Car in Paris -- Drop off?
 

Will rent a car in Paris (CDG) from AutoEurope, drive to Normandy/Loire and then return the car in Paris.

Question #1: What is the best (read: easiest) drop off location in Paris [our hotel is in the 5th]. Orly?

Question #2: Would you recommend a navigation system from AutoEurope? I assume they can be set to English, yes? (Don't want any Russell Crowe moments :) )

I did the exact route last September. CDG - Normandy - Loire - Paris. Booked through AutoEurope, and the agent they use is Europcar.

Our hotel is at Place d'Italie, so we returned our car at the Europcar office there. It's in the 13th Arrondissement, which is just outside the 5th.

Very straight forward route into Place d'Italie. The only issue we had is that we didn't know the car is supposed to be parked at the "Italie 2" shopping mall garage, across the street from the Europcar office, which has absolutely no place to stop for even a second.

You don't have a lot of choice in where you can drop off the car. All those listed drop off points with AutoEurope are for various rental agencies. But once you establish which company you will be picking up your car from, that will determine a very limited choice of drop off points.

That said, we've dropped a car at Montparnasse (quite a few of the agencies have stops there) which was really easy to get to. From there it is a short taxi ride to the 5th.

By the way, whenever we've been dealing with multi choices for pick-up and drop off, we've called AutoEurope on their 800 number so we could talk with a person who knew and could tell us which pick-up and which drop-off points went together. It's much easier than the back and forth on the website. Meanwhile he can also compare the prices for you depending on which agency they check out.

I agree re Ave d'Italie location.

You could also drop the car at the St Pierre des Corps station [near Tours] and then take the 25 minute train ride to Gare Montparnasse. Or drop off at the Tours station.

You will probably have a car from Europcar. Easiest to enter the city and drop it off at a train station. I suggest Gare de Lyon in your case.

St. Pierre des Corps is an hour away by TGV. It can be quite expensive, even if you book fairly early.

Some people considered Chartres, which is an hour away by regional trains, but rental agents are not right at the station.

It's not that hard to drive into Paris.

I'm curious why they'd probably have a car from Europecar? I've rented with AutoEurope a dozen or more times and have never had one from Europecar. Avis more than any other, but a variety of agencies -- just never Europecar.

I think people get carried away about the difficulty of driving in Paris. The idea of paying for a couple fairly major train tickets in from another city just seems silly when you already have a car. Driving into the city to a major point is NOT difficult. Now if you have to circle Concorde a few times, then I'd reconsider.

Neopatrick, can you detail here how easy it is to drop off at Montparnasse.

Well, it depends on which agency, but once you have the address of the correct one you're dealing with, mapquest or mappy can pinpoint the directions from whereever you are approaching from. It's just that coming off the Periphique, there is pretty much a major street right to the Montparnasse station and all the agencies around it.

My recipe for dropping a car in Paris without trauma or fear: Use the Peripherique (ring road) that encircles Paris. From a map, find a radial road from the peripherique into Paris that brings you as close as possible to the drop-off point. This means if you come to Paris from the wrong side, you will go around to the other side before hitting the local streets, and you will then take a main road straight in to near your destination. And, since rental agencies favor main roads, you should do OK.

Well, I circled Place d'Italie several times, but I still say drive into Paris.

To me, the important thing is to ask the agency WHERE TO PARK THE CAR at the return location! Many rental offices are just store fronts on major thoroughfares with no place to stop. The parking place can be a block or two away.

I say 'probably Europcar' because I rent from AutoEurope about 25 times a year, and 90% of the time, they give me a car from Europcar. The rest of the time, it is National or Budget. It may have something to do with the category of vehicle chosen. Who knows?

Every time we have rented a car in France through AutoEurope we have ended up with Europcar but you'll KNOW which agency it is when you finally make the reservation.

I agree that the most important thing is to find out WHERE to park the car which is not necessarily right where the agency office is physically located.

Interesting comments about getting Europecar. Actually AutoEurope has never "given me" or even "assigned me any agency. I always check prices from their various options and usually take the lowest (sometimes take the more convenient pick up or drop off point). In none of those cases has it ever been Europecar -- but as I said, usually Avis. That's always surprised me, because I can never find a decent rate from Avis back home in the US. But they always seem to be the lowest option with AutoEurope for me. One difference may be that we are always doing different pick up from drop off -- maybe Europecar is more economical if it is returned to the same location as pick up?

I know I had a devil of a time dropping our Europcar off near Bastille this Spring. Even printing a map with one way steets didn't help much. I was shaking when I got out of the car. Try to find a drop on the outside of the peripherique, if you can and take the RER to where you are going.

Rick

This June, we rented a car from AutoEurope and they had us pick up the car from the Europcar agency at the 8 Ave Foch address (just a block or so off of the Arc de Triomphe.) It was a very easy straight shot from there out to the Periphique (ring road) expressway that loops around Paris. It was extremely easy on a weekday late morning and would only be a short taxi ride away from the 5th arr.

I forgot to add - we rented to make the trip out to Normandy. This agency will put you on the side of Paris closest to Normandy. You have only a few minutes of driving within the Periphique before you are on straight expressway.

I believe the poster is picking the car up at CDG so it's only a dropping off issue in Paris. But I assume that address works equally well for dropping off, Momof3sons.

Thanks NeoPatrick - I'm jumping on here quickly as I work.

I meant to say that I noticed nothing that would make this location any less easy for a drop off.

Although - I will add that at first we didn't see the agency when our cab dropped us off. There is a EuropCar sign in addition to a sign for a gas station - both are in an underground parking garage on this street that seemed mostly residential. We just didn't notice the signs at first.