Pick up car at Charles de Gaulle or Rouen?
 

We plan to leave Paris on a Friday morning (probably crazy, I know) and need to pick up a rental car for the rest of our journey through France. Our hotel in Paris is in the Latin Quarter. I have done some research but would benefit from input by always helpful Fodorites.

It appears that we could take the RER from Place St Michel or Cluny La Sorbonne to Charles de Gaulle and pick up our car there, then drive to Rouen and on to Honfleur. How difficult will it be to get out of the CDG car rental lot and on to our journey? Google maps shows the fastest route heading back into the road that goes around Paris but an alternate route that heads north and avoids Paris.

The alternative would be to take the Metro to Gare du Nord, take a train to Rouen, and pick up a car there, though the availablity of cars there is less.

Or there other places on the outskirts of Paris or outside of Paris that would be relatively easy to get to to pick up a car and drive to Rouen?

We would like to make a quick getaway from Paris (8 or 9 am latest). What will it be like taking the Metro to Gare du Nord or RER to CDG while people are heading to work? If we could book an extra day in Paris and leave on Saturday, would that be significantly easier? Or should we splurge on a shuttle bus or taxi if we leave on Friday?

We have found an automatic at CDG - a Peugeot 2008 crossover. I assume it does not have a trunk but will there be some sort of covering over
our luggage?

Thanks again for your guidance!

Pick up the car on the western side of the city or Versailles if there is a rental agency close to the RER there. It would be cheaper than going to CDG, and more efficient as these locations would be in the direction of Rouen etc.

<i>It appears that we could take the RER from Place St Michel or Cluny La Sorbonne to Charles de Gaulle and pick up our car there</i>

Big mistake. You´ll needlessly pay to go the CDG (10€ each if you take the RER), you´ll probably incur a 45€ airport pickup surcharge, and then you´ll need to basically drive back to Paris to join A13. Going to CDG would be a huge waste of both time and money.

Find an in town office near Porte Auteuil, avoid the location surcharge and the train fare to CDG, and plan your exit in advance and hop on A13. Morning traffic will in Paris inbound; you´ll be outbound on your way to Normandy.

<i>Porte Auteuil</i> or Porte Maillot.

Take the train to Rouen and pick up the car there. Traffic can be a mess heading out of Paris, and hell if it's raining. So much truck traffic on both the A-13 and A-15/D-14, and not only inbound!

Personally I would drive right out of the Gare du Nord, because two turns out of the garage and you head straight to the Peripherique.

How much time do you plan to spend in Rouen??? If you will be there for a half-day or more, you could stow your bags at the rental office and then pick up the car when you leave Rouen - perhaps saving a day's car rental. In addition to the airport costs Sarastro mentioned, te savings could be enough to pay for a nice dinner in Honfleur.

I hate driving anywhere near Paris. CDG usually fools me to. Had a h..l of a time returning a car there this past June.

Stu Dudley

>>fools me to<<

too

to twice?

<<We plan to leave Paris on a Friday morning>>

What specific date? Anyway, if you are in Paris then find a rental agency near Porte Maillot and then it is a straight drive right down the avenue Charles de Gaulle which leads directly onto the A14 which connects with the A13 to Normandy (and Rouen). The suggestion for renting near the Porte d'Auteuil is easy as well since you'll get right onto the A13 from there. Otherwise take a train to Rouen and get the car there. If you buy your train ticket well in advance the cost is only 10€ and the journey takes 1-/1/4 to 1-1/2 hours. A last minute walk-up ticket costs 24.10€. If you drive to Rouen the fuel and tolls cost 30€ and the journey takes 1-1/2 hours (with no traffic).

We always pick up our rental car at the Carrousel de Louvre on Rue de Rivoli.

I was looking at rental car in Paris for my trip too. They do have a hertz close to the Lourve. I think the price is similar to that of CDG pickup. I think Europcar also have pickup location close by.

My apologies for not thanking everyone for your responses sooner. I was called to "grandmother duty" while my daughter was ill and then was out of town.

My husband will be doing the driving while we're in France and has decided that he wouldn't feel comfortable driving a stick shift as he hasn't driven one since we were much, much younger. So we needed to find an automatic and they are mostly available at the airport. Though I wouldn't attempt to drive out of CDG, he feels that he can handle it, so we have reserved one there. There was one available outside of Paris (at Caen, I think) but the fee for picking up and dropping off at a different location was pretty steep. Again, I would have paid it but he's the driver so I left the decision up to him.

Any tips on getting out of the Hertz rental location at CDG headed for Honfleur would be welcomed!

Thanks again for your support.

Have you checked for car rentals on www.autoeurope.com? They are a broker that deals with the large rental agencies and usually you can pick up and drop off at different locations with no surcharge, although I understand that sometimes you pay extra to pick up and drop off at train stations and airports.

To get driving instructions, times and distances as well as toll and fuel costs and suggested routes use www.viamichelin.com. The drive times don't consider stops nor bad traffic/weather.

<i>you pay extra to pick up and drop off at train stations and airports. </i>

From my experience this is a standard fee, and if avoided, it often means that there is a one-way rental fee which can be higher that the airport/RR station fee.

Last June, we had a train station pick up fee and a different location drop off fee. It is my understanding that Hertz charges a drop off fee but Europcar does not. Things change, however.

Stu Dudley

<i> It is my understanding that Hertz charges a drop off fee but Europcar does not. </i>

That's my experience.

The <i>location surcharge</i> or airport/train station pickup fee for CDG is about 45€, usually payable at drop off. It´s easily avoided by picking up a rental at anywhere other than an airport or train station. Sixt or Europcar typically will not charge a one way fee for pickup and drop off within France. Both Avis and Hertz charge one way fees.

There is also an <i>environmental fee</i> levied on cars with automatic transmissions which is paid at drop off. This fee is 5€ per day up to 6 days or 30€.

Other fees include a road fee of 3.15€ per day, ticket processing fee of 25€ if you are cited by a speed camera (this does not pay the fine), and there are various others which you should be able to avoid.

These various fees are paid and drop off and not always included in price quotes. You should read your rental contract carefully.

FrenchMystique Tours - We did check autoeurope; we got an online quote from them for the Hertz rental. My husband used Hertz exclusively when working and still has a "loyalty" account with them so he prefers to book with them, plus we have found that their rates are often the cheapest.

Sarastro - Thanks for the warning about the fees. We'll read the contract very carefully. I'm afraid we are stuck with the fee for using an automatic unless my husband can find someone with a stick shift and practice. Even so, he said that he would be uncomfortable driving a car with manual transmission up and down mountains or anyplace that required a lot of gear shifting.

We would prefer not to be driving at all as we love traveling by train in Europe but there are places we want to visit that would be difficult by train.

So are you renting from AutoEurope and they are giving Hertz as the agency which is fine, but when picking up, it may or may not be Hertz.
They will give you a map and directions from CDG to Honfleur. It isn't difficult, but also, as Stu mentioned, not totally intuitive.
Are you sure you can't get an automatic at one of the peripherique agencies others have mentioned?
I have usually found that driving a stick is pretty much like riding a bike--it comes back very quickly.