Hi there! We are going to France early this summer. We fly into cdg, and are planning on road-tripping for 5 days, and going to Paris for our last 5 days. We would like to see Normandy (Giverny, Bayeux/ d day beaches for my husband, and Mont Saint Michel,Rouen a maybe but not required).. and plan on 1-2 days in the Loire valley.. (we really are just wanting to see 2 Chateaus and hang out a bit).. and then back to Paris to finish off our trip. We already have our hotel booked in Paris, but haven’t ironed out the rest of the trip to book yet. My question is, would it be better to take a train to Giverny and pick up a car there, return in Amboise and then train to Paris when ready? Or the other way around and do LOire Valley first? Or just drive from cdg, do Normandy, turn the car back to cdg and take a train down and do the LOire Valley a couple of days? Driving a couple of hours here and there doesn’t bother us, where we live we have to drive 4+ hours to do much of anything. Thank you for any advice!

Moved to Europe board and tagged for France.

Driving 4 hours in your country will be very different in France. You have to understand and concentrate on different road manners, road sings and road conditions. Do not learn to drive shift in a foreign land.
Do not drive as soon as you have landed. Idiots say it can be done but they are not thinking .
Taking a train out of Paris is usually the advice given when searching this or other forums.
I personally think you are moving around too mush. Every time you change location you loose sight seeing time.

Firstly, do not drive anywhere after a long, transatlantic flight to CDG. Take the train to your first destination. If you are going to Bayeux, depending upon when you arrive, there are trains from St Lazare or Montparnasse. Rent your car the day following your Bayeux arrival. A possible concern may be the availability of cars with automatic transmissions if that is what you need.

Secondly, I would not drive the distance to the Loire Valley for one day, (2 nights), unless you added a couple of days to the overall itinerary. I would stay in Normandy, maybe proceed a bit west into Bretagne, then return to Paris and pickup Giverny.

If you did drive to the Loire Valley, I would simply return the rental car in Paris, but some drop off at ORY which is next to A6, the autoroute from the south (A10 goes into A6 before ORY).