Car or Train
 

My husband, father and I are traveling to Paris and Brittany area the third week in April. We are flying in to Paris and would like to spend about three days in Paris, three days in Brittany/MSN area and two days or so in Venice, Italy by way of Paris.

We are novice travelers and have not driven in Europe in the past.
I can't decide whether we should take the train from Paris to the Brittany area or rent a car in Paris and drive to the area.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

MSN is somewhat complicated to reach by train/bus combo required but it can be done. I think for this area and the flexibility you'll probably want a car might serve your needs better.

drive. when you rent a car in paris, be sure to leave on a sunday morning. tou can also buy a michelin map book at a bookstore or use mapquest to map out the route. mapquest will have you using major highways but i would recommend michelin because the backroads are much more fun. my first euro driving was in the uk so france and italy should be no problem. have someone other than the driver navigate.

It's a hefty drive from Paris to Mont St Michel, and points further in Brittany.

Is this air fare already purchased? Are you flying home from Venice? The best way to get from PAris to Venice is www.volareweb.com and bow that I think of it, I guee it doesn't matter if Venice is your departure city, or if you are retrning to PAris for your flight home. Volareweb is your answer one way or round trip.

Car (with manual transmission) will be more economical than train to MSM, but I would feel best about it if at least two of the travelers are comfortable driving - - not just one.

Best wishes,

Rex

..would suggest taking the train to brittany and then renting a car when you get there. the auto route from paris to the west is not pretty and quite expensive. you can rent a car in brittany..ask your travel agent about train and car rental combos which are i think are available from sncf..or look at tickets on the sncf site and then book a car rental from one of the usual rental companies(but book it from north america)..if you do want to meander the back roads from paris to brittany then rent in paris..but would then cut out the venice trip and stop along the way in normandy..just a few thoughts!

Bringing your message back up "to the top", since it is your first message here, ever...