Car travel from Paris ORLY to Chartres France

I was hoping someone would comment on the change in plan from taking the train to Chartres vs. renting a car from ORLY and driving to Chartres on unfamiliar and possibly busy and confusing Paris roads? In other words, how busy and complicated is the area around ORLY for someone that has not driven in Paris or in any major European city?

Orly is not an abbreviation - it is a name - so you don't need to put it in all capital letters.

Unless you plan it wrong or take a wrong turn you won't go through Paris, you will go away from the city.

A106>A86>A10>A11. Just keep driving southwest once you get on the A10 and you'll get there.

There are occasional traffic information matrix signs overhead giving the number of minutes to specific places. Handy for commuters, not needed by you. If it says Fluide - that's good, it means the traffic is moving.

With respect, driving in St Paul is not like driving in the Ile de France and Paris. I've done both.

Thank you for your information. I guess I was trying to say I've done more than country driving. I have driven in most every major metropolitan area in the United States. Can you explain what you mean by St. Paul being different from Ile de France? Round abouts? traffic? intense drivers? Because we have not traveled out of the United States extensively, we would just like to have a relatively pleasant start to the trip and the more prepared we are, the better.

First, there's no train station at Orly. You have to go into Paris to catch the train.

It will be crowded rush hour driving. No one can predicte the exact circumstances. Getting away from the Orly/Rungis area is best done with a GPS and a map. You have a lot of freeways merging and separating. Agree with Nigel that it's not like St. Paul driving, but like New York or LA in a different language with narrower lanes. I've driven out of Orly many times and dropped off a car there recently, coming from Chartres.

If you are arriving on an long overseas flight, you shouldn't drive. You can take an Air France bus to Montparnasse station and take the train.

Otherwise, driving will be the most efficient but not necessarily the least expensive, adding in another day of rental, insurance, overnight parking in Chartres.

I agree with Bets about driving after getting off an overnight flight -- if that's what you'll be doing -- especially on busy unfamiliar suburban expressways late in the afternoon. If you do it, by all means use GPS and have a good map. We bought a Europe map for our GPS and brought it from home. You can probably rent one with the car but it may cost more, depending on how long you have the car.

You will be driving away from Paris, as Nigel says, and the route shouldn't be complicated if you pay attention. But lanes are narrower (as cars are smaller), you won't be familiar with signage (though the terms and symbols are easy enough once you get used to them), and most other drivers will be rushing to get home or somewhere and won't cut you much slack. It's more like driving on the expressways in New York or Boston than St. Paul or Seattle.

Le Bus Direct runs frequent busses from Orly to Gare Montparnasse in the southwestern part of central Paris, where there are frequent one-hour trains to Chartres. Not really very complicated. Might take a little longer than driving yourselves, but much less stressful I'd think. (And I like driving in Europe, generally.)

Dick--I don't think the Air France bus + train will be longer because when we drove from Chartres to Orly on a weekday morning in June, the route said one hour but it took us two hours due to traffic and construction. Furthermore, not only is driving into Orly easier than getting onto the correct freeway out of Orly, but also, my husband learned to drive in Paris, so we were driving on home turf. Finally, we have a Liberté freeway pass that allows us to buzz through the toll plazas without fumbling for money or credit cards. Therefore, I think it would be a toss up as far as time is concerned.

Thank you so much Dick and Bets. This is terrific information. Driving out of Paris may be quite a stressful start to a vacation. I appreciate the info on the bus to Montparnasse. Do you think I can just purchase train tickets when I arrive to the train station? I hate to prepurchase for a specific time given the unpredictable nature of air travel.
Again, many thanks!

Trains from Gare Montparnasse Chartres are TERs (generally). Tickets on a TER will be one price once they go on sale and there are no seat reservations and the tickets are not print at home so you still have to go to a machine to retrieve your ticket. As a result, there is no real advantage to buying the tickets ahead of time other than the possibility of it taking less time to retrieve the ticket than it would take to buy it. As to the idea of taking a train to Chartres and renting the car there, do you drive a manual transmission car? There may not be automatics available in Chartres. Actually, if you are not coming off an overnight flight and have jet lag, I quite like the idea of driving from Orly, especially if you happen to need a car with an automatic transmission.

I agree about not driving after an overnight flight. A GPS will help but it's not foolproof, at least not for me in a foreign country.

We wanted to take the train to Chartres and rent our car from there, but we could not get an automatic from Chartres. We rented out of Gare Montparnasse after staying our first few days in Paris.

If I had it to do over again, I'd rent the car out of Orly airport because the drive from Gare Montparnasse to the peripherique (which goes right by Orly) took well over an hour and was quite stressful. Then, when we got onto the peripherique, the exit number which we had carefully researched was not what we thought (there was an A and a B in our research, but on the ground there was simply the one exit, no A / B). The cost of a taxi or car service from one's hotel to Orly would be well worth it to avoid that drive through the southern extent of Paris.

If you do rent out of Gare Montparnasse, the Parc de Sceaux is a good landmark to head for as it is right before you reach the peripherique.

Once on the Autoroute headed toward Chartres, stress level reduced greatly. Finding our way into town and the large parking garage near the cathedral was very easy, well marked. I would say it took about an hour and a half.

If you rent the car at Orly, figure an extra half hour to get oriented and drive out of the airport. Make sure to have them tell you which signs to follow to get on the peripherique going the right direction -- you want to head west from Orly to get to the exit for Chartres, and it's one of the very first exits you come to.

Just to clarify epidt's terms. The peripherique is the ring road going around the edge of Paris with entry and exit ramps like a freeway. The roads near Orly are autoroutes. Don't look to get on the peripherique from there or you'll end up 9 kilometers north in Paris.
Indeed, the automatic transmission may be the deciding factor.

remember that the peripherique, should you wind up on the uniquely Parisian version of an inner ring road, has its own rules and laws.

Peripherique on and off ramps are very short - some very very short - and if you are on the peripherique, Vous N'Avez Pas La Priorité.

The main road must let people on the on ramp in before them.

Unless things have recently changed there is no little yellow diamond.

I agree, BTW, that if you are getting into rush hour traffic right after a long flight that that is the last place you are going to want to be.

Oh, I've just remembered, if you find yourself on the peripherique the lanes there are narrower than most highways.

The problem with relying on a GPS Sat Nav in a very built up area like the southern reaches of Paris is that the device often tells you the shortest route - even if only one metre shorter - rather than the logical one. It is so incredibly easy to find that you are just slightly in the wrong place. Voice of experience here.

BTW - can you tell that the peripherique and I are not the best of friends?

Well, thankfully both my husband and I can drive a manual transmission.
My idea of renting from Orly was prompted when we found out the rental car in Chartres closes at 6:30pm and doesn't open until 9am. We had hoped to leave Chartres by 8:00/8:30 to get to the Loire. Our plane doesnt arrive Orly until 1pm so even if the plane is on time, it could be tight given having to find and take the bus to Montparnasse and then walking from Chartres train station to Hertz. However, driving out of Orly does not sound very appealing.
This is a great forum. I appreciate the help

I apologize for incorrect details about the peripherique. Actually I was going to say Autoroute when I wrote, so you can tell I have not understood the roadways as fully as I should!

Given your tight scheduling you might find peace of mind reserving the Paris Webservices car service from Orly to Gare Montparnasse, or taking a taxi. Either of those would be faster than the bus and less hassle given you'll have luggage. At Chartres I don't remember how near the Hertz is to the train station, but train stations are sure to have available taxis.

Get some Euros ahead of time so you won't have to stop at a bureau de change to pay for taxis.

The Air France bus is non-stop between Orly and the Gare Montparnasse for 12 euro each. It isn't a RATP bus with stops. A taxi is a fixed rate of 30 euro plus tip, not that much more than the AF bus. If you take a taxi, be sure to let the driver know you are aware of the rate.