Paris to Chamonix in September

Chamonix is pretty small mostly pedestrian and all the other points of interest up in the mountains are only accessible by taking the lifts.

Personally I'd take a train to Chamonix or somewhere larger and not too far away, then rent a car to have while in Chamonix. As the previous commenter said, the town itself is largely pedestrian, and you take lifts to go up the mountains, but there's areas nearby that are difficult to access without a car. If you want to just look around the area more generally, you need a car. Or a lot of patience for buses.

Thank you so much! Great info to both responders!

I would say, it depends on how much time you have. If you have 2 days or less, you will not have time for the places that might need a car.

If you are in Chamonix longer, then a car is indeed a good idea. I would take the TGV to Bourg en Bresse (2 hrs) and drive for the remaining 2:15 hours, or Annecy (4 hrs) and drive 1:15. I would not drive all the way from Paris, it takes over 6.5 hours.

Balso! I love the detailed recommendations! Thank you!!!

We have decided to take the train to Bourg en bresse and pick up an auto rental where we will travel to Chamonix.

Now, we want to get to Nice and travel to Menton by train. Where should we drop the rental car off after Chamonix? Should we just drive to Nice? What is a beautiful route? Or would it be best to drop the rental car off in another city before traveling to Nice/ Menton?

How long do you have to get from Chamonix to Nice?
If you have 1 day, I would just drive to Geneva airport (returning the car on the French side, driving through Geneva to avoid the CHF 40 Swiss toll) and fly to Nice. It is a long way by road, 6 hours+.
If you have 2 days, you could drive through Italy and spend a night in the Langhe wine country.
If you have 3 days, you could drive south across the Alps, taking in the scenic passes (Iseran, Galibier, etc) and stopping over in Briançon or the Queyras region for 2 days.

We will fly to NCE from Geneva- great idea!

Can you explain how we can drive to Geneva if we return the car in France?

Where should we return the car? And how would we get to the airport?

Thank you so much!

This is the route you would follow from the French border near Annemasse, crossing into Geneva and driving to the French sector of the airport. It looks complicated but Geneva is not a huge city, it should be fine (mind the trams, though). When booking the car, you will need to select the French sector of the airport as a return point. If you select the Swiss sector, it will be much more expensive so you will notice.

Traffic into Geneva is heavy on weekday mornings, so if your date is a weekday, I would aim for a flight in the early afternoon.
As a bonus, you get to see a bit of Geneva along the way. You could even consider a later flight and park in Geneva to walk around for 2 hours.

If it looks complicated, you can also just decide to pay the 40 francs and buy an electronic toll sticker for the car, "e-vignette". That way you can take the Swiss motorway all the way to Geneva airport.

When I visited, I took a train from Paris to Lyon. After a short stay there, I rented a car. The rental car was much more efficient for visiting Annecy on the way to Chamonix. I was heading south afterwards. You could probably take the car back to Lyon and a train from there back into Paris.

Thank you! So many options! I appreciate your response!!