Renting a car outside Paris, where to rent and suggestion on towns to visit

Taking the train to Tours is not a bad idea, although I'd suggest Saint-Pierre-des-Corps instead. But what is your plan after that? My suggestion is to not spend that much time in the car. Return the car again in Saint-Pierre-des-Corps and take the train to Bordeaux, that would save you a lot of time compared to driving. And if you're looking for great wine, Bordeaux is a good choice.

We have rented in Versailles and at the airport to avoid PU and DO in Paris.

Thank you for the suggestions. Our plan was to keep the car but we are worried that it will be too much time driving. Is it feasible to do this whole trip without a car? Won’t we need a car if visiting a region like Bordeaux?

If there are areas to stay in that are easily accessible by train and easy to navigate by foot, we are open to that.

If you're worried that it will be too much driving, you really should not keep the car. It will also save you a bit of time, Saint-Pierre-des-Corps to Bordeaux takes around 1.5 hours by train, compared to 4+ hours driving. Bordeaux is a city and best visited on foot, but there are also trams and buses that can help. If you want to visit the surrounding region, there is nothing stopping you from renting another car for a day. Although if you take the bus all of you can try some wine.

If you want to have a car in southern France, continue by train to Toulouse and rent the car there. Just because you want a car for part of the trip does not mean you have to have a car for the entire trip, and you can rent multiple cars and use trains inbetween.

This is a great idea. I didn’t realize Bordeaux was so walkable.
So then would you recommend another town between Bordeaux and the south of France that’s easily accessible by train to break up the trip? Bordeaux to Menton would be a long trip.

And can we get to Menton by train as well? It’s possible we won’t need a car at all. I read that nice/Menton/St. Tropez etc are all easy to travel between via train or even boat.

All European cities are walkable. Extremely walkable by North American standards. Having a car in a city is just an expensive headache. Is this your first trip to Europe?

Of course you can travel to Menton by train. There is a railway station in Menton. And there are regional trains along the coast if you want to go to St Tropez or Nice (or Italy). There are plenty of options for places to stop along the way. But my suggestion would be somewhere between Toulouse and Marseille. Maybe Carcassonne, Nîmes or Avignon?

Via Michelin shows about 9.5 hours drive time from Montrichard to Menton, taking the fastest route, and not including any stops or traffic impact. You're wise to want to break this up into at least two segments, and from your post it looks like you're looking for a stop where you can spend two nights, not just one.

Badger has good suggestions. Another choice might be to keep the car and make Avignon your two-night stop-off location. It's about 6.5 hours from Montrichard, a long but still doable day's drive. And it's a good base for a day exploring in Provence, which has plenty of great scenery, food, and wine. If not Avignon, you could choose any of the attractive towns around it, like St-Remy or Orange or even Arles or Nimes. Then it would be a relatively short drive to Nice and Menton. You won't need the car there, in fact you could drop it between Marseilles and Nice, and get a train the rest of the way. Aix-en-Provence has good train service to Nice with a change in Marseilles.

Another idea, focused on "culinary experiences," might be to make Lyon your intermediate point. It's a big city where the car will be a liability, but you could look for a place with parking that isn't too hard to drive to and from. Lyon has some of the best food in France.

Annency is pretty but well off your direct route, a lot more driving. You needn't go all the way there for scenery, food, and wine.

Yes I’ve been to Europe several times but have never travelled from one end of a country to the other. I thought maybe driving across France would be a beautiful experience, plus not having to deal with getting off the train and navigating to our Airbnb with our luggage and everything. But knowing the trains are that much faster is definitely appealing.

So current plan is:

Day 1: train from CDG to Épernay
Days 2-5: train back to Paris and spend time in Paris.
Days 5-7: train from Paris to Loire, stay in Montrichard
Days 7-9: train to Bordeaux? Or open to suggestions
Days 9-12: south of France

now I’m wondering if we even need a car at all.

Just saw your response Dick and I love these suggestions too. We were thinking we’d avoid Lyon since we’re already doing Paris and we love the idea of seeing more quaint areas, although your culinary advice is now making me rethink it!

Lyon is a lovely city and well worth a visit if you like food, it has been called "The food capital of France". But it is a large city, the second largest in France. If you want to include Lyon my suggestion would be to drive from Montrichard to Lyon, return the car there and after a few days in Lyon continue by train. Lyon is on the Paris-Marseille high speed line so the train is a fast way to get to the Mediterranean.

This sounds like an excellent option, though it would mean we’d have to skip Bordeaux.

Although I suppose we could do Bordeaux instead of Montrichard. It’s so hard to decide!

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions! I have reworked the itinerary accordingly and this is now the plan:

1 night in Epernay
2 nights in Paris
take the train to Lyon and spend 2 nights in Lyon
Rent a car from Lyon and drive to Provence (staying in an airbnb in Goult for 2 nights)
Drive to Nice and return the car before heading to Menton for the final 3 nights

This feels like a much better plan so I really appreciate the advice. If anyone has any further advice on specific MUST DO activities, I'd love to hear them. I would love to eat at a Michelin star restaurant at some point if someone has a suggestion (there's too many to choose). I would also love to do a vineyard tour at some point.

Thank you!

Overall not a bad plan at all!

But are you planning any stops between Lyon and Goult? Another option is to take the train from Lyon to Avignon and rent the car there.

Another option is to take the train from Lyon to Avignon and rent the car there.

I would do that too. The drive from Lyon to Goult is no fun! From Avignon TGV, it's a 50-minute breeze (with a nasty speed camera at a railroad crossing, beware).

Since the drive isn't too long I thought it might be a pretty drive and maybe we'd stop somewhere along the way, however if that's not the case then taking the train and renting a car in Avignon sounds great to me.

Hopefully the drive from Goult to Nice will be nice though? (no pun intended 😆)

Hi everyone- thanks again for all the advice here! We are in final stages of planning and booking train tickets and a car.
One piece of advice I’m hoping for: would you recommend we drive from Avignon to Nice and return our car in Nice before heading to Menton? I thought it would be a pretty drive and it doesn’t appear that there is a train quicker than driving this route. It will cost a bit more to rent the car in Avignon and return it in Nice, but it’s doable.

Any thoughts on this plan? Would you drive or take a train for this route?