Rental Cars Debacle

Just rent a car from nearest car rental to where you are staying in Paris and drive to Tours if you want or rent the car through Avis and pick it up in Tours on Sunday. SNCF has a relationship with Avis that allows you to pick up cars at train stations even when the Avis office is otherwise closed. You'd have to check to see if Tours is one of the stations covered by the program if you really want to take the train. If you really want to to drive but for some reason you do not want to drive in Paris, then maybe pick the car up from Orly. Or tell us where you are staying in Paris, and someone could suggest a rental car location that is on the edge of town but convenient to your starting point. One way rentals in France do not generally include a one-way drop-off fee for in-country rentals so picking a car up in Paris and leaving it in Tours should not be a problem. There is (or used to be) an Avis at the Tours Airport -- ironically, Avis is one of the few rental car companies that charge a drop off fee for rentals in France. Here is some information on the rental car companies with locations at Tours airport: http://www.toursairport.com/Car-Hire/.

Thank you so very much!!

Flixbus runs buses on that route. It can take as little as 2 hr. 55 minutes and cost as little as 11.90 euros. That information is for your travel date, May 7.

There may be other companies serving that route as well.

When we visited the Loire Valley, we picked up a car at Orly because I wasn't excited about driving in Paris and it was also easier to reserve an automatic at an airport location, if that is important to you. It was an easy drive to Amboise but it did take 2.5-3 hours.

One way rentals in France do not generally include a one-way drop-off fee for in-country rentals so picking a car up in Paris and leaving it in Tours should not be a problem

Budget charges a one way fee.

Betsy, I'm assuming from your post that it's easy to get to Orly airport via train from Paris, and pretty convenient to pick up and drop off in the airport? We're also driving down to the Loire and don't want to drive in Paris. Thanks for the suggestion!

It was easy to pick up at Orly and I don't remember it being hard to find our way to the highway. We dropped our car off in Bordeaux (we drove through the Dordogne after the Loire) and took the train back to Paris, so I don't have experience dropping at Orly ... but can't imagine the reverse would be much harder. We took an Uber from Paris to the airport so I can't speak to the ease of taking a train there. Sorry!

Thanks Betsy!