Paris to Loire Valley
 

We are going to fly into Paris from London. We are planning to stay 6 days in Paris and 4 days in the Loire Valley area. We want to rent a car for the Loire Valley area. What is the best way to rent a car? From Charles de Gaule Airport or from Paris central? We haven't decided the order of the two trips yet. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

If you are staying in Paris there is no reason to go back out to the airport for a car (or vice versa). Hertz has a super easy location in the parking garage at the Louvre It's the carousel du Louvre location right off rue Rivoli. It's not marked on the street - just go in the garage called carousel du Louvre and you then see signs. You can also walk to it through the under ground shopping at the Lovre - just follow the P (for parking). Access to the highway south into the Loire is easy from that pint as well - they will give you a map.

sorry about the typos!

There's also a Hertz location at Les Invalides, which is even easier for getting out of Paris quickly. Or, you can take the train to Tours and pick up your rental there.

If you hate driving as much as my DH, you can consider taking the TGV from Paris to Tours (or other Loire valley towns) and rent a car there. My DH hates driving so we minimize the amount of time/distance he needs to drive while we're there. We've done it twice now, once we rented from Tours TGV station, the other time from Angers.

Of course, it's cheaper to rent a car from Paris and drive to Loire Valley than buying r/t TGV tickets, but we got good prices buying the TGV Prem's tickets. For us, a little extra expense = happy marriage

[I do all the driving here back home in the US, but I don't trust myself with a stick shift car in Europe, hence DH is the driver there.]

In 2004, we took the train to Tours St. Pierre des Corps station and picked up our rental from Avis, just outside the station itself. Reserved that year using Avis.fr b/c the rate + insurance was cheaper than the US site. This past year we used the US site, I guess France caught on to this trick. :)
We returned the car and took the train back to Paris after our Loire V. visit.

Drive from Paris. No reason to add a train ride to such an easy trip. Places like Autoeurope or Holidaycars will give you excellent rates.

I rented from the Hertz on Rue de Rivoli. With a GPS, should be no problem finding your way out of Paris. In my case, few years back, I got lost and ended up at Fontainebleau, and had a behind the scenes tour of the unrenovated rooms. Driving the Loire was one of my favorite holidays.

Byron1,

Since you are probably the better driver of the 2 of you
(as you do most of the driving at home) why don't you learn to drive a standard transmission?

There are driver ed schools near me who offer a 'learn a standard transmission' lesson from about $100. I've also seen people advertise a similar service on Kijiji.

Rob

We rented a car on the west coast of France and drove to the Loire Valley. We dropped the car off at Orly Airport when we went on to Paris. Was a very easy place to drop off the car. If you would want to rent a car to drive to the Loire Valley I think Orly would be an easy place to do it.

We also have taken the TGV from Paris to the Loire and picked up a car there. The first trip we took the train to Tours, the second trip to St. Pierre des Corps which was much easier.

TGV ride is just under 1 hour and car pick up was very easy. You can get the TGV right from CDG to the Loire and get your car there. Again, choose St. Pierre des Corps rather than Tours itself.

Vyron1 - I see you haven't appeared again but for another idea about car hire if the idea driving from Paris does not appeal (as it did not to us)It's a lovely trip out to Chartre Cathedral by train - we spent the night at the Ibis after having a wonderful walk around the lovely old town. Next morning collected our vehicle and drove down to the Loire Valley stopping where we fancied or knew of a good spot (I have walked the Loire before)There is always accommodation with help from the tourist offices in each town.

Oops- meant Byron1 !

bookmarking.

This is very helpful. We were away for a couple of days. May we please ask for a bit more assistance. If we were to take a car out of Paris (or Tours), how long of a drive would it be to go to Arles, Nimes and even Carcassonne? We are now thinking of doing 6 days outside of Paris. Any thoughts? Thanking you in advance.

Byron1,

Use http://maps.google.com directions function to check the drive times. They will be optimistic so at 20%.

http://ViaMichelin.com is also handy for route planning and estimating times.

If I only had 6 days I'd take the TGV from Paris to your destination of choice in the south and rent a car from there.
You're looking at a long day at the wheel via autoroute or 3 relaxing hours by train...

Rob

Byron, if I were contemplating visiting Provence, I would NOT rent a car, go to the Loire, then drive to Provence. Boring drive, not fun on 6-lane autostrade, and ugly tolls. If I wanted to do both areas, I would take the TGV from Paris to Avignon, pick up a rental car, visit Provence, then drop off the rental car, take the TGV back to Tours (or Rennes), pick up another rental car, tour the Loire, toss the car in Tours or Angers, and go back to Paris.

But honestly, 6 days is really short and only 3 days each in Provence and the Loire is meager, especially as you have to figure in the pick-up-rental-car-get-oriented bit, plus all the other small things that factor into a trip abroad.

IMO, pick one, either the Loire or Provence. There is so much to see in both areas and they are not that close together to do both at one time.

Thanks for your input. We are the type that don't just want to be in a car. So maybe we are biting too much off in one trip. May I ask for your assistance again? What if we were to fly to Nice and then use the high speed train to see the places along the Riviera? The reason I ask that is that I am not good with a lot of windy roads. I would think that the Loire Valley would not be that bad but wondered if Provence was too windy? How are the high speed trains? Are they pretty windy or straight? Thanks for your help as we are preparing our trip. I love planning.

Byron, there are no high-speed trains along the Riviera. The TGV trains travel at an average speed of about 175 mph, but have reached about 350 mph on test runs, so as you might imagine, the tracks have to be relatively straight or the trains would be derailing every day.

Roads in Provence are more winding on average than those in the Loire, but if your intention now is to visit the Riviera, if you hug the coast you won't have to deal with much winding. That said, I wouldn't want to see the Riviera by train, though it would be possible to do it with some careful planning.