We are considering renting a car and driving to the UNESCO World Heritage Medieval city of Provins on the outskirts of Paris. Our group of 5 consists of 2 grandparents and a daughter with her 14 year old girl and 11 year old boy. We welcome any ideas on things to see and do for our day trip. We are staying near Disney and plan to rent the car at Val d Europe. Suggestions on the car rental would also be helpful as we have not rented autos in France. Do we need an international drivers license?
Posted by
IJzendijke, The Netherlands
2395 posts
Provins is not so big, spending a few hours is enough to my opinion, unless watching one of the shows there. For a whole daytrip it’s certainly worth to combine with a visit to Château Vaux-le-Vicomte for instance on the way back to Paris. Approaching the latter lovely Blandy is worth driving through.
Posted by
3227 posts
No compelling reason to rent a car to visit Provins. You can take the RER at 2.55€ each way.
Posted by
OP
Houston, TX, USA
155 posts
Google maps shows it is 1 hour, 53 minutes from Val d Europe to Provins via RER. Did I make a mistake?
Posted by
Long Beach, Ca, usa
3262 posts
Re renting a car in France....There is no such thing as an International Driver's License. You need to have a current license from your state. What you do need is an International d]Driving Permit as well as your license. This provides the possibility of translation to French of your state drivers license. (Don't ask me how it works.) It costs about $20.00 and needs a photo. I just go to a AAA office to get the IDP and get my picture taken there (less than $20.00 for the photos).
Each person who will be driving needs an IDP AND their current driver's license.
Posted by
Paris
7918 posts
There is a direct bus from Disney (the RER station at Disney) to Provins. Line 7705, runs hourly or better, takes about 1 hour, stops right outside the walled town, for just €2.05/person. Much easier than renting a car.
The benefit of renting a car would be the ability to visit Vaux-le-Vicomte on the same day, but that's only if you move fast, not a given for a group like yours.
Posted by
Portsmouth
6003 posts
Will you be staying at the Marriott resort in Bailly-Romainvilliers? If so you can take the bus from right outside the resort entrance to Val d'Europe where you can either take the train to Provins or you can rent a car from a number of companies (we used Avis). It's no different to renting a car anywhere else however I'd advise looking at your options regarding insurance cover. A number of US issued credit cards include insurance cover for car rentals or you could simply accept the rental company's insurance cover although it is the most expensive option.
As for Provins. It's a delightful town however it's not very large and it can be covered in a couple of hours. We've been twice, once when there was a medieval show taking place and another when the town was almost deserted.
I'd also recommend a visit to Meaux including the excellent WW1 museum (I'd recommend a car for this). I've always driven when we've stayed at the resort (five times currently) except for the occasions when we've visited Paris for which we took the train from Val d'Europe.