Rent a car in Le Havre, FR

Old Dec 6th, 2014, 08:58 AM
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Rent a car in Le Havre, FR

We are taking a trip in the spring by boat (Celebrity Cruises) to Le Havre, Fr. where we will need to rent a car in order to drive to a two week stay in Aix en Provence (we have rented an apartment in Aix). We have never been to either place before nor have we driven in France so I am in need of any information you can provide (yes I have a road map, but that is about it!) – Starting with where to rent a car? Is it close to the harbor were we are disembarking? Can we arrange for someone to take us to the rental location? Is a day and a half enough time to drive to Aix?
Pete
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Old Dec 6th, 2014, 09:17 AM
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first, you can drive to Aix in that time, it is about 1000 km by the A6, and should take about 9 hours. There are a lot of tolls in France, so be prepared, that will run you around 75 euro.

There is a Europcar agency on quai Southhampton near the modern art museum but that's on the other side of the port from where cruise ships dock. see this map and note what it says about how to get around http://www.tomsportguides.com/LeHavre-11-20-2013.pdf

Europcar is across that port, so you'd have to walk towards the ferry terminal and then around. It's probably around 8000 ft or 2.5 km. There is a map on page 9 of the above link, and Europcar is around point B on that map. I would imagine there will be taxis where the cruise ships dock, there always are at places like that.

You should arrange your rental ahead of time. Try www.autoeurope.com They have rentals from Europcar and Hertz that are not at the airport.

And you might get directions online, I use www.mappy.fr
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Old Dec 6th, 2014, 09:38 AM
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I would take a train to Aix instead of driving as it will be faster. Usually for this journey you'll have to take a train from Le Havre to Paris and then another train from there to Aix (though there are some other options), where you can get your rental car. The journey will take 6-1/2 to 7 hours and if you buy your tickets about 3 months before your travel date you can get one way fares ranging 40€ to 65€ per person. Use www.capitainetrain.com to get schedules and prices and keep in mind you need to buy up to 3 months in advance for the cheapest prices.
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Old Dec 6th, 2014, 10:45 AM
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According to viamichelin.com, not counting the cost of the rental it will cost €177 in fuel and tolls to get from Le Havre to Aix-en-Provence. Train tickets might be cheaper if ordered early in advance.
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Old Dec 6th, 2014, 10:50 AM
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I might add that if you decide to see Aix for the first few days that you are there, you would save on car rental and possibly garage fees by planning on renting the car (Kemwel and Autoeurope also tend to offer specials in the winter/early spring) once you are ready to expand your horizons. It also means that you could rent a smaller car because you would not need as much luggage space when visiting the local area.
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Old Dec 6th, 2014, 10:54 AM
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If you enjoy driving, just get a car through AutoEurope. You do not need to drive on toll roads if you don't want to.
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Old Dec 6th, 2014, 01:05 PM
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Thank you so much. You have given me a lot to consider. I had thought the train would be more difficult but your responses give me some hope. I had no idea the car rental approach would be so expensive. Tomsportguides is a great reference - it really cleared up my lack of knowledge of the Le Havre harbor. I can see that getting to the station will not be so bad after all. The ship docks at 7am so we need to see if there is a convenient time for a train. No direct trains to the south?
Now I need to wade through train options.
Pete
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Old Dec 6th, 2014, 01:57 PM
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There are no direct trains to the south from anywhere up there but Paris, as far as I know (there might be from Lille, not sure). YOu can't have train tracks all over the country, Paris is the hub and other lines the spokes, nd Le Havre is fairly small, not that important to have some major rail line there that would go direct to the south. And if it did, it most likely wouldn't be to Aix, either, but Avignon.

You will have to transfer train stations in Paris, also, the trains from Le Havre go to gare St Lazare and the direct trains to Aix-en-Provence leave from gare de Lyon. The train schedules likely won't be posted yet for Spring, but right now there is a train that leaves Le Havre around 8 am, gets into Paris St Lazare at 10:10 and then the train to Aix leaves around 11 am from Gare de Lyon. Or there is one that leaves at 10 am. There is only one other option which leaves at 9 am but then you have to change trains in both Rouen and Paris, at least weekdays.
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Old Dec 6th, 2014, 04:59 PM
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If you look at the capitainetrain.com website I mentioned then you will see that there is sometimes one very early morning train that goes direct from Le Havre to Aix and it departs at 7:51. I don't know if it's every day and I can't guarantee that it will be available on the date you travel. It takes 6 hours 10 minutes so it really won't save that much time but it does eliminate transfers. Although you can't look at train schedules for your date you can still look at earlier dates to get an idea of what the schedule is usually like and and it probably won't change much, if at all, between now and your travel date. To find the direct train I talked about I picked a dummy date of February 26th, since that is almost 3 months from now and will give you an idea of the prices when tickets are booked well in advance.

You should also know that Aix has two train stations (Aix-en Provence TGV and Aix-en-Provence Centre) and the TGV station in Aix is 18km outside the city center so you'll need to take transport from there to the city center. There are buses (timed about 15-20 minutes after TGV arrivals) that will get you to the train station in the center of Aix but I bet you can find that info on the Aix tourist office website:

http://www.aixenprovencetourism.com/en/

Some trains will go to Aix Centre but those are usually very early morning trains (before your ship docks) that require two transfers (one being in Lyon) and take 7-1/2 hours from Le Havre. At any rate, once you start practicing with the train website everything will become clear.
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Old Dec 6th, 2014, 05:15 PM
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There are no direct trains to the south from anywhere up there but Paris,


There is a direct TGV from Brussels to Marseille, but that would not help the OP.
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Old Dec 7th, 2014, 03:42 AM
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French train guidance seat61.com
If I was driving I'd do it in 2 days finding a nice place to stop for the first night. While French motorways are relatively empty for European roads they are tiring compared to US ones.
There are certain dates you will not enjoy on any roads. This site offers guidance on what to avoid as the locals go on holiday at the same time, snow etc. http://www.bison-fute.gouv.fr/ there is a English button to click at the top
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Old Dec 7th, 2014, 04:00 AM
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I had a look at the captain train website, and it indicates that you can still change your ticket on the day of travel for a €12 fee. so if you missed the direct 7.51 train, you could still catch the next one without having to pay too much of a penalty.

is that right, FMT?

alternatively spend a day in Le Havre and catch the train to Aix the next day.
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Old Dec 7th, 2014, 07:07 AM
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Whether or not you can exchange your ticket will depend on whether or not you bought a PREM ticket (PREM's are non-refundable and can't be exchanged). The TGV Loisir tickets (more expensive than PREMs) can be exchanged free the day before travel or on the day of travel for 12€ before the train departs. However, they can not be exchanged after the train departs. There are other types of tickets that can be exchanged after train departure but they are usually the most expensive.
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