Colmar to Paris - Drive or Train?
 

We plan to lease a car for approx. 7 weeks and drive around France anti-clockwise. We will pick the car up in Paris. When we get to the Salzburg-Colmar area we don't know whether to give the car up there and train back to Paris, or whether to drive. Would it be an interesting drive or should we sit back and enjoy the luxury of being chauffered by train? We would also have to face driving into Paris to return the car. We have done it before but would really prefer not to.

If you decide to go straight from Colmar to Paris, I think the train option is the better one as the drive is not interesting. However, if you decide to drive, you can make several stops on the way to Paris (Baccarat glass factory, Nancy, Verdun and WWI sites, Reims, ...)

Why not return car to Orly Airport? That's what we did and it was very easy. If you are staying in the Colmar area, it might be nice to have a car.

We were in that area last month. We drove from Colmar to Dijon & dropped the car off there. I thought it would be a nice drive and we'd see an area we hadn't been to. However, since we had reservations on a train to Paris that left Dijon about 11am, there was no time to make stops along the way. I would absolutely not do that again unless your train left Dijon or wherever in the late afternoon. However, if you do that you have 1 less day in Paris - which is fine if you don't need/want that day there. Colmar would have been a much easier place to drop off the car, not to mention the drive was nice but nothing special as far as scenery goes. Unless you stop along the way take the train from Colmar/Strasbourg (I assume you meant that & not Salzburg.)

Elsa, thank you for straightening my geography out - my husband has already chastised me! We plan to spend a few days in the Colmar area before going to Paris (where we plan to spend ten days before returning to Australia) and the train option is looking good. Many thanks for the replies.

Noelene - If you are going to be in Paris for 10 days you might want to spend the time checking out Beaune (just south of Dijon) and Dijon if you haven't already been there. I've read on this board that Beaune is lovely. However, leave plenty of time to catch the train i.e. - in case you get a little lost finding the train station and for retuning your car (a right down a narrow road, right after the station), paperwork, walking from car lot to the station (a couple of minutes), stuff like that. If you should miss the train I think the service from Dijon to Paris is every hour, at least it was in May.<BR><BR>Also, I suggest you take the autoway from Colmar to Dijon (or wherever you may stop inbetween), b/c the local roads have light and traffic.<BR><BR>I guess if I were to do it again, I'd take the train from Colmar and save Beaune, Dijon, etc. for another trip. Colmar is a smaller "city" to drop off the car thus a little easier to do so.<BR><BR>Where in AU do you live? We went to a number of places in your great country and loved them all. Wish AU wasn't so far away from Boston!

Oops - make that lights and traffic.

Noelene<BR>We were in Paris and Colmar last week. We took the train from Paris to Strasbourg, then rented a car to drive to Colmar, and returned to Paris the same way five days later. I would NOT recommend returning or driving a car in Paris. The drive from Strasbourg to Colmar was quite scenic and very easy. The train ride was also relaxing. The car rental agencies are in the train station at Strasbourg so it makes it quite easy. Good luck

We are leasing a car with Renault so we are more restricted with which cities we can return it to. I am keeping all your suggestions in mind as we plan. Many thanks.<BR><BR>Jill, we live ten minutes drive from Fremantle which is part of Perth (West coast). Lovely place to live but I'm afraid we can't wait to get to Europe again!