return the car after dropping off my bags and then a 15 minute metro ride back to my hotel.

Looks like Enterprise has a location 9th that might be suitable for you but their weekday closing time looks to be 6:30pm.

Here's the address I found:

10-12 Rue Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, 75009 Paris, France

You’re going to get a lot of opinions on this such as dropping the car outside Paris and taking the train. If you are from LA, you should be accustomed to city driving and congestion. I have in the past, and would again in the future, drive to my hotel in the 1st and then drop the car at the nearest Enterprise location. There are a number of them in Paris. What aggravation you would have to contend with by driving into the city, for me, is not worth ditching the car, unloading it, getting to a rail station, taking a train, RER or Metro and cab to get to my hotel.

Hard to imagine two more different urban driving experiences than Paris and LA. At least you're on the right side of the street in both cities!

Enterprise has locations at La Defense and Porte Maillot, both west of central Paris and on Metro line 1, which goes right through the 1st arrondissement. Or a short taxi ride. Check them out.

I agree with you Phillip. There are will be varying opinions on this. In my case, another factor was I have a wife and an 8 year old daughter, and I thought it would be better to drop them off at the hotel instead of moving together, with bags in tow, on the metro. There will be no cab ride since the metro is a few minutes walking distance. I hear that most metros are within a short walking distance.

footnote: I also live in Los Angeles and will avoid traffic at all cost.

I grew up driving the LA streets and freeways, my husband grew up and got his license in Paris. We've lived and driven in both, most recently Paris last month. No comparison. It makes no sense to shun taking a taxi because there's a nearby metro stop.

We have only dropped a car off in Paris once at Gare du Nord. It was a nightmare. We had picked up our car at Gare du Nord, but the drop off was actually a few blocks away underground. Absolutely the most stressed out either of us have ever been on any of our many trips to Europe. We learned our lesson and for subsequent trips dropped the car outside of Paris and took the train in.

Personally, I like to drop my car somewhere easy and transfer to rail to get into Paris, as much to avoid time lost to traffic as difficult driving. There are easier places to pick up rail than CDG. Defense is a good example, one metro line from there.

If it were my trip, I'd drop the car in Giverny/Vernon, after your visit (assuming you will need to keep your bags somewhere), and train from there into Paris - then pick up a metro (or taxi) to get to your lodging.

That said, I don't carry a lot of luggage. I travel with one shoulder bag weighing 10-12 lbs. so it's very easy to hop on a metro/train and not worry about keeping track of stuff.

If you're traveling heavy, you will either want to transfer to a taxi or drive all the way to your hotel to check in, then drop the car at an agent close to there. If you want to transfer to a taxi, any train station will have a taxi stand out front (as does CDG).

I don't understand the logic that you don't want to take a Metro ride with bags, wife and daughter all in tow - that I get.
But then you state you don't want to take a taxi because it is faster/easier to take the Metro?

I would drop the car off at the airport and then take a taxi from there. The taxi ride from the airport is a set rate and quite a value in my experience as a metered ride would far exceed the cost.

There are no metered rides from the Paris airports into town any more. The rates are fixed - 50 euros to/from Right Bank; 55 euros to/from Left Bank. Those rates include up to 4 passengers and all luggage. If more than 4 passengers, add 4 euros per person.

The fixed rates for taxis have been in effect in May 2017.
Kim is right - I would take a taxi, if you are hauling luggage with a family. There are no luggage fees.

I think there's a good case for a lot of folks to return a rental car to CDG and take a taxi.

Some of things that I took consideration in my decision to drop off the family, return my rental to a nearby train station, and get to hotel via metro:

• Getting a Navigo card for the week.
• Metro is a 15 minute ride and 4 minute walk to my hotel
• Get my family back to the hotel and not have them suffer the car rental return process
• Did no incur extra charge to return car to a different location

There are always some conveniences with using the car as you intend.

I personally am very comfortable driving in Europe but not in the big cities and I drive in Boston and NYC often with a high level of confidence. If you have experience with this and are comfortable doing so, than do it.
If you have never driven in Europe and just basing your assumption on US experience than I worry.

I view driving in US cities no problem, US highways no problem, European highways no problem, European mountain passes no problem, European country roads no problem, European major cities: problem.

I agree with Mreynolds. I lived, and drove in, Boston and the Boston area for 17 years. I've also driven in NY, Washington DC (3 years), San Francisco, LA, Seattle, and others. But none of them compared to driving in Paris, which I've done several times. I now avoid that at all costs.

Thanks all for your advice. I am going back to the original plan of dropping at CDG and taking a taxi into town. The map looked so convincing . . . :)