Transportation from CDG to Rouen, France

I would suggest finding a hotel near St. Lazare your first night. Enjoy the evening in Paris. Train to Bayeux the next morning and rent your car there. Then drive wherever you plan on driving and return it to Bayeux. Honfleur and Bayeux are not all that far from one another.

Bayeux is a terrible place to rent a car or drop one off -- there are not major outlets there. If you want to rent on the way do it at Caen where there are several major outlets near the station or do it in Rouen. Take the train to Rouen from St. Lazare, spend the first night and then pick up the car in the morning. I doubt you will be able to drop in Bayeux, but could drop either at CDG on the way into Paris or at Caen coming from Bayeux. We have often dropped cars at different sites than where we rented them, but usually this involves airport or train station agencies where they deal with lots of cars.

A cab or uber is likely to cost several hundred Euro for this destination -- The train is the way to go. I'd use that first miserable jet lag day to get to your furthest destination. What better thing do you have to do that day than ride the train to Rouen? Pick up a picnic at the station and enjoy the ride.

I suggest a taxi from CDG to Gare St-Lazare, then a train to Rouen. You could spend the night in Paris or Rouen.

I'm sure Hertz isn't the only company to allow dropoffs elsewhere, but this year I've encountered fees for that, unlike previous rentals years ago. See what you can find on Auto Europe.

You are finding Hertz as the only option because Hertz is the only option in Bayeux. Use Caen as a drop-off point and options will also include Avis, Europcar and possibly others.

Otherwise, taxi to St Lazare station and train to Rouen is indeed the way to go! If you land at 11;00, you should be in Rouen by 16:00.

And if you're just going to Honfleur that day (not visiting Rouen), consider taking the train all the way to Le Havre and renting there. The drive is significantly shorter. You could even take a taxi or bus to Honfleur from Le Havre, and continue by bus to Caen the next day, if you want to minimize driving.

Car rental in Bayeux is a gas station 20 minute drive from Center with limited hours. We took a train out of Paris to Mantes-La-Jolie, we did not want to drive in Paris. Car rental at train station, drove to Giverny then Rouen and return car after a week in Normandy to Caen. Warning: when returning car I failed to recognize it would be a Saturday with limited trains. We had to wait 2 hours for the last train back. It was Eurocar and we have rented from them in the past. Side note: we were having car trouble (it was a floor mat caught under the clutch!). We could not figure out what was wrong. We called a phone# they had given us. Help arrived within the hour in Honfluer. We felt rather silly! I will always rent from them.

Thank you everyone for all of your replies! They all were very helpful.
We now have decided to rent a car at CDG and drive a short distance and spend the night in a hotel.
We’ll get up the next morning and drive to Honfleur.
From RS travel forum, we think we’ll stay in either Senlis, Chantilly or Auvers-Sur-Oise.
Does anyone have feedback about one of these towns? We are looking for a walkable, charming town.
Thanks so much!

Of those I'd choose Senlis. but Auvers is also very nice -- but Senlis is a lovely medieval town. One caveat, small tourist driven towns are utterly dead Sunday afternoon and Mondays, so I would not bother if your arrival is a Monday.

Thank you, Janet, for your recommendation. We are staying in Senlis for one night and then driving the next morning to Normandy.