Driving in France - my experience

1. Check to see everyone has their Driver's Licenses as well as passports!

My word! Thanks for the mid-trip report. Just getting to CDG in a taxi is a puzzle and I'm sure I would still be circling trying to find the rental car return!!

Have a wonderful time in London and on your last night in Paris!

(editing to add...I made the 1st # a 5 but it changes it to a 1 when I post!)

Glad you got it figured out. We found driving in France very easy, but didn't drive in Paris. Our rental agency asked to see our International Driver's Permit.

Enjoy the rest of your travels!

That sounds mentally exhausting, since you weren't expecting to do that. Did you and your daughter already have your IDPs?

Glad it worked out for you and hope you didn’t get any grey hairs from the experience. Finding the rental car return at airports is (to me) always the most stressful part of renting a car. Over a number of trips Madrid’s airport was a pain due construction, return entrance changing, very small sign pointing in the right direction, etc. The last couple trips and I think I’ve got it down. I’ve only returned at CDG once and I don’t recall the ease of return.

Interestingly, I’ve never had a large deposit hold placed on the card. Usually it’s only a couple hundred dollars.

We arrived safely at CDG only to get turned around in how to find rental car return. I felt captured in a rental car purgatory where I was trapped circling terminals and dodging parking forever.

Been there and done that, I can confirm it was the single worst car rental return experience of my life at CDG.

Never again.

About the International Driving Permit:
My daughter-in-law had hers since she had thought she might be a secondary driver occasionally . I did not since I had no intention of driving at all. The rental car company did not care about IDP, they only wanted our regular drivers license.

Carol,
Glad you made it! Yes, returning a car at CDG is not easy. We went around one time before getting in the right lane for return. We have picked up a car more than once at CDG, and navigating the airport isn't fun, but if you can be patient and not in a hurry, you can do it without too much anxiety. I find that many airports make it difficult to get to the car rental return, and train station returns in France are no fun either. (I'm looking at you Marseille and Bordeaux!)

I don't understand the large deposit hold on your CC, having never encountered that. Perhaps because of the last minute driver change? And yes, car sizes/passenger and luggage numbers are way off. Back in 1988 we looked at a "4 person convertible" on line. That turned out to be a Deux Chevaux (CV2). Hah! We did know better than to rent that one.
Congrats on your successful drive!

Did you need to take out a second mortgage to pay the French Autoroute tolls? :o)

The French superhighway system is the best I've ever experienced, but boy howdy it's expensive.

—Driving in Paris is a challenge no matter what, right up there with LA at rush hour, Naples any time, Japan any time. You don’t have to be American to be frustrated.

—Avoiding manual trans…..geez that makes me feel out of touch. I love driving a stick.

— Rated capacity and real capacity agree with that too

—The whole rental car experience is frustrating and costly compared to the USA.

—watching you tube for “training”? Never would have considered it.

—-The whole idea of trepidation over foreign driving? Never have given it a thought

—This was the best short travel story I’ve seen here in awhile.

We will always remember that drive back to CDG from the Loire Valley and taking the peripherique where there were so many lanes (8?) going in one direction, people driving a hundred miles an hour or so it seemed and me trying to navigate when I needed glasses to read but not for distance. So I was trying to read the map and look for the road signs at the same time. This was before cell phones and gps. By the time we found what we thought was the exit, we had sped past it. Luckily we knew a little of the geography of France and that heading towards Lille would be a safe bet. We made it in one piece to CDG thankfully. We still laugh about it to this day.

I've lived in France for over a decade. I had to pass both the theoretical and practical tests (in French) to get my French driver's license, again over a decade ago.

I've driven to practically every corner of l'Hexagone on all types of roads, and I'm always impressed by people complaining about the cost of tolls in France.

Yes, toll roads cost money. Yes, they almost always save time. It's up to the driver to determine if the value of the time saved is worth the cost of the tolls.

The answer, in my opinion, is almost always, "Yes."

But,

Did you need to take out a second mortgage to pay the French Autoroute
tolls?

Seriously?

After spending probably over a thousand dollars to fly to France, several hundred or over a thousand in hotel costs, several hundred to over a thousand in restaurant costs, one has to wonder,

Did you need to take out a second mortgage to pay the French Autoroute
tolls?

The question boggles.

When we drive (our usual mode of transporation in France), we prefer to take the D roads (not toll roads) and plan for the extra time it may take. As a matter of fact, we like the "delays" we encounter by stopping at an interesting town or site. We sort of meander. So the tolls aren't an issue. However, when we want to get somewhere fast, we accept the toll costs as part of the time saving expense. In the big picture of a trip to France we allow for tolls as a small part of our trip cost.