Banff

Thanks for the cc advice Stu

Banff

Ok - used the sites that you both have provided - thank you!

It appears (unless I'm reading this wrong) that the cost breakdown looks like this (picking up on a Monday morning and returning on a Thurs evening):

1) Car rental from CDG dropping off at Montparnasse ($108) + $51 for tolls + $73 for gas = $232.

2)Train to Montparnasse ($30) to Rennes ($120 for three - cheapest) where I pick up a rental and drop off back at Montparnasse ($96): Cutting the tolls and gas in half ($60) = $306.

So it appears that the savings is not as big as I thought. But now bids the question, is the additional $74 for option 2 worth it? Is option 2 truly less stressful?

You all have been there and done that so I'm just asking? Would it be less stressful to catch a train (with luggage) into Paris where you would transfer to a train to Rennes where you would then go through the whole rental car process only to drive another hour or so to your first night? Or would it just be easier to get off the plane, walk over to a car rental counter, grab some keys and then beeline it for your first destination?

StuDudley

The fares I saw from Paris to Rennes were 20E/$22. Same fare for Rennes to Paris. But they could be higher 3 weeks later.

Why do you want to drive into Paris???? Have you ever done it before????? Have you ever driven IN Paris??? It's not like driving in a US city, IMO. You couldn't pay me enough money to drive into Paris (have done it & won't ever do it again).

So:

2.revised
- Train to Montparnasse $30 (I would take a taxi to save time)
- Three round trip tickets between Paris & Rennes $132
- Possible SAVINGS from 1 less rental day $30 (just a guess)

Total $132 with savings $162 without savings

>>Is option 2 truly less stressful<<

Certainly less stressful than option 1. But "2.revised" is a "whale-of-a-lot" less stressful than driving into Paris for your two options.

My wife & I vacation in France twice every year for 1 month each trip. We almost always depart from CDG because there are non-stop flights to San Francisco where we live. We decided a few years ago to never fly home on 2 flight legs (too long when we want to stay awake) - so we always return to Paris for our flight home. We have never returned to Paris by car - always a train. Recently we've returned to Paris from Brive la Gaillarde, Avignon, & Annecy. Next year we start our vacation in Lyon. We'll take the TGV from CDG to get there. We'll return to Paris from Avignon by train. We drive everywhere else.

Stu Dudley

rouelan

Even easier, take a train from CDG to Rennes and connect for St Malo.
Base in St Malo (the Most interesting place in the area). And rent a car There to drive to Dinan and Mt St Michel.
Train back to Montparnasse.

PS : Some Airlines have interline agreement with TGV and can sell tkts, at least till Rennes

Ps2: Check in St Malo if tours are going to Dinan or mt st Michel.for Dinan, a Nice option is to cruise the Rance from St Malo, enjoy Dinan and take a bus back to St Malo

Banff

Great ideas .... i'm gonna play around with this. Can I take the train from cdg to rennes?

rouelan

Sure You Can.
The station is in CDG2 (AF DL AA, if You fly UA, it Is less convenient as You need to ride the automated train from T1 to T2).

StuDudley

>>Can I take the train from cdg to rennes?<<

>Sure you can"

Good catch, rouelan. I should have checked that.

Departs CDG at 14:49 & arrives in Rennes at 17:47.

If you then take the train to St Malo - it arrives at 19:03 - after all the car rental offices have closed (they are also closed all day Sunday).

Stu Dudley

StuDudley

If you arrive on a Saturday, the Rennes train station car rental office closes at 5PM. It is open on Sunday afternoon until 7PM. The two "outside of city center" offices close at 6PM on Saturdays - but too far away to make it there if you take the train that arrives at 17:47. They are closed on Sundays.

Hope this helps!!

Stu Dudley

WoinParis

Driving into Paris is no biggie. Much easier than Bruxelles actually, mostly big avenues, until you turn left or right to reach your final destination.
Problem is more parking. Unless you just go underground and pay.

StuDudley

WoinParis

How can someone like you, who I believe has lived in Paris & Belgium and "that region" all of your life - possibly tell someone who I believe is from America and has never driven in France before (or possibly anywhere else in Europe) - that driving into Paris is "no biggie"??? It's like me telling someone who has never been outside of Kansas that driving the Big Sur Coast in California is "no biggie". Banff is trying to avoid stress. Driving in Paris is "stress" (at least it is for me). It's really not even necessary in this case.

Stu Dudley

hetismij2

Why not base yourself in Rennes since you can get a train straight there, and after a long transatlantic flight you will be ready to stop by the time you get there. Find a hotel in Rennes, rent a car for Mont St Michel and maybe some of area around Rennes, then get the train back to Paris.
Better than trying to drive a strange car in a strannge and while jetlagged.
Rennes is certainly worth a visit.

WoinParis

I have absolutely no stress driving in Paris. These are really just big avenues with a lot of traffic lights. You stay on the periph for 90% of the drive, then follow larege avenues No risk.
Everyone his own stress Stu. I am stressed when I have to drive 55 mph on a straight road for 2 hours from Minneapolis and being overtaken by big lorries driving at the same speed.
So no I don't think american drivers are worse than Europeans. They might need a time for acclimatation but saying 'don't drive in Paris because you're an american' taking americans for fools or kids.
Just a question of confidence.

WoinParis

But on the subject of not driving upon arrival, yes defintely. Don't EVER drive after a transatlantic flight.
I remember landing in Boston and having to drive 'nearby'. Of corse I had not checked.
Nearby was 3 hours drive. I thought I'd die 10 times.

Christina

I don't think Stu's point was that Americans are so different, just that people who have never driven in Paris and are from another continent may find it difficult (as well as not being French, so road signs are different, they may not even know what the words mean, even though they should learn that before driving there, etc.). Furthermore, one is out of sorts a bit anytime you are driving a rental car that is completely different from what you are used to driving.

I think you are very unusual if you have no stress driving in a big city if there is a lot of traffic, even if you know it well. The peripherique itself can certainly be stressful if it is blocked up or there is an accident.

Too many people drive in areas they shouldn't and think they are full of confidence and create bad traffic problems, they do where I live which is a big city with a lot of tourists driving around like idiots, breaking laws and slowing traffic--they are probably full of confidence.

However, driving to gare Montparnasse from Rennes (or the peripherique) isn't too terribly bad, as you do go up ave Gen Leclerc, then ave due Maine, but then it gets a bit tricky at that point as to where you return a car, and you do have to go in a roundabout way on smaller streets and circles.

Sarastro

Any driving that the OP may need to do, given the current itinerary options, is absolutely painless and quite easy. What possible stress is there driving the périphérique: you join the traffic and inch along with everyone else and exit when you reach your predetermined turnoff. Leaving Montparnasse, you head south, join the périphérique westbound and look for the A13 exit near Porte d´Auteuil. That´s it.

Driving on the périphérique is the same as driving the 405 during rush hour in LA, I45 in Houston, or the LIE out of Manhattan. I believe that my fellow posters are needlessly complicating the relatively simple maneuver of driving out of Paris and joining one of the autoroutes.

Lexma90

I won't go into the very detailed details regarding trains vs. cars and their prices. I will tell you what worked for us on a one-week trip we made to Brittany and Paris. It was DH and I and our daughter; I'm an experienced manual transmission driver who's driven a lot in Europe and in big cities in the U.S.; he's a great navigator.

Over my objections, we "split" our time in Paris, and it worked out very well. We arrived from the U.S. in the early evening and took a cab to our hotel in the Montparnasse area (which we have visited, but never stayed in). We had a lovely dinner in the area, at an untouristed restaurant. The next morning, we picked up picnic food at the local markets and visited the local Resistance museum (not the name, but I'm too lazy right now to look it up).

Caught the noon (or so) train to Rennes, picked up our rental car. Drove Dinan, spent three nights there and toured the area. Then drove back to Rennes, dropped the car, took the train from there back to Paris for our final 2 nights in a different part of the city. We could have driven the entire way back, I think we felt it was easier to take the train.

DH didn't want anyone driving on our arrival evening; it was in October, so it would have been dark the entire drive. He was right, I have to admit.

But you know yourself and your group, and how comfortable you are at driving in cities that you haven't ever driven in before.

StuDudley

Interesting that the two people who live in Paris or live locally to Paris, are advising a first-time American driver in France, that is is easy or painless or "no biggie" to drive into Paris. While two frequent visitors to France who both live in large American cities are advising her that driving into Paris may be difficult and somewhat stressful.

Lexma90 took trains to & from Rennes, and it worked out quite well - same as has for us many times.

Stu Dudley

Sarastro

Experienced drivers know that there is a big difference between driving <i>into</i> Paris and formulating a plan and executing it to drive <i>out of</i> Paris. I do not make recommendations based upon a single driving attempt within the city. I would not necessarily encourage someone to rent a car and drive around Paris; mainly because parking is costly and sometimes difficult to find. More importantly because the public transportation system is comprehensive and very inexpensive. The need to drive around Paris just does not present itself.

However, the itineraries being discussed here lend themselves to picking up a rental, at some location near the périphérique, joining it, orbiting around to an autoroute starting point (A13 in this case), and driving out of Paris.

Many visitors have done just as I suggest. The last account I read was from someone picking up a rental car near Montparnasse, joining the périphérique in the eastbound direction for Porte d´Orléans and exiting onto A6 for destinations in either Burgundy or the Loire Valley. This poster was from Australia driving for the first time in France.

Visitors headed eastbound towards Reims can execute a similarly easy transition departing from near Gare de Lyon except that once a driver drops down to the quai heading east, he is effectively on A4 and he can follow the road all the way to Strasbourg, if he really wants to continue that far.

I believe that posters should plan their itineraries based upon knowledge and not baseless fear of driving out of the city simply because they may not have done it before.

MissPrism

Ttt

rouelan

Driving in France vs in US ?

As I drive quite often in both countries, i would say they are very different experiences with both their difficult bits.

On motorways, I feel much more comfortable in France than in US. Drivers abide to speed limits in France, Lorries are driving more slowly and it is mandatory to stay on the right lane unless passing. It is forbidden to pass a car from the right side. In US, it is just mayhem for me.

In cities, it is just the opposite : in US, cars will never block intersections, will respect pedestrians; traffic lights make it is easy to turn on the left. There are barely bikes, scooters zig zagging and so on. In Paris, it is a permament fight.