Car, or Train + Car, Paris>Normandy>Loire>Paris?

If it were me, I would take the train to Bayeux, rent the car there and drive around the countryside. Dropping the car in Tours is fine, then train back to Paris. IWe avoid driving in major European cities at all costs. It's always hair-raising, sweat-inducing and argument fostering stress. We regularly use the "get out of the city to rent the car" strategy.

The problem with the "get out of the city to rent the car" strategy is that it wastes half a day at each end picking up and dropping off the car - - what do you figure your daily cost is a couple or three hundred bucks? Add to that the cost of buying train tickets on the days you're already paying for the car. From the Montparnasse area, an escape to the Loire is straight forward with only a couple of turns until you're on the freeway. It's not much different heading to Normandy. Coming back, it's really hard to get screwed up if you drop the car at Nord (your only avenue in is channelized between one-way streets going the wrong way and the tracks serving Nord, so you can't mess up). For pure simplicity of driving, it would be easier to head to the Loire first, but either way is easily workable. If you're staying near Montparnasse you're going to have to make your way to Saint-Lazare to get the train to Normandy, anyway - - you might as well use up the time getting to Nord which has an easier way out of the city. Getting out by car from Saint Lazare isn't that hard either, but if you leave from Nord and drive the whole way, you'd be taking the car back to the same place you picked it up. As a matter of information, the drive from Nord to Caen is two and a half hours, max - - the train probably takes two, plus whatever time it takes you to wait around for the train, buy tickets, etc.

Ed, thanks for the info. Our route is already set to go to Normanday then Loire. We're staying on Rue Cler, ~ near the Eiffel Tower. Assuming we drive the whole way as you suggest, given where we're staying, Nord appears to be in the opposite direction. I was assuming that it would be easier to pick up the car at Montparnasse and catch the ring road to A13/14. So just to clarify, you would still recommend picking up the car at Nord and returning it there? Thanks, Bob

Using the metro (I'm not a bus guy) it's going to take you about ten minutes more to get to Nord than it does to get to Montparnasse from Ecole Militaire. I'm pretty sure you'd have one metro line change for either. Leaving Montparnasse and using the A13 will take probably a half hour more (just on the highways) than leaving from Nord and using the A14. (The A13 can get really slow.) Compounding the problem is that you'd be using the southwest quadrant of the peripherique, which is number two of the four quadrants in terms of slow-down potential. Further compounding the problem is that you have to go the wrong way on Ave Maine when leaving the car places, find a place to turn around, then take some streets that appear illogical to get to the peripherique. You won't be using a discernable artery unless you really drag it out by going southeast when you need to go southwest. A gps would drive you nuts since the streets change names every few blocks. It's a mess. I know city damn well and I'm not sure I'd pull it off on the first shot. Leaving from Nord, it's one road, clearly the major one, but it does have one name change which you'll never notice. As you approach the peripherique the directions to the A14 are clearly indicated (all you have to do is NOT get on going toward Lille). You'll then use the quadrant of the peripherique that is least likely for slow-downs going in the direction of which I've never seen one. Additionally, both going out and coming in, you're channelized by the tracks that serve Nord on one side and Est of the other - - you can't go astray. Yeah, I'd do it my way. As for the slight disparity in my two posts regarding getting out of town from Montparnasse - - it's a different route with a couple of tricks heading to the Loire instead of Normandy.