Will be in France 2 weeks in September. Plans are to spend two nights in Paris and then leave in rental car for Normandy and points south for return from Barcelona. Thinking about returning car in south France to avoid multi-country drop fees and train to Barcelona for the last few days. Any suggestions on where to return car and train to BArcelona? Been to Paris and Normandy a few times, but never the south so I not sure about the logistics. Thank you in Advance.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15156 posts
Perpignan.
It's the closest city to the border. Then from Perpignan take TGV train to Barcelona Sants (1h 20min with no train changes required).
Europcar and Avis have an office at the Perpignan station. I'm sure other companies do too.
Posted by
Nashville, TN, USA
795 posts
I'd skip the car altogether and use trains and in Paris use the metro. It is a nightmare trying to drive in Paris and the parking, well!
Posted by
Sacramento, California U.S.A.
10215 posts
Roberto's right, Perpignan. Be aware that it's hard to find the area to return if you don't know what you're looking for. Look for the ramp that goes underground. Once there, returning is easy.
Edit - I suggest you train to Normandy (maybe Caen) and pick up your car there. Driving in Paris is a nightmare. I swore after the first time I would never do it again. That was my first trip. Last September, trip 4 involving Paris, I thought it wouldn't be a big deal to drive from Gare du Nord to Normandy. Getting out of Paris on a Friday afternoon added an hour to the trip. Our friends who took the train to Bayeux arrived way before we did.
Posted by
Berkeley CA
1307 posts
A car is very handy for Normandy and everything towards the south of France.
A friend and I took the train to Rouen and picked up our rental car there. That worked very well for us.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10185 posts
Last spring we returned a Europecar rental in Narbonne, 200 meters from the train station, on the same street, easy to find. The high-speed train to Barcelona was easy to catch from Narbonne.
Posted by
OP
Coastal Georgia, USA
4 posts
Several great ideas, thanks to all. Any suggestions for the points south part of the trip. Not all all familiar with that part of the country.
Doug
Posted by
Truro, NS, Canada
3941 posts
We really enjoyed our car rental that we picked up in Paris and drove to north France in 2012 (it was only for 3 days tho)...so much so that this fall when we go back, we are going to pick up a car in Avignon and toodle around Provence and Cote D'Azur for 10 days. We were extremely nervous (I mean extremely!) renting a car the first time, but I figured tens of thousands of people do it every year, and I'm sure at least half are more idiotic than me and my husband and if they could do it, so could we.
The only bad thing that happened was a German speaking GPS (it took us awhile to get it to speak English - it was integrated in the Volkswagen) that...even after my careful planning about where to pick up the car for easiest route out of Paris but easy to walk to from the metro (the Europcar location on Ave Foch was the winner)...ended up sending us back into Paris to wherever the person before us was last. But it was a Sun morning and traffic was light and we got on our way with only an hour delay...it's a funny story now!
What we loved about having the car was being able to do our own thing on our own schedule and not be beholden to trains or buses. We arrived mid-afternoon to Juno Beach - oh, we have time to see the Canadian museum! Good thing we have the car. I wanted to see Mont St Michel after dark and trying to do that using public transport would not have been possible. We were able to visit some smaller spots that would have been a pain to get to with public transport. We are couchsurfers and were invited to stay in an amazing home in a little tiny village called Amblie that would have been unreachable by bus. Yeah...there is gas, parking and tolls, but compared to the costs of the trains and buses (not to mention the headaches of scheduling) we really felt it was worth it, so don't let anyone tell you not to do it!