I want to rent a car on the outskirts of Paris to drive to Normandy and wanted to know if anyone knew of a car rental company that I would not have to drive the car in Pars
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
Take the train to Caen and rent from there. You'll find lots of rental cars available in Caen.
Posted by
Olympia, WA, USA
6713 posts
Go to Auto Europe and start a dummy rental for Paris. It will show you a choice of locations, mostly airports and train stations. Look at a map to decide where to rent. I'd suggest Porte Maillot, which is right on the Peripherique and also a station on Metro Line 1.
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
If you're landing at CDG, you can rent a car there and the only driving you'll have to do to get out of the city is around the high speed peripheral motorway, not to bad. My personal experience has been that driving out of or into the medium size towns is more challenging than just getting on the peripheral freeway from the airport.
Posted by
Panguitch, Utah
2707 posts
Basically there are two choices, Porte Maillot for A14 and eventually A13 or Porte d´Auteuil for direct access to A13. From near Porte Maillot, you can pickup a rental and head due west. It is an absolute straight shot. It is so easy you many not even need to turn the steering wheel but you will need to pay an extra 8€ toll that you can completely avoid if you depart Paris from Porte d´Auteuil and pickup A13 directly.
Either of these choices gives you the option of stopping by Giverny to visit Monet´s garden if you like. You´ll also avoid the needless expense of train tickets somewhere and of paying the almost 45€ train station/airport pickup surcharge which is typically not included in quotes you may receive from rental entities such as Autoeurope. This surcharge as well as road tax, the environmental fee (an extra you´ll pay for a car with automatic transmission), and additional driver fees are paid at drop off.
Be sure to read your rental contract and assume nothing.
Posted by
San Francisco/Marin County
9436 posts
Kent is right, from CDG is easy.
If you’re leaving after visiting Paris, what has worked best for us (we’ve done it many times, many ways) is a train to Caen, as Tim recommends. The rental places are right there at the station. It’s about a 15 min drive on the freeway to Bayeux where we enjoy staying (Hotel d’Argouges). We prefer to rent through Auto Europe which Dick recommended.