My husband and I are planning on renting a car in Nice and driving through France and ending in Paris. Our last stop before we head for Paris is the Loire Valley. We are quite certain that we don't want to drive the car right into Paris. Our hotel in Paris is near the Eiffel Tower.
Can anyone suggest where a good drop off area would be? We have never been before and don't know how close to the city you can go before the craziness of driving in that area begins.
We drove from the Loire Valley to Chartres, dropped the car off at the rental agency near the train station, then visited the Cathedral, and took the train into Paris. The train goes to Gare Montparnasse you can take a taxi to your hotel from there. One word of warning: When we did this in 2000, the train station in Chartres didn't have any way of storing our luggage, but the car rental agency allowed us to leave our luggage in the car until we were ready to leave on the train; however, that situation may be different now. We didn't need advance tickets on the train. The Cathedrale was a nice walk from the train station and we had a nice lunch before getting on the train. I believe it was about a 60 - 75 minute ride.
My only suggestion is to get a car equipped with GPS. I picked up my car in Paris for a drive to Nice. If I didn't have the GPS I feel that I would still be driving around Paris trying to find my way out of there. Plus, I recommend taking the scenic back roads in lieu of the highways. You don't have to pay the tolls and the scenery is gorgeous. I picked up my car near the Louvre at the Carrousel Mall area. That seems like a good place to drop one off.
We drove right into Paris from the south, up Ave. du Maine to the dropoff near Gare Montparnasse. It went OK but wasn't easy or fun, at one point I was stopped in the middle of Place d'Alesia with pedestrians flowing around me because I hadn't seen a signal change in time, they were probably thinking bad thoughts about the goofy American driver, but if embarrassment is the worst problem we have we're not doing bad. I think the Chartres plan makes sense, if you want to go there, or Versailles, or Orleans or Tours, or anywhere with good train service from the south or west.
I was a little sheepish about the driving in Paris thing too. We picked our car up and dropped it back again at the airport. Great freeways/tollways the whole time. GPS adds peace of mind. It is a definite lifesaver.
When we were renting our car in Paris, I had on the computer a list of all the rental places and you can look at them on google maps(we used Autoeurope...so there was quite a list, but smaller because we were renting on a Sunday so it left off a lot of options). I had my paper city map of Paris beside me and used sticky tabs to mark where each spot was, then picked the one that had the easiest route out of town and the easiest access with the Metro. We ended up renting from Europcar (thru AE) just past the Arc de Triomphe and it was very easy to leave the city (til we had a GPS mix-up that took us back into the city, but that's a story for another time). So you may want to get a city map and do a little advance scouting for locations.
You could also just drop the car at CDG then go into the city. I have done that a few times and while it is a bit challenging, it is really not that different from any airport at any major city. I ended up driving in downtown Paris by mistake (a while ago, no GPS and bad navigator) and it was not fun, but I didn't kill any pedestrians, so it was a success.
If coming from the Loire or Nice, I think Orly Airport would be a more convenient drop off than CDG.
Getting into the city from CDG is easier. You can catch the train right in the airport. At Orly you have to catch a bus to a metro station and then ride into the city. We've turned in cars at both airports. We never take a car into the city. We were last in Paris in April. We rented an apartment in the Latin Quarter right by the RER-B line that comes from CDG airport. So we didn't have far to roll our luggage. You might consider that also. Paris is an amazing place. Don't think of it as a whole but take the neighborhoods as a small village. Use the metroso easy to negotiate and go anywhere you want to go. Enjoy!!!!