italynovice

After a cancelled trip 2 years ago, we want to rent a car in Paris and drive to Bayeux. We will have taken the train from London, arriving at Gate du Nord. Should we rent a car at Gate du Nord for the drive out of Paris to Bayeux, or is there a better spot in Paris to rent a car to make the exit from Paris easier?

michelhuebeli

Nothing is easy - if you rent right at the Gare du Nord you have to find your way out of Paris. Can be done, of course, but since you ask, you might be hesitant.

If you rent elsewhere, closer to an "easy exit", you have to first get to that "elsewhere" spot, and that could be even more of a hassle.

We rented from a CITER/Enterprise office in Ave Achille Peretti in Neuilly - easier to head for the Normandie but not a slam dunk from Gare du Nord.

But let me ask this: Why rent a car to go to Bayeux? From Gare du Nord a 10-minute taxi ride gets you to the Gare St. Lazare where you have direct trains to Bayeux, getting there in 2h20m.

Look at www.sncf.fr

Then you can rent a car in Bayeux if you need one for the region.

Andrew

You might consider taking the train to Caen and renting the car there - though that means connecting to a different train station I think from Nord. I did this a few years ago - well, more like 15 years ago! - to get up to Bayeux. At the time - maybe still - there were more rental car options in Caen, and Bayeux was just a short drive away. But you could take a train directly to Bayeux, too.

I didn't feel like driving out of Paris, because I had never driven in Europe before, but maybe it's really no big deal. Driving in Normandy was easy.

michelhuebeli

These are the search results for car rental in Bayeux (note that the french word "location" means "rental", from the verb louer = to rent):
https://www.pagesjaunes.fr/annuaire/...et-utilitaires

If nothing works for you in Bayeux, then by all means consider taking the train (also from St. Lazare) only to Caen and getting a car there.

Andrew

I wanted to visit Caen anyway for the Memorial museum, so renting a car there worked for me anyway.

shelemm

Gare Montparnasse is a quicker route. It is plenty easy to drive from any of the train stations to leave Paris. As easy or easier than most major cities. Nothing to it. I would not bother with the additional hassle of making a train plus renting a car. If you are going to rent a car, go ahead and rent it from one of the train stations in Paris.

cafegoddess

I completely agree with shelemm. Driving in or driving out of Paris is not hard. Just pickup the car at Gard du Nord and go from there. We always enjoy our drive out of Paris.

WoinParis

Gare du nord to périphérique is about a few miles on 4 lanes streets, after taking 2 turns. If you can stop at traffic lights, the trip will be easy.

Driving IN Paris can be difficult (quoique) but frankly the guys who have taken a car at gare du nord and driven out of Paris and found it difficult probably find it very difficult to drive the car out of the garage.

No sweat.In France pay attention to speedcameras. According to some one-time posters they only target tourists, another urban myth my french friends would love to see be true.

tomboy

6 or 8 years ago, we rented from a place that was near the Napoleon's tomb. It was mostly underground. I had trepidations about how difficult it would be to exit Paris for Normandy at 11:00 AM, but it seemed an easy drive to the Arc du Triomphe (sp) and, despite my MAJOR concerns about entering the roundabout there, an easy drive around the roundabout to the indicated road, and an easy drive from there to the Peripherique. Entry to that was easy, as was the drive to the appropriate exit for Normandy. Not to worry.

Granted, I've driven in big cities: Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Paris, LA. Houston's by far the worst.

HappyTrvlr

We picked up our car at Gare Montparnesse when heading to Normandy and it was
not difficult to get out of Paris.

dwdvagamundo

Nevertheless, the traffic around Paris is just as bad as that inside Paris, and I (as someone who loves to drive) would on this occasion take the train to Bayeux or Caen and rent a car there.

pavot

Following advice from Fodors, I've picked up a car at Gare du Nord twice before. Once to head to Normandy, once to the Loire.

For me, doing it this way is preferable to crossing town via Metro or taxi to reach a different train station, either to take a train to pick up a car somewhere else or to make the drive out of Paris shorter.

From Gare du Nord, it is easy to reach the Peripherique. Try "driving" it using Google Maps; you'll see what I mean. Good luck!

Michael

A co9mpletely different route: Take a ferry to Cherbourg and rent the car there:

http://www.directferries.com/ferry_t...FRCRaQodv9MF2w

italynovice

Thanks for all the ideas and advice! We decided to rent a car at Gare du Nord, and probably return it there on the way back after 5 days in Normandy. Taking the train to Caen would have been a great idea except that we already have train tickets for London to Paris in the morning, and the Caen train schedule did not easily fit in with our arrival in Paris. Had I planned better, we could have taken an earlier train from London, then taken the train to Caen in time to see the museum and rent a car there. The ferry idea sounds like a great adventure but not in the cards this time. If our car rental is smooth and quick, we may drive to Caen and see the museum before driving to Bayeux. Otherwise it seems like it is about a 30 minute drive from Bayeux, so we could drive there from Bayeux the next morning so we can really take our time at the museum and maybe eat lunch in town there. From what we read on this site, it seems this would be a great introduction before seeing Dday sites.