Renting a car in Paris

www.viamichelin.com is a website that works for European destinations just like mapquest. Go to it; type in your starting and ending points; and it will give you detailed driving directions. I would also double check with the people at the car pick-up place about the best way to get out of town.

Sue check out the postings from 5/22 titled "Driving back to Paris" the same advice there is good advice whether going into or out of Paris. I would recommend taking a train out of Paris and picking up a car in any city on the route to Strasbourg. Much less stressful than driving out of Paris which I've done twice. It's not easy.

Sue, just a word of warning. We rented a car in Paris once to drive to Le Mont St. Michel and the normandy beaches. We found driving in the countryside quite easy after we figured out the sign system, however driving IN Paris was a total nightmare. The maps we had didn't match the streets. Several streets start out 1 way going one direction and then suddenly switch to one way the other direction. We had a terrible time finding where to return our rental car - it was 2 blocks from where the pickup entrance was. I would avoid driving in Paris at all cost!

A good alternative would be to take a train out of Paris and then pick up a rental car.

Hi,
Mine is really more of a continuation of the same question as my husband and I are going to Paris in October and want to see Normandy, etc. If you are to rent a car outside of Paris, where would you go?
Thanks,
Cathie

Cathie: We've done this many times....we took a train to Caen and picked up a rental car there. The rental office (sorry, I can't remember name, but a well known one) is just steps from the train station. It's so easy. Also driving anywhere in Normandy (anywhere in France actually, except cities) is very, very easy. The area is beautiful and the people are very friendly...we absolutely love Normandy. We preferred driving the country roads but the highway is super easy too.

Sue: I forgot to say in my previous post, to find the best route to Strasbourg, I would go to a good bookstore and look at a driving map. It should be a very easy drive, but I would definitely take a train out of Paris and pick up a rental car in a city along the route.

You both will need to buy and bring with you a very good driving map showing all roads and highways. It is essential.

our first trip to paris my partner insisted he had no problem at all driving in paris. So we picked up our car at gare Nord. No problem getting out of the city....but driving back in after going to the loire valley was a nightmare!!!
I said never again!!!!!!!!!!

So I say get out of the city and rent out of town.

Sue,

Are you staying in Strasbourg? What hotel? The drive is straight forward from Paris about 4 hours. See the wine country. If staying in Strasbourg get driving directions from the hotel via e-mail. Center city is full of one way streets and dead ends. Go to google.earth.com to get a good look on how to drive.

You will love Strasbourg.
Enjoy

Craig