So, my hubby decides (a week before we start our trip to Egypt then Paris) to cut our Egypt trip by 5 days and add it to our Paris trip. I certainly don't mind but haven't done any reading about the French country or driving through it. If we proceed this way, we shall be in Paris August 1-10 (those last 5 days we'll be in Paris so we should have ditched the car). Please help!

Thinking we'd rent an automatic car (reservations from home) right when we get to the airport (Charles De Gaulle) and then head out for our country driving (with a Michelin driving book/maps). I want to avoid Paris driving as much as possible. Is that a good start?

Where should we base ourselves? We're a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 kids), and by this time we'll just want to take it slow. We enjoy nature, walks and looking ;-). I was thinking since we'd have the car, to go ahead and do our Versailles trip. How is parking there?

We'll also have spent so much $ so we'd like something to stay in that's affordable (under 200 dollars for all of us would be a dream come true but maybe not realistic). Any suggestions? Can we reserve something along our drive or is that not recommended? Is this high season in the countryside too?

Any advice is greatly appreciated! I've never been on a trip with so many twists and turning this close to leaving. Hopefully, it'll be for the best

"The French country" is HUGE. Do you have any notion of which part of France you're interested in driving to/through? Normandy? Brittany? Champagne? Ile de France? Picardie? Dorgogne? Provence? Pays Basque? Languedoc?......??? Asking where you should base yourselves

In August, at least half the French population will be on vacation in all the most desirable spots. I would not under any circumstances plan on just tooling around with a family of five and finding accommodations as you go, especially with that budget.

I wouldn't drive to Versailles when it's so easy to get there on the RER from Paris. Just do it as a day trip during the Paris portion of your trip.

It's getting awfully late in the game to be making/changing plans. I think you need to research exactly where in the countryside you want to be, and do it immediately.

Ooops, hit the Submit button before I finished a sentence. Meant to say that asking where you should base yourself, given there's an entire country to consider and not having any clue as to where you might think you want to go, is pointless. What if I said I think you should all head for Fougères - would that be of any help? No. You need to figure out, at a bare minimum, which direction you'd like to drive in.

We had a FABULOUS last minute August trip last year to France and the countryside. I hope my report can help you a bit as so many reports here saved my trip!

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ng-the-way.cfm

Dordogne, not Dorgogne.....jeez...

Without knowing where in the French countryside you want to go, I can tell you about our experience, since it is similar to what you're planning. We flew into CDG and had previously booked a rental car through Auto Europe. We picked it up, drove stayed out of Paris and began our trip, heading Northeast towards Amien and continuing on through Albert, Arras and up into Ypres, Belgium (we were visiting World War Sites). We then head West along the French coast, through Dieppe and into Caen, before headed to Mont St Michel and then back east. We visited both Chartres and Versailles (parking at Versailles was extremely easy, though paying for parking at their automated machines was an adventure) before dropping the rental car back off at CDG and taking the RER into Paris.

I truly enjoyed doing the trip this way, as it helped us avoid driving into Paris. We just did a great big counter-clockwise loop of Northern France. We used Arras, Ypres, Caen and Chartres as our bases during those 10 days of travel, and never had a hotel reservation booked ahead of time. We mostly stayed at Holiday Inns, Best Westerns or Ibis Hotels and managed to get 2 double or single beds per room for around $100-150CAD per night.

Let me know if you need any further information.

I agree with StCirq regarding Versailles, the train from central Paris to Versailles is easy, we took the train from Versailles into Paris, the station was at the Eiffel tower.

But....Driving to Versailles is certainly do-able, the difficulty is parking. Our hotel (Ibis)had underground parking, we left the car there.

As for the countryside, France has lots of it. See if you can get a Gite to base yourselves, we have not long booked for end August and there were plenty available. Due to French holidays hotels may be a little more difficult.

http://www.cheznous.com/
http://www.frenchconnections.co.uk

Google french Gites and you will get a few sites.

Driving in France is not too difficult, make sure you have money for the tolls.

Enjoy

Muck

Here is a site that may be of help:

http://www.slowtrav.com/gmaps/viewmap.asp?map=44

The rural area just south of Besançon looks especially full of things to do. It's also a very inexpensive area (your family could easily stay there for under $150/night). Besançon is a 5-hour drive from CDG, but I assume you will landing early in the AM. There are nice stops along the way (Auxerre ?).

Also, I ,too, am of the mind that Versailles is best done as a day trip during your Paris stay.

I agree with all the above. i particularly like the idea of heading north [where it may be cooler and less crowded.

i would also add that particularly if you want an automatic car, it would be a very good idea to pre-book it, as otherwise you may find yourselves with no choice but to take a manual one.

from the airport, head away from Paris and return the car when you are starting your stay there so you don't have the nuisance of having the car in Paris.

Just to clarify, CDG is not in Paris; it's to the northeast of the city proper. So you can drive from there without driving in Paris.

I suggest visiting the chateaux of the Loire. Then scoot over to Burgundy, up to Strasbourg, and maybe Nancy. It's all beautiful.

While it is true that half of France is on vacation in August they are mostly elbow to elbow on the Riviera or in a small country house somewhere. You will see economy motels throughout France on the National roads. Stop early, by 6 PM, for best results. You will also see nice economy restaurants. Seating will be relatively easy except maybe on Sunday afternoon.

If you haven't driven in France before I suggest looking at
http://tinyurl.com/3bc2ax before you go.