End of trip travel question for Paris to London.

I think it's easy to drive into CDG; I can't remember if I've ever done that, though probably not, as we try to schedule our itineraries so our trips end in Paris. I would assume we've picked up rental cars from CDG. You could drive to CDG, drop the car, then get yourselves to Gard du Nord. Or you could just drive to Gare du Nord and drop your car there. We once picked up a rental car there, and while it was a bit stressful for a few minutes, until we got on the autoroute, it wasn't difficult. Another option, if you're flexible on where you'll stay your last night in France, is to drop the car and spend the last night in Paris.

I would drop the car in Bayeux or Caen then train to Paris, staying the last night in Bayeux. I assume you will have already spent time in Paris on your trip? Seems unnecessary to me to change hotels for one night.

I was leaning toward taking the train from Bayeux or Caen too. In fact my current reservation with Hertz is to return the car to the Caen airport. My concern is that the train goes from Caen to Paris St Lazare, not Gare du Nord (where the Eurostar departs from). So we would have to change trains/stations with luggage. We are traveling light but this will be the end of a 3 week trip so we will have more stuff than when we started! : ) Plus, we are with an 11 year old who, although he is an amazing traveler, he does have little legs. : ) We are not visiting Paris this trip. Saving it for our next journey to France. I did not want to rush Paris so it got axed in favor of Southern and Western France.

But you're going to have to get yourselves to the Eurostar no matter where you drop it off in Paris, including CDG. Or am I missing something? :) I believe there's a Hertz at the Caen train station, that would be easier than dropping it off at the airport, unless the train goes from the airport directly to Paris. I know the trains we've taken from Paris to Caen, and vice versa, didn't stop at the airport but maybe there's another one I don't know about. My son's been going to Europe since he was 11, and that first trip was 10 wks, he doesn't have a lot of stamina because he has heart disease and has had 4 major open heart surgeries so far, and he had/has no problem making transfers.

It is very easy to drive into CDG from Normandy. The car return is simple and well-marked. Returning the car at CDG doesn't make a lick of sense. Since you introduced the Caen airport, it's probably Europcar. They also have a place at the Caen train station. Getting from the airport to the train station will be a pain in the tail - - much worse than getting from Lazare to Nord. You can drive from Caen to Nord in less than three hours. The Europcar joint is by the southwest corner of the station. Getting there is a piece of cake - - hit the peripherique, go clockwise to Porte de Clignancourt, get off and follow your nose, there's only one turn remaining and that's right down at the station. Once you get off the peripherique, you're heading south - - you can't deviate west since all the tempting streets are one-way in the wrong direction, you can't deviate east since the tracks have you blocked. Take my three hours, add an hour for whatever, and the half hour you have to be checked in prior to the eurostar departure. If that doesn't work, spend the night in Rouen which would cut the long-distance drive to an hour and a half. If you go all the way by train, you'll have no changes going across town, but the kid and the stuff will have about a quater of a mile hump at each end of the rer/metro stops. A station-to-station taxi would cost about twenty bucks.

Thanks everyone for the replies. We have decided to retrun the car to the Hertz office directly across from the train station at the Rouen Rive Droite Rail. We can then take the train direct to Paris St. Lazare (1 hour 14 min). After reading over 50 reports, it seem seasy enough to transfer to Gare du Nord from Lazare. If we dont want to do the transfer ourselves we will consider a taxi, but it doesnt really seem necessary. The train from Rouen leaves at 1:00 pm and arrives at 2:15 pm. That gives us the morning to look around Rouen and learn more about Joan of Arc, and it gives us over 3 hours to transfer in Paris to Nord and checkin for Eurostar. Is there anything I am forgetting?