Car rental drop off at Avenue de la Grande Armée in Paris
 

We will be returning to Paris from Normandy for a few nights before our return to the states. I have read it is not recommended to drive in Paris. If we drop the car at this location instead of returning to the airport with a taxi into Paris, it will save us some time and money. I checked the route on viamichelin.com and it looks pretty simple. Are taxis readily available at this location in Paris? I would appreciate any comments.

That's a long street, so it would depend where you are on it. If you are right near Porte Maillot or the Etoile, yes, lots of taxis (I know several taxi queues around the Arc, I presume some around the Palais des Congres, although I don't actually see a taxi stand near the metro stop on my map). The entire street is probably half a km, so it would help if you gave a specific location.

Thank you Christina. The drop of is at Porte Maillot so your info is very helpful. Do you think this area is particularly difficult to drive in? We will have a navigation and are assertive drivers.

If this is the place I think it is, we picked our car up there (to be returned at the airport) in order to save money. You sure you don't have things backward?

It was near some museum of the army, which you could see about 1/4 mile away, maybe less. It was easy to get out of the city from there, so getting there would be the same.

My only problem at the time was that I expected something on the ground level or a higher building, and when I eventually figured things out, all was one level below ground. And there weren't any big signs or anything to alert one; passing by, you'd just think it was an underground car park.

You'll have been driving in France before arriving in Paris so you're unlikely to have any difficulties.

Driving in Paris is not any more difficult than driving in any large city... it's the parking that poses a problem.

Well actually the Etoile is interesting if you are not used to traffic circles - of which we have practically none in the US. The only one I ever drove through reguarly had a constant stream of accidents - since we're used to traffic lights - and they rebuilt it to cut down on the problem.

If you are near Porte Maillot you should not have to navigate the circle at Etoile. But even if you do it's not much different from driving in Boston or New York, except most of the cars are smaller! You'll get plenty of practice before you get to Paris.

I've dropped cars at Gare du Nord, which is more problematic and other than a wrong turn it wasn't a problem. This also was below ground, which is common.

There is a Metro stop at Maillot (Line 1) that goes directly to the Concorde station and others with connections throughout the city. Taxis should be easy to find as well.

If you are used to driving in cities, there is no sense in dropping off outside of Paris which will cost you time and money. We dropped a rental car near Invalides (underground garage, can't remember the exact location) and had no problem at all. We parked the car ourselves and dropped the keys in a drop box (I think we had to write the parking space number on a slip attached to the key ring or something). Couldn't have been simpler.

If you fear in city driving, there is a method for Paris in city car drop-offs that has worked well for me. Locate the drop-off point on a map and find the nearest direct route out to the Peripherique ring road.

When you arrive at Paris, follow the ring road until you get to that straight in road and follow it to the drop off point. Done.

Thank you all for your help.