Train vs. car rental-Paris/Honfleur/Bayeux/Mt.St. Michel/Paris for 3 people

Barry, you mentioned the heavy traffic in Caen when you returned the car? What made it so difficult? Rush hour can be a pain for drivers anywhere, and so can undexpected detours, pedestrian zones or just finding the return site. What would you do differently next time?

In the case of Northern France, choosing between car and train travel is not just about cost but also about convenience. This is a region where it is much easier to get around with a car than by train. And driving in France is comparatively easy. I'd rent the car right at the airport and return it in Paris just before you spend your 5 days there.

Looking at kayak, it's actualy a couple of bucks per day cheaper to rent at one of the airports rather than at a train station or the middle of town, since the price of the airport surcharge is offset by the cost of getting three people into the city. As far as time goes, you can be in Giverny an hour after you start the car. That's almost exactly the time it would take you to get from the airport to Gare Saint-Lazare (with two line changes) to start waiting for the northbound train. After whatever time that takes, you still have to get from the Vernon station to Giverny. This part of the discussion is rather moot, since I don't know if you can even rent a car in Vernon. You can in Rouen, but then you'd have the back and forth from Vernon to Giverny, etc. Heading north, you won't even come close to the Paris peripherique. Coming back, you'd hop on it at abouth the nine o'clock position, ride it to twelve, and then scoot straight down to Nord to drop it off. Most of your route will be on four-lane freeways, uncrowded at that time of year. The scoop on the rail repairs is all over the place with estimates.

When we visited Normandy, went took the train TO deGaulle to rent our car. We dropped off in Versailles, but you can do that anywhere. There's no train to Honfleur.

Everybody has their reasons for doing things, but I'd have to quibble with Adam: Going out to the airport to get a car costs about ten bucks a head, plus you pay the rental surcharge. You also add about forty-five minutes of train time and fifteen minutes of driving time. Coming back, you can be at Nord in the same amount of time you can be at Versailles, but if you go back to Versailles you still have an hour train ride in front of you at something more than a two-buck metro ticket per head. At both ends, you're paying for a car and trains on the same day.

When we visited Normandy a few years back (also in October) we took the train from Paris to Caen and picked up the rental there; the Hertz office is a very short walk from the train station. I really think having a car is the way to go; MSM is not easily accesible (?sp?) by train (I think there's a bus involved) and I don't think Honfleur has a train station at all. I was very nervous about driving in France, but found the roads extremely well marked (though driving through downtown Caen, which we did on the way back because we visited a museum on the other side of town before dropping off the car was a nightmare. I live in NYC and Caen was worse than anything I've ever encountered in Manhattan .) and using the big Michelin atlas, we never went astray.

In the case of Northern France, choosing between car and train travel is not just about cost but also about convenience. This is a region where it is much easier to get around with a car than by train. And driving in France is comparatively easy. I'd rent the car right at the airport and return it in Paris just before you spend your 5 days there.

I always feel sorry for Beatrix when her dementa kicks in: two identical posts thirty-eight minutes apart. Hang in there, Bea, we're all pulling for you . . . even if you can't remember who we are.

Thank you so much...every piece of advice is so valuable and appreciated. I was told that I could rent at CDG and return at the Louvre, as we are staying at a hotel very close by....but there is a pretty hefty surcharge for dropping off there. I'll check Nord, or if you have any other suggestions, I'll take any more advice you can offer. What a great bunch of people offering to help !!

What car rental company are you planning to use? While you will pay extra for picking up a car at CDG, you shouldn't have to pay anything extra for dropping off the car at another location in Paris.

Right now, I'm booked pick-up at CDG and drop-off at Louvre, but still a little crazy about driving into Paris. Maybe Nord is better and then train or taxi into Paris our hotel

Ed rightly noted "Going out to the airport to get a car costs about ten bucks a head, plus you pay the rental surcharge. You also add about forty-five minutes of train time and fifteen minutes of driving time." OP was asking about renting at deGaulle after flying into deGaulle. I would definitely do that. (Our case was a little unusual. Won't bore you with the details, and I think Ed is generally right, though some people just don't drive in Paris.)