I will be visiting Beaune in late May for about a week. I had planned to drive a rental from Paris CDG airport to Beaune, but don't know anything about the French Toll roads. Are they expensive? What is the average toll? Do you pay cash or can they take a credit card? Are most booths manned or do they have a coin hopper? Do you take a ticket at one end and pay at the other or are the toll booths strategically placed along the road?

My alternative plan is to take the train from CDG to Lyon and pick up the rental there. Better idea??

In either case, I will have an in-car GPS which should help.

Thanks

That's a longish drive, some of which is very pretty -- but still....

Driving around Paris is no picnic. We've done it often, even with major jetlag. But it`s the part of the trip I`d relish least.

Online, I found a site that indicates Paris to Beaune costs 21 Euros in tolls.

The cost of gas is impossible to estimate this far in advance of your trip. Count on paying about three times what one would pay in the USA: (1 Euro 37 per litre today for Super 95, about 5 Euros 50 for a US gallon)

TGV fares from CDG to Lyon Part-Dieu (downtown rail station) vary hugely, especially in May, a month with many public holidays.

The cheapest I saw was 30 Euros for a non refundable Prems fare. The highest 2nd class ticket price I saw was 97 Euros.

You have some other train options too, BTW:

TGV to Lyon, then backtrack to Beaune by train -- the whole trip would take you about 4 hours.

Take the RER to central Paris, get yourself to the Gare de Lyon and take one of the many TGVs (about 1 every 30 minutes) direct from Paris to Beaune.

Tolls:
Fewer & fewer booths are manned these days. CCs don't always work. We always pay in cash - usually at the "hopper".

Stu Dudley

I second Stu's comment re tolls - we always now use cash, as we've had no luck using our Aussie credit or debit cards. The only cards I've seen work in the toll booths are those owned by French residents. Di

From your other posts OldGuyTraveler, I understand that you are from the USA and that after an all night transatlantic flight, you are proposing to drive directly to Beaune.

If this is the case, I would, in the strongest of terms, discourage your attempting to drive that far on the morning of your arrival. Driving at autoroute speeds (130 km or 80 mph), on unfamiliar roads, in a rental car which you are driving for the first time, is a recipe for potential disaster. At a minimum, margins of safety are diminished, probably significantly.

This is the time to take a train to Dijon, or Beaune, and rent a car there; preferably for a next day pickup.

There is only 1 direct TGV from Paris (dp 6.41) to Beaune. In all other cases you will have to change at Dijon (2 1/4 hrs journey; trains about every 30 to 120 min).
Travel via Lyon if you want to minimize the train changes:
CDG dp 7.01, 8.31, 9.58, 11.58, 13.58, 16.58, 17.58

I really like Beaune, except for the parking. Be certain your hotel has its own parking area.

Use www.viamichelin.com to check out the costs of toll and petrol for your trip.
Our credit cards work on the toll roads, but we're European.
Use cash if you're unsure. Make sure you avoid the gates that are for cars with toll badges; you'll be stuck and have some angry French drivers behind you. These are always to the far right and/or far left. There's a sign for CC and for coins above the gates that you can use.

Even with a GPS, have a map so you can see where you're going. Signs are for the next large cities, and not for the road number, as is usual in the US.

And watch the speed limits, as they can vary.

Thanks Guys for all the info and recommendations. I am now leaning toward taking the train all the way to Beaune.