We stay in Paris 3 night s then have reservations in Brugge the next two nights then want to go to Normandy area from Bruges 2-3 night then back to Paris to depart next day...
Is it best to take a train to Bruges then get a car back in France to travel along coast to Normandy and back to Paris or rent a car from Paris drive to Bruges ECT. I see there are issues with tolls and cards.
Thanks in advance for a response.
I'd do the train to Bruges, we took the train from CDG to Lille, then train from Lille to Bruges. One hour from CDG to Lille then another hour and a half from Lille to Bruges. Very easy. I don't know what would be the best place to rent the car but I'd train back to France and rent there. Lille may be a bit far from Normandy to rent there but I'm sure there must be a good place accessible by train closer.
Lille might actually work best to rent a car since all train lines return to Paris to get to Normandy. There are car rental place at Lille Europe station. Then you can short cut Paris to get to Honfleur. You can turn the car in at Caen and take the train to Paris from there.
You have huge drop fees if you cross borders, so rent the car in France and drop in Paris.
I would try to drop by Etretat on your way to Honfleur -- both gorgeous places but Etretat is amazing. It won't take long -- maybe a couple of hours to walk the cliffs at Etretat and it is memorable. Our snapshots of both Honfleur and Etretat are here:
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/category/normandy/
