Returning car to a rail station outside of Paris (south of the city)

Depending on which rental company you pick, there should be several places to return the car w/o driving into Paris center. Orly airport is a possibility, since there's easy public transit into Paris. All of the train stations will have offices, but that does mean driving into Paris. As to drop off fees, most French car rental companies don't have one-way fees as long as you pick up and return in France, and those that do don't have a high fee. As to rental companies, I'd suggest using Kemwel (www.kemwel.com) or AutoEurope www.autoeurope.com), 2 consolidators under the same ownership. I've mostly rented from Europcar, either directly or through AutoEurope/Kemwel, and I have no complaints.

The advice from Woinparis as to where to return is very good, except that you said that you want to sightsee on the way to Paris. That complicates things. Otherwise, I think returning it to Avignon TGV is an excellent idea.

Yes, I didn't want advice on returning the car in southern France and taking a train to Paris. Neither did I ask for a grammer lesson. If someone else knows about a good place to return a car to an outlying Paris area, preferably south, without driving much in Paris, I'd love that info. Thank you kindly.

I think rather than a rail station, Orly airport may be the easiest return site -- in part, because it will be most prominently signed (is that a word?) on the A6 as you're coming into Paris. Then you have several options for getting into town from Orly on public transportation -- or a taxi is only 30 euros at the most under the newly passed taxi rules (i.e. it could be less depending on traffic conditions, but at least for 30 euros you know you'll be good. Considering two people to get into town via some mode of public transportation is probably near 20 euros, I'd just take a taxi, it's not worth saving 10 euros and having to hassle with all the changes and walking etc.).

It is a long drive from Avignon to Paris, have you decided what places you want to stop and see on the way? How many nights do you plan on stopping?

I think any international rental company is probably fine, I don't know that any of them are any better or worse than the others, but other readers may have experiences that would shed light on that question.

We dropped off at Orly and found it to be an easy place to do so, south of town, many options to reach downtown. I don't know about train station drop-offs.

Two more advantages of Orly are that the rental companies are open on Sundays and they don't close for a lunch break. All other rental agencies in larger cities south of Paris--Dijon, Auxerre, Sens have traditional closing hours during the day and on Sunday.

We've used AutoEurope and Kemwel for the past 20 years. Non-EU residents who pay with dollars avoid certain taxes making the price much lower than for an EU resident.

Hi Julie. DH and I are renting a car from Europcar (who we've used before) and dropping our car of in the train station in Melun for no additional charge. It's a bit south/southeast of Paris and is the train station you'd stop at if touring the chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte. We plan to go to Fontainebleu in the afternoon and stay overnight in Fontainebleu. The next day, we'll tour Vaux-le-Vicomte and then drop the car off and head into Paris. You'll end up in Gare de Lyon.

As an aside, Rick Steves has a supplemental video on this site called "Side Trips from Paris" which includes Fontainebleu and Vaux-le-Vicomte. Since you're sightseeing on the way, take a look at this video.

Have a great trip!
Melody

Thank you Kim, Eef and Bets! Your suggestions were just what I needed!! Much appreciated, also. Kind regards!

Last fall, we dropped off our rental car in Chartres (about 50 miles outside of Paris)--hourly trains into Paris. Plus, you get the opportunity to visit a wonderful cathedral.