My wife and I are planning a 15 day tour of France (outside of Paris). Which method is better...car rental or trains? If one uses a rental cars, can a person who only speaks English survive on the French highways? What car rental agency in France is best for a economy car? Is it hard to find car parking spaces in France? Any pitfalls to avoid while renting a car? What would be the advantage of a car over a railpass?

>> If one uses a rental cars, can a person who only speaks English survive on the French highways? <<

Yup. They are very well signposted. Just remember that turn signals are not optional here and that you must always keep on the right lane unless you are overtaking.

Oh, and be careful of the nifty yellow and gray boxes, with their "Pour votre sécurité ... Contrôles Automatiques" advertising !

Parking is -very- difficult in Paris and expensive, less so in other cities.

Most cars in France are manual transmissions, so if you don't want to struggle with a clutch, ask (and pay the premium...) for an automatic.

What else? ... Bonne route !

I'd suggest using www.autoeurope.com They are wholesalers for many other rental companies - I've always gotten the best rate from them. One very small warning. On the Autoroute, not every exit has an entrance going in the direction that you might want to go. You may see an entrance on a map, but you may only be able to go north, instead of south, for example.

I prefer trains for a couple of reasons:
- can enjoy the passing scenery
- less stress
- often less expensive
- city-center to city-center, no need to park
- no worries about 'DUI' if you have some wine with lunch or dinner

We have driven in Loire Valley on one trip and did enjoy it very much. We trained in/out of Paris, however, to the Avis at the Gare St Pierre-de-Corps.

The signage is plentiful but 'works' differently than in the US, that is - one must know the upcoming towns/cities in addition to the the route#, or you won't know until too late that you aren't going the right way.

We stuck to the smaller roads (I think they are "D" and "N" on the Michelin maps). We had to return the car by driving through Tours and got turned around once but figured it out and went on.

As much as I hate suggesting that a poster "do a search," this is certainly one case where a search here on Fodor's will turn up many excellent posts about driving in France.

A few pointers to get you started:

- it is actually quite easy to drive in France once you understand the signage and driving style. (Google "Road signs in France" for some illustrations and explanations.)

- On the plus side, signage is consistent from one end of the country to the other. You don't need to read French in order to navigate, but you do need to understand that in France you navigate by "directions" to villages, towns, and cities rather than by highway number or cardinal point on a compass. Put another way, follow signs for the name of your destination or of towns along the way, rather than trying to read the tiny highway numbers.

- In my experience, other drivers in France are disciplined, predictable, quick, and assertive.

- Resist the temptation to speed on country roads and autoroutes; the French police have really cracked down on speeding over the last five years. If you drive for a couple of days or more you will likely go through at least one radar trap.

- I haven't had any real difficulties parking other than on market days. You will encounter "horodateurs," self-serve parking controllers. In some places you park and feed in coins until you have bought the time you need; you then print a ticket that you display on your dash. In other places, you take a ticket and feed it back into a machine as you return to your car. It will tell you how much you owe; feed in the coins and it will return your ticket, which you then feed into the gate at the parking lot exit.

Anselm

We love to drive in France! Yes, you do need to know the upcoming towns, but there are road markers. We stick to N and D roads, just because they are more scenic. Then there are always Autre and toutes direction signs if you are confused and no one will kill you if you keep going around the roundabouts until you decide where to turn off.

Parking in even the small cities is well marked and compared to where we live in the US CHEAP!We've just spent almost 2 weeks in Burgundy and the total cost for parking in Lyon, Beaune, Dijon and Auxerre was less than 10 dollars!

We used Novacarental this trip and were very pleased with their service ..and the price beat autoeurope by almost $100.00 and we were upgraded to a BMW auto diesel..9 days was 300 euros and we had bought the extra excess insurance to cover deductibles just because we didn't want to screw around with claims on our credit cards

You don;t need to know French to drive - signs are almost universally symbols rather than words - except for parking signs. And you can easily read those with a small translater - while standing still.

Be aware that small cars in France are VERY small with tiny engines and standard transmission. Getting an automatic with a decent sized engine will be more expensive than in the US.

Driving is relatively easy as long as you are a fast and confident driver. (Speed limits are higher and locals tend to drive fast even on small local roads.) If you see a line building up behind you on a local road pull over and let them pass.

Parking is not a problem as long as you're proficient at parallel parking in spaces only slightly larger than the car. (If you're not now - practice.) There is prcatically no mall style parking.

And in center cities or towns you generally have to use a lot or garage (midieval cities weren't built to accomodate parked cars).

To me there's no question that driving is far more convenient, easy, fun and allows for much more exploration than using the train. And for 2 people I don;t think the cost differential is meaningful.

Hard to advise you as to train vs. car since we have no idea exactly where in France you are actually planning to be.

You'll get maximum flexibility with a car. The one tip i would add is that when you pick the car up there should be a form the rental agent completes which notes any damage, dents, scratches, etc. Make CERTAIN you are present when that inspection occurs and that ALL such "damage" is noted. Do the same thing when you turn the car in.

Be aware that even though car insurance may be included for some renatls through agencies such as Autoeurope, there may still be very large deductibles which insurance does not necessarily cover. You can buy additional insurance to bring those deductibles to zero if you wish.

Before you drive off, make sure you KNOW what all the controls are used for. I know this sounds absurd but there is nothing worse than turning on the lights when you are actually wanting to do something else.

When you come to a stop sign in France, make certain you come to a COMPLETE stop; they aren't real happy with the so-called "California roll" routine over there.

Get a decent map unless you are like some of us and are using a GPS; in that case, get a decent map anyway as a back-up.

PS..I'm not sure I agree completely with the previous poster that driving is "easier" than taking the train..perhaps for the passenger.

Again,, it might be helpful to know WHERE you are planning to drive.

Driving is a bit of challenge, but for the worst was parking. The local markings, rules, "put in a coin get a thing to put on your windshield" were a bit of a problem. What the hey? It's their country and whatever works for them is the right thing to do. [Try to explain shifting your coar to the other side of the street in the middle of the night in NYC]. Just do your best to figure out the game and then comply!

The one thing that I have not seen mentioned on any post is that the traffic lights are on your side of the intersection whereas in the States you usually have them across the intersection. This means that if you are the first car stopped at the intersection, you must take your eyes off the road to see the traffic light. And somehow the post always gets in the way of seeing the small light meant for the drivers.

"Resist the temptation to speed on country roads and autoroutes; the French police have really cracked down on speeding over the last five years. If you drive for a couple of days or more you will likely go through at least one radar trap."

And if you're caught you pay the fine on the spot, so if it should happen don't think it's a scam.

Try this one I wrote 2 months ago:

fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=2&tid=34866860

Hi

there is one really important rule to remember.

The car coming from the right has priority - even if he is on a smaller road.

The only exceptions are :

if there is a stop or give way sign on the small road

or your road is designated right of way by having a diamond sign.

Peter

You might look at combining trains and rental cars. For example, if you start in Paris but want to see, e.g. Bordeaux, take the high speed train to Bordeaux and pick up a rental car there. Putter around in the region for a few days, take your car back to the station, hop on a train, go somewhere else and rent a car again. In a fifteen day trip, you could easily explore 3 regions in different parts of the country.

Railpasses are often not worth the price, unless you qualify for the 2nd class youth pass and are planning to hop on and off trains almost every day. You need to price out the cost of the trips you want to take, and then compare it to the price of the rail pass (plus any supplements).

Mappy.fr is useful for planning your itineraries. You can ask it to give you the most direct route (usually on highways with tolls), and it will estimate the time, gas cost and tolls you will pay. You can also ask it to give you a route on secondary roads (and again, you'll get time and gas costs). Print out the route, which will tell you the directions and signs you need to watch out for.

It is also worth investing in a good road atlas, either for the region or the whole country.

I love the freedom of driving in France or anywhere in Europe for that matter. The ability to be able to stop wherever you want, when you want is priceless in my opinion. Obviously there is never any problem with how to find public transport to the more out of the way destinations.

However, if it is your intention to mainly go to large cities I would train it. There is no doubt that having to drive in and out of major cities can be quite stressful, particularly, if you have pre-booked a hotel and have to find a specific street.

I tend to either pick up the car at the airport so I am already on the outskirts of Paris before I leave or catch a train to my first destination and then pick up the car. If you want to head down to, say Provence, it is a long drive down and back (assuming that you need to return to Paris for your return trip). I would definitely train it down and just simply get there as quickly as possible and then slowly meander my way back again.

Dear Heart:

I was in France last month and as always, I pick up a rental car at or near a train station after a ride on the TGV.I live in NYC and use an agency called Europebycar.com. I have found them to be very reasonable. In fact, they are the only broker/agency that I am aware of that does not charge more for one way rentals within France. My last trip in late Sept/early Oct, I picked up a car in Avignon and dropped it off in Dijon. 7 days in a Citreon C3 Diesel was $242 USD, taxes included and 3rd party liability insurance. I enjoy driving manual shift cars, but if you cannot or don't want the hassle of shifting gears, they do make available cars with automatic transmissions albeit at a higher cost..

Regards
Luis

Just an FYI, I booked a car on line for this spring through europcar.com with a GPS, but they sent a subsequent e-mail saying no GPS. I called autoeurope by phone and they got me a better rate with a GPS.

My last reply prompts me to ask: Is GPS worth it when driving through Burgundy/Champaign/Loire on a week trip from Lyon to Paris?

If you are traveling outside of Paris, a car is ideal--especially for visiting the small villages in Provence and chateaux in the Loire Valley. On our several trips to France, we have always had a car. As previous posters have mentioned, you do need to know the upcoming towns/villages and we always travel with the spiral bound Michelin map. My husband drives, our older son reads the map and our younger son and I just sit back and enjoy the scenery. My husband also prints out directions to our hotels using Mapquest before we leave home.

I wouldn't try driving in Paris though. At the end of one trip, we dropped our car at the airport, took a taxi to our hotel, and spent 3 lovely days in Paris.