From Normandy to Les Baux, what is the best route to take?

You may want to rethink driving on the heaviest traveled weekend of the year. You are also counting on a D-Day tour or a trip to Mont St. Michel on the national holiday, July 14th. That little road trip from Normandy to Provence will be hours and hours of traffic jams on the autoroutes or a few days on the smaller roads. You should leave the car in Normandy and take the train. You can pick up another car in Avignon--or Marseille. . You'll have to take the train into Paris, cross the city and get another train south to Provence. Or, drive back to CDG and fly to Marseille--probably what I'd do in your shoes.

If you do drive on the 13th after flying in, be sure to get your car at CDG and head straight out to Normandy. You may beat some of the traffic leaving Paris for the long weekend--or you may not. If you aren't taking a trans-Atlantic, it should be ok. As for the 16th and 17th, you'll have a lot of vacationers going north and south.

Note two things about the car rental agencies: you'll need a large agency to get your car as so many will be rented by the French over the holiday weekend. Smaller agencies in smaller cities and towns run out of cars at this time of year. Second, you also need to be very careful about the agency's hours, especially on a holiday weekend. Hours are quite restricted. Try autoeurope.com to get an idea of where you can pick up, drop off, hours, and prices. Yes, you can drop off in a different city without a large charge. The easiest and surest is to pick up and drop off at CDG and Marseille airports, though you'll incur an extra fee for airport pick up.

BTW, the drive from Ste-Mere-l'Eglise to Mont St. Michel is short and easy--60-90 minutes.

Bets is not overstating the problems. If anything she is being mild.

Everybody and his brother's cat will be on the Autoroute de Soleil then. Yes really.

Have a browse around the most excellent Bison Fute official French government website and look at the calendar for that period. When it is red it is awful, when it is black it is a parking lot.

http://www.bison-fute.gouv.fr/index,langen.html

It has improved a bit in the last few years, but most French families do not stagger their holidays - they all go and return at once.

Don't get caught up in it.

And there is the huge amount of money for tolls. For that drive expect tolls in each direction of about €100 plus or minus. And the high cost of fuel (you are renting a diesel standard transmission for best fuel economy, right?). All the French will already have reserved the cheap hotels on the way (maybe a night in Troyes, Dijon or Beaune on the way?) so if you can find a hotel be prepared to pay. It will be very hot - they don't call it the Autoroute de Soleil for nothing - so hope your car has a good A/C.

I drive in France a lot - a lot - and I wouldn't do it that weekend - or the weeks either side.

The more I think about it, I think it would really be best to drive back to CDG early on the 17th before the crowds start driving back toward Paris, catch a flight to Marseille and pick up a second car there. That would give you three days in Normandy instead of two, one of which is a holiday. You'd avoid the driving. Remember that it's not just the French on these roads going north/south, but people from everywhere in northern Europe.

Tolls on autoroutes in France are very expensive, and you will no doubt encounter hideous traffic snarls.

I would probably want 3 days for this journey ...
Mont St Michel >> Tours (Loire Valley) >> Lyon >> Les Baux

Wonderful recommendations. Thank you. We have changed our plans a bit. Please let me know if this sounds more reasonable. We will go directly from the Paris airport to the train (long day of travel, coming from Washington state) and take a train from Paris to Caen where we will pick up a car. We will hunker down at a B&B in St. Mere Eglisse from the 13-17th of July. We have booked a D-Day tour with Navy and Co. on the 14th and will do Mont St. Michel solo on the 15th. The 16th will give us a day to pick up anything we left off or just relax. On the 17th we will return the car to Caen and take the train back to Paris. THIS IS WHERE I NEED HELP again. Since we are due in Les Baux on the 17th, we thought we would take the train BACK to Paris from Caen and then catch the high speed train to Arles?? Then pick up another car there. We are 5 days in Les Baux and then 4 in Cassis. My question is: Is Arles the best location for us to pick up and drop off a car and use as our train hub since we are going to Les Baux, but returning our car from Cassis?

I sincerely appreciate the help provided from those of you who have made this trip. My husband and I are active travelers, but do relish relaxation as well.

Everything is going to hinge on what car rental agencies are open on a Sunday. It's not like in the States with our 24/7 culture. Caen is probably closed. You'll need to see if Arles is open. Avignon TVG station car rentals are more likely open. Marseille train station is likely open. You can check which agencies are open on the 17th using autoeurope.com, inputting a dummy rental. You'll find open agencies at major airports and train stations, which is why I suggested driving back to CDG and flying to Marseille airport.

When you say Les Baux, do you mean the old hill top town in west Provence, just east of Avignon? Why go there? It isn't all that special and is jammed with tourists. The buses fill the parking lot each day. The shops are just there to sell to tourists. It is not a functioning town really. There are so many other places in Rick's book that are better. Great view at the top from the old ruins but I'm glad we were just there a couple of hours.

I'd recommend staying in Avignon and/or Arles in that area. Visit Pont du Gard east of Avignon as it is one of the wonders of the ancient world...the big aqueduct built by the Romans 2000 years ago.