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Have rental car and need to depart from CDG, but afraid to drive in Paris traffic

My wife and I will take a trip to southern France next month. We will have a rental car, and will be returning to the US from CDG. It would seem to make sense to drop off the rental car at CDG, but earlier this year we got a taste of Paris traffic and frankly I do not want to drive in that mess! To avoid the traffic, would it make sense to drop off the rental car at ORLY and take a train to CDG? Is there another option?
Thanks!

Update: Thanks to everyone for all the helpful answers to my question. Since my goal was to reach the CDG airport but not drive through Paris, I would ideally drop off my car outside of Paris and take the train/metro to CDG. Our last stop will be to Chartres, but initially it appeared that I could not drop off the rental car there because Costco requires that rental cars be dropped off only at airports. However, when I went directly to the car rental company (Enterprise), I learned that they would allow me to drop off at Chartres, so that is what I am going to do.

Thanks again, and happy trails everyone!

Posted by
11027 posts

Where will you be coming from? Is dropping the car there and taking a train a possibility?

Have you checked what other 'suburban' Paris offices your rental car co. has?

Posted by
2267 posts

The TGV line to the south stops right at CDG. Maybe take the train to/from the south, and only have the car for your regional touring? (Between gas and tolls, it could even be decent, if not better economics.)

Posted by
107 posts

We picked up and dropped off in Versailles after trying Paris one time. A little longer process but less stressful. Another trip we did pick up and drop off at the airport. Again, a little longer but less stressful.

Posted by
10117 posts

South of France is a huge area, so from where will you be driving?
Marseille to Paris is 3 hours by train. It's more than double by car. It doesn't make sense to spend all that time driving when you have high-speed trains going directly to Paris and others directly to CDG.

Posted by
6773 posts

Marseille to Paris is 3 hours by train. It's more than double by car. It doesn't make sense to spend all that time driving when you have high-speed trains going directly to Paris and others directly to CDG.

This is excellent advice. It also applies to Lyon, Avignon, Nîmes, Dijon, Bordeaux, Tours even. Consider that driving a car on the toll highways costs about 0.20€/km or slightly more these days with tolls and gas. Lyon to Paris is 100€, Marseille to Paris is 160-170€, and so on. This is equivalent to the average cost of 2 train tickets for next month.

Posted by
1189 posts

Hi from Wisconsin,
You can get to the airport without driving through Paris. Coming from the SE, E, NE, N, or NW is close to rural driving. And once you are near the airport there will signs directing you safely in to the car park for your return.

Put in a location for one of those cardinal directions, for instance Claye-Souilly, and National Car Rental return and follow that path. If I recall correctly all the rentals are returned to the same general area. The sign posts will say car return.

Honestly ten minutes of Google maps and you will find that the rental return is in the middle of the airport area. If you get on that long loop of airport road (using Google that area is shown as grey) and you miss the turn off to the rental return just stay on the loop and get off on your next time around.

In my opinion, It is much easier to return a car there than to pick one up.

wayne inWI

Posted by
2 posts

Hi Wayner -
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I need to get to CDG from Chartres, which is SW of Paris, essentially on the exact opposite side of Paris from CDG. I explored various routes using Google Maps (one of my favorite travel tools), and I could not find a route which would get me to from Chartres to CDG in less than two and a half hours.