Normandy Car Rental
 

First...This forum has been very helpful. Thank you for all your Dordogne/Normandy tips.


The next dilemma.....

In July, our three week trip begins. We will be arriving at CDG early in the morning and intend to leave immediately for Normandy. Although, we will be jet lagged, we decided to go directly to Normandy, since we will not be able to check into a hotel until the afternoon.

We intend to have a GPS (and good maps). Hopefully, this will make the trip less stressful, since we will be very tired.

Question: To limit navigation difficulty, should we hire a driver to take us to a half-way point to rent a car, or should we rent a car at the airport?

Thanks for any comments.

Unless you are really navigationally challenged, I would rent at CDG and proceed towards Normandy. I have done this several times, and the autoroute is not hard to find from the airport. Once on it, it's clear sailing to Normandy. Use either the Michelin or Mappy websites to produce detailed route cards to get from the airport to your destination. Mappy will even give you graphics of the autoroute directional signs.

Although I was quite comfortable driving in rural France by the second day, I found the first few hours (with unfamiliar, signs, rules and language) a bit nerve racking. I started out from the Caen railroad station. If I had started in a more congested area it would have been very uncomfortable.

But I was alone, if you have a competent navigator assisting you, it may be easier.

The road signs usually list the town that the road goes to next, not a road number. You should know the names of the towns ahead along your planned route.

Keith

There was a thread about this very recently, if I can find it I'll top it. We fly to Europe from the West Coast and usually plan our first destination within a drive of an hour or two of our arrival airport. You'll be tired but not comatose, so the drive will not be impossible. I'd suggest that you go ahead and rent your car at CDG and head out to Normandy, which is not a difficult drive at all. Stop and have lunch somewhere along the way and then collapse in a heap when you get to your hotel.

Bon voyage

Just topped thread entitled "Giverny after we land and get car" for you.

I have rented at CDG several times. The tricky part of this is right at the beginning. Depending on what terminal you start from, and how well and how quickly you read the road signs, you may exit the airport complex in different places and it may take you awhile to figure out where you are and what direction you are going. If you are going to have GPS in your car, you can program it for wherever you want to go. It will give you oral directions in whatever language you want. So get your GPS all set up before you exit the parking at the airport.

I can't imagine many other places to go to rent a car that will be as easy to find your way out of as CDG. I agree it may be a little confusing at first, but the autoroute will probably be easier than going into a city location (any city) and having to navigate your way back out. I'd think the rental agency will be able to give you specific directions for exiting the airport and getting you on your way.

Patrick -
A couple of years ago, we were meeting another couple at Vaux-le-Vicomte. We arrived that morning at CDG, got our car and drove easily to Melun. They had been in Paris for a few days, so they rented their car from a city office. Boy did they have a time of it trying to get out of Paris and down to Melun. So I agree that CDG is way better than fighting your way out of the city, but I still say it's tricky getting out of the airport complex in good order, especially for nervous first-timers. For people wanting to go to Normandy, it'll be easier if they are at Terminal 1, I think.

We visited Normandy in Sept. spending the 1st night in Paris then renting a car near St. Lazare and driving to Normandy with stops in Versailles and Giverny. It worked well for us in terms of finding our way. I found Michelin maps on the internet to be very helpful. I imagine it would be easier getting out of CDG with a rental car than from downtown Paris as we did. See our trip report of 10/04. Good luck. I think