Car Rental @ Gare du Nord/Driving to Normandy

Car rentals are all in the southwest corner of Nord on the lower level. Tolls are a bit less than thirty-bucks each way. Coming back on the A14/N13 catch the inner ring of the Peripherique and ride it to the Pte de Clignancourt exit southbound and follow your nose to the station - - you can't get lost since you're hemmed in by the tracks on the east and the only roads you'd be tempted to take to the west are all one-way against you.

Ed knows the town better than any of us, but our experience returning a car to Gare du Nord was similar to Sharon's. Although we had been living in the neighborhood for several months and had a GPS, we had to look around carefully to find the entrance. It wasn't obvious. You can do it, but you have to watch carefully.

Hi Lisa, Last October, we rented at CDG but returned the car to Gare du Nord. We returned it on a Sunday morning so there was less traffic to deal with. For getting in and out of the city we found a GPS to be invaluable. Returning the rental car to Nord is tricky because the car rental return is 4 floors down in a parking deck. Finding the entrance is one challenge and then winding your way down to the rental return area is another - just keep a close eye out for the signs. It took us a couple of loops around the station to find the entrance. Hope that helps!

If you believe Bets, I've got some Florida swamp to sell you at a real bargain price. Coming down from the north on what I think is Magenta, hook a hard left on Rue Maubeuge. You'll be running along the west side of the station. Stay with Maubeuge through the next intersection and then slow down. The street is narrow, you're heading north and the garage entrance is a down-ramp from the south-bound lane. you can make it, but it's tight. As best I can remeber there's no car place signs, just a big white 'P' on a blue square. The above is my way. But I come down from the north to avoid that hard U-turn and that's too hard to explain since it involves a couple of tricky multi-roadway intersections. However, if you continue down Magenta a couple more blocks you can hang a left on Rue Compiegne. Nord will be in front of you one block away. As you approach the intersection close to Nord there's another down-ramp with the 'P' business sign and a couple of car rental names under it. The ramp is exactly beside either a McDonalds or Burger King that's on the corner. No matter what you do, you're going back into the same garage that you got the car from - - it's just that the ramps are all one-way.

Brilliant, thanks all! I'm pretty decent at directions/navigating, but my fiance is total rubbish so its nice to have some help and specific directions!

I think you got the advice on the pick up and drop off. I did make the drive from Paris to Normandy last week and I used my Amex for all the tolls. It came out to average about 25 US Dollars each way. You can use cash or credit card and I just found it easier to use my card instead of paying the cashier. I ended up buying a Europe map sd card for my garmin for about $50 on ebay and it was good to have driving in France. If you have a garmin already and are driving a lot in Europe it might be worth it.