Renting a car in France

We've rented cars in France twice. First time we picked up and dropped off in Paris. Never again and I strongly recommend returning outside of Paris. 2nd time we picked up in eastern France and returned in western France. It wasn't a problem.

You'll need to check your car insurance to see if it will cover you. We always use a credit card that covers the insurance so I would say check your credit cards to see if they will cover it. Usually if a credit card does it requires you to turn down the insurance offered by the rental car company.

We rented from Sixt. They get good reviews. We're renting in Avignon. In the past, we have rented in CDG. Never again.

Unless you really really need a car, don't rent a car in Europe. Take the train.

And get a IDP if you do this.

Hi, I'm the OP -- we want to rent a car because we are going to the Loire Valley and read that a car is very helpful. We are planning to rent the car in Versailles where we are staying for the first half of our trip and return at CDG. We are also traveling with a 10 year old. For those who rented in CDG and say never again, does that apply to dropping off or only picking up? Our plan is to return the car to CDG and then head back to the states. Thanks for the information!

For those who say never again at CDG is that because it was hard to find the rental location or other issues? We will be dropping off only at CDG. Is the return process similar to the return process in the states where you drive up and leave the car after reporting milage etc? We also plan to get to the airport very early since we have had recent experiences with security and customs at CDG taking an extra long time. Thanks!

I always rent a car in France, and disagree with the statement "don't rent a car in Europe." Many places I visit are not at all served by trains. I also usually rent in one place and drop off in another. It is seamless. I have rented at CDG, elsewhere in Paris, Caen, Bayeux and Rennes. I have dropped on in Cherbourg, Bayeux and Caen. The only issue is that some companies (notably Hertz) charge a drop-off fee if you return to a different city.

I have rented cars at CDG perhaps 6 times, most recently about 10 years ago. The return process went OK except once: when i picked up the rental car, I was given specific instructions to return the car at a certain level in one of the parking decks. For some reason, that level of the parking garage was blocked off on that day. I parked the car in the parking deck and went inside the terminal, where the car rental personnel told me unless I wanted to pay a fee, I would have to exit the parking deck and drive to a different rental car return lot within CDG. I should have been assertive and said, "Here are the keys; the car is in spot XX on floor xx, and I will not pay an additional fee." Instead I did as instructed and arrived at my flight's gate as boarding was commencing.

If I were traveling to France in the near future and needed a rental car, I would still rent at CDG. However, my recommendation to you is to obtain VERY specific instructions on where to return the car.....and to allow ALOT of time in case there is bad traffic around CDG or some other surprise arises.

We rented a car in Paris in 2013 below the Louvre. I think it was from Avis as that is who we usually rent from. Driving out of Paris while it was raining was challenging. We drove the car to Dijon where we stayed and for a day trip to Beaune. We enjoyed having a car to see the sights that we would not have been able to see if we'd taken a train. Returning the car to CDG was a nightmare as there were no obvious signs of where to return rental cars. We actually almost missed our flight, and we had allowed several hours. The process was quite long to return the car once we found the correct place. This was 10 years ago and things may have changed. Picking the car up from the Louvre and returning it to CDG was not a problem in the administration of doing it.
A few years later, we rented a car at the Marseilles Airport [MRS] for a month. We had rented a house in Aix and drove the car to all the lovely villages in the area as well as to Gorges du Verdon. We returned it to MRS which was a very easy process.
This May, we are renting a car at the Bordeaux St. Jean train station to drive to Sarlat and the surrounding area for seven days. It's the only way to see the sights. I'm hoping that renting a car from and returning it to the train station will be uncomplicated.

We rented through Hertz at CDG last April, returning car at CDG. It was super easy. We used the Waze app for directions. The agent at the return desk checked our car in about 5 minutes. We took our own photos as well.

My sister and I are in our 70’s and did not have any issues in negotiating the Paris traffic,

In 2013 our CDG had gps but it was in German so we couldn’t use it ( and could also not figure out how to change it to English). On that trip, we used a series of screenshots on our phones taking us from just outside the airport to the rental return location. It was crazy but it work. You definitely need a responsible co-pilot.

On both trips we pre- paid for the gas fill up only because we did not want to have to stop on the return.

Versailles has several car rental options, but do check prices at Orly airport. It is a 60€ cab ride away (roughly) but it can give you access to additional rental companies and possibly better fares. Worth checking.

Auto Europe is a good source for car rentals, a US-based broker that works with many rental companies. You can comparison shop on its website. You will probably have a dropoff charge for renting in one place and dropping in another, but it may be worth it for the flexibility and convenience.

I've returned a car to CDG with no special difficulty. It's a big unfamiliar airport with a lot of traffic, but no worse that way than other airports I've experienced. Comments about driving in and out of Paris itself, which can indeed be challenging, don't apply to CDG or other airports.

For your plans to visit the Loire, a car would be a good idea, Versailles would be a good place to get it, and CDG a good place to drop it, assuming that you'll be flying out of there. If possible, don't plan to drive to CDG on the day of your flight, even if it's an afternoon one. Too many things could cause you to miss it.

Prepaying gas is a very expensive option which I've never taken. Some effort is involved in finding a station near the dropoff point to fill the tank, and on my last trip the rental company wanted to see my receipt showing where the last purchase was made. Unless you've prepaid, returning with a significantly empty tank will mean paying for the refill at ridiculous prices -- better to do it on your own.

Many credit cards offer insurance, provided that you've used the card to pay for the rental. However, this may be reimbursement for costs you've had to pay yourself up front, which can be a real problem if they're very high. Read the fine print with care in your card agreement. Some insurance, with high deductibles, is usually built into the rental rate, and additional coverage can be bought at pickup. I've done that, and other times relied on my credit card, but luckily have no experience with a claim.

EDIT -- Balso, as usual, has a good suggestion to see if you can get a better choice and/or price at Orly.

We also rented a car for the Loire Valley, but included a night at Mont St. Michel which your 10 yr old would love!

I'm one who said I would never again rent in Paris. This is for 2 reasons. 1st is traffic in Paris is insane and it seems people don't pay attention to lanes or anything else. Also unknown to us the place to return the car was 3 blocks from where we had picked up our car. Took us 30 minutes to figure that one out. CDG may be just fine. We find driving anywhere other than Paris is just fine. Have a great trip.

most larger train stations have car rental outlets, I recall taking the train to Tours and renting and returning a car to Avis at the train station. At least at that time, SNCF offered a package deal.

did the same at the Dijon station, as noted above it was tricky to return the car since there was a multi-level car park with small signs indicating rental car return.

Wow, this feels like a big topic. I’ve rented cars in France multiple times. I’ve pretty much quit using Sixt because I had problems with them alleging that I damaged the car and didn’t. So, my first piece of advice is take pictures of the car before you drive away with your phone so that you have proof of what you didn’t do. And they will go around the car with you, but you still take pictures. My second piece of advice or history, is we rented a car in Paris at Charles de Gaulle and returned it there as well in 2019 and for the first time returning it was a nightmare. It was so bad we spent about an hour trying to find place and I finally did some thing purposefully erroneous in front of a security officer so I could get his attention and then he helped me find where to return the car. But it was kind of the twilight zone experience. So, this past year I rented in Versailles both coming and going that made it much easier. Your GPS will help but it doesn’t help in the airport trying to find a return place. I to am a proponent of a car in areas where you want to see specific things like the Loire Valley and agree that it is probably the best way to go. Learn your traffic signs and some basic words for exit, entrance, etc. And then know that the roundabout to roundabout so if you can’t figure out where to turn off of the roundabout the first go around you always have the opportunity to go around again until you can figure it out.
Finally have fun and don’t be afraid to get a little lost, often that has been out best times.

Hi! We've rented cars multiple times in Europe, including France. In fact, we also rented a car for a trip in the Loire (and I agree with you that you DO need a car to see the Loire Valley - and you will love it!). We have rented from Europcar, Budget, Dollar, and Sixt. We've had no problems with any of them. I do drive a stick shift, so we usually rent a manual - although I notice that most companies are now offering an automatic option (often for a slightly higher price). I too used to rely on my credit card's overseas car rental coverage, but I now always take the car rental's optional insurance. I've decided it's just worth the peace of mind. I've never had an accident, but I've had a scratched bumper in Germany (no idea where it came from), and a chipped windshield in Iceland (ferocious winds, gravel, and a truck in front of me)... It was nice knowing I wasn't going to have to deal with any claims, credit card submissions, etc... When we rented for our trip in the Loire, we actually picked up our vehicle in Paris (Carrousel du Louvre location), and returned it at CDG at the end of our trip. No problems at all. I think you've got a nice plan. Enjoy your time in France!