Lyon / Provence/car rental

I assume you're getting two cars for 4 couples? A large vehicle isn't really practical for parking in Europe. I think all companies charge some sort of fee, the only one I've found that waives it is Avis if you are a club member (which I am). The smallest fee I've seen was with Europacar.

I've used a seven-pax van a bunch of times and never had trouble parking it, but it won't work for eight people, let alone eight plus luggage. I'd drop my teeth if there were a drop fee for a second city in the same country - - never seen it in my life.

Some travelers have reported here that they found parking and driving a large van, in Italy, to be more challenging than they thought it would be, due to narrow roads and smaller parking spaces than they were used to.

Try Autoeurope.com, a broker for several rental companies. There won't be a drop fee. For hotels at several price points, you could try the Accor corporation which has several levels of hotels. Their Ibis chain is a good, standard travelers' hotel with a decent breakfast for 8 euros. The have other brands that are more upscale and more downscale, as well. The Lodgis de France is a group of independently owned hotels, some nicer than others.

Use Autoeurope and rent two small station wagons, or the equivalent. We have used small wagons in Sicily, Portugal, Spain, etc., when there have been two couples. The wagon works great, and we have never had to pay a drop off fee. Go to their web site and play with car sizes, and pick up and drop off locations
, and then rent your car. Alos check prices out on Kayak and Gemut. When we are looking for places to stay we always go to TripAdvisor and look at the customer lodging ratings posted by customers.

Thanks so much everyone for all this great advise! I think its time to regroup with my group...I will share my adventures.

I have driven a large van around France a couple of times (it fit 8 plus luggage in the back) and while there were some issues finding parking we always managed and I had a number of Frenchmen helping me into tight parking spots with lots of words I did not understand and hand gestures... Sometimes one vehicle is so much easier than finding parking for two vehicles in unfamiliar cities... at least this way you are all together. We rented and returned in Marsailles, but I have done a number of other rentals and no drop fee when I was in the same country.