Drive or Public Transport?

Where is SMS?

Sorry lol Mont Saint Michel, late night

I would drive to MSM. But NOT directly after a flight from the US. From MSM, I would drive to Tours and return the car there. Take the train back to Paris. You do not want the car in Paris.

If you intend to fly in to Paris from the US, then head directly to MSM, take the train. Driving after that flight is not advisable.

Other than tolls seemingly every mile on certain roads, driving in France is pretty much the same as in the U.S. Since we visit places between our lodging destinations we get rental cars. Whether you get one should depend on your itinerary. It’s been years but getting to MSM was easier having a car.

Driving is easy enough outside the big cities, and certainly the easiest way to get to MSM and then Tours. I agree with others that driving the day after an overnight flight is risky to yourselves and others. You might want to organize your days so you start in Paris, then take a train to Caen or Rennes or another city west of there where you can get a car for MSM and on to Tours. If you'll be spending time in the Loire the car will help there. Then return it somewhere near Paris or at CDG itself -- but not the same day as your homebound flight. If you share more info about your plans you might get more useful suggestions.

So, we’ll be arriving in Paris at 10am from jersey, so we’ll definitely try to sleep on the flight. The drive says it’s about 3.5 hours from Paris on a Thursday morning - so questionable what traffic may look like. If we don’t travel to MSM right away though we’ll lose a day during the duration of our trip, so the thought is to either power through it and switch off driving between my husband and I, or take a train from Paris to Rennes and rent a car there and drop off at Rennes on our way back from Tours. Public transport just seems very cumbersome to do - especially as some of you have pointed out it’d be much easier to have a car in Loire to visit all the chateaus without relying on trains or Ubers.

Well, I have done the driving right after landing from Newark Airport and it resulted in a near disaster -- woke up to my husband falling asleep and driving off the road. And yes, my screams woke him and our children up and we pulled over at the next rest stop and slept. Lesson learned for us. I think we would have been okay had it not been for the 60 minute wait for the car at CDG and the almost 1 hour backup on the A6 before the traffic opened up. Of course, YMMV but I strongly encourage you to take public transport to Rennes and pick up the car there so you get some more sleep and so you have a much shorter drive. Jet lag is like a really late night and late nights can lead to mistakes.

JHK - I definitely can see that scenario unfolding, thank you for your advice, it helps :)

What about finding a place to spend your arrival night enroute to Mont-St-Michel? For example, Versailles which is @ 1hour from CDG. Accor brand hotels, such as Ibis, Mercure, Novotel, etc., often offer the possibility of an early check-in so you can recover from jet lag in a bed!

If you start your trip in Tours, perhaps you could head to Fontainebleau after getting your rental car at CDG. That is what we are doing before we make the long drive to the Dordogne region the next day- the Ibis Fontainebleau has a noon check-in and the manager replied to my email that 11am might even be possible.

JHK, your anecdote made me shudder. In mid-June, I drove from the Barcelona airport to southern France right after landing. It wasn't the plan, but since my partner had to stay behind owing to his mother's illness, I changed up the trip. Anyway, I lasted about 1.5 hours before I could feel myself nodding off. I pulled over at a rest stop, crawled in the back seat, and slept for about 30 minutes, which helped. Moral: not doing that again!

The drive from CDG to MSM is at least 4.5 hours, per ViaMichelin, not accounting for any stops or traffic delays. Six hours might be a more realistic estimate. That might not faze me if I'd flown first class and slept well, but I'd never try it otherwise. I strongly suggest a taxi into Paris, then a train to either Rennes or Caen for the first night. The next morning you can drive easily and safely to MSM.

The taxi to the Paris station you choose will cost 50-60 euros. (It's a fixed fare depending on which side of the Seine you're going to, but I've lost track of the amount.) From Gare Montparnasse in Paris, express trains (Inoui or Ouigo) to Rennes run several times on a random November afternoon, taking about 1.5 hours with no changes. These trains require advance purchase and seat reservations, no refund if you miss them. Alternatively, regular trains (TER) to Caen run often from Gare St-Lazare, no reservations or advance purchase needed. Rennes is closer than Caen to MSM, but not enough to matter much the next morning. Choosing Caen will give you flexibility with train schedules if you have delays in landing or at the airport.

I hope this helps with your planning. Others may have better ideas. EDIT -- The French national rail website, SNCF-Connect, can help you plan the rail portion of this trip.

Okay so what you’re saying is - car definitely better than trains but I just need to figure out a better timeline from the time I land?

What I'm saying is don't drive on arrival day, use a taxi and train to get to one of the cities near MSM, spend the night in that city, and get the car the next morning to drive to MSM, Tours, and any other destinations outside Paris. If your plan includes some days in Paris, then return the car on the outskirts or in another nearby city, then take train or metro into Paris for the last part of your trip.

Outside of big cities, driving gives you flexibility and makes it easier to handle luggage. In big cities, driving and parking become much more difficult, and public transit is easier.

I agree fully with what Dick and several of the others have said. DONT drive on your arrival day. Take the train. Rent the car from Rennes or Caen, drive to MSM and through the Loire. Then drop the car before returning to Paris. If you rent from a company that also has an office at the St Pierre des Corps train station in Tours, there are frequent direct TGVs back to Paris.

Okay so after hearing all of your sound advice - we’ve decided to switch up the itinerary.

So land in Paris Thursday @11am - stay in Paris for three nights
Head to Orly airport, pick up a rental car and drive to MSM for 1 night, then drive to Tours for 2 nights and head back to Orly Paris - drop off the car and grab an 8pm flight to Porto, Portugal, spend 2 nights there.
Then head to Lisbon by train and spend 4 nights there with a day trip to Sintra.

We originally wanted to get MSM and Loire Valley out of the way then spend a few nights in Paris but this should definitely be safer yea?

Definitely safer, and it should work. Didn't realize you were spending nearly half your trip in Portugal.

We’re so excited!!! Any tips?!

The taxi is currently 55€ between CDG the Right Bank and 62€ for the Left Bank.

Fixed prices yea? Anywhere on either side?

When we visited Loire/Normandy/Brittany, we took the train to Chartres to see the cathedral and the town and the next morning we picked up a rental car and headed out on our travels.