Rent a car or not
 

Staying at a villa in France but preceding with a stay at an apartment in Paris. Question regarding transportation and car rental. While we do plan on having one for the weeks in rural France, we were wondering about coordinating with arrival at Paris airport and getting to Paris and then picking up car or renting for entire period.

Well if the Q is to rent a car during your Parisian sojourn absolutely NO - not only no need for a car in Paris with its fantastic metro system and also being very walkable you'd probably have to pay a lot just to park it - many hotels inside Paris do not offer parking - car is a liability in Paris.

Either take the RER/metro into town from the airport or if lots of luggage and two people a car service (arranged ahead of time) may not cost much more and take you right to your hotel

Palenque's right on the money on this one. Don't rent a car for Paris. Crazy idea!

A car will be a huge liability and expense in Paris, and there is absolutely no need for it there. Either pick it up upon leaving Paris or take a train to wherever you're headed and pick it up there.

Good advice above

I like St-Cirq's idea of taking a train out of Paris towards wherever you all are going - can even save money - say you're going to Provence - just under 3 hours by TGV train from Paris and stay in say an Arles or Avignon - then the next day pick up your car and putz around rural Provence - where there are so so many great sites to motor to - more in a compact area than about anyplace in France - well more major things.

Anyway at www.voyages-sncf.com or www.capiatinetrain.com you can nabe TGV tickets to Avignon TGV station or any other station in France for maybe $50 or so - x 2 + $100 - gas and high tolls on toll ways plus a day of a rental car could well cost more than that.

Plus you are hundreds of miles from Paris - with only a week no time wasted driving straight there, etc. When done return car at a train station and similarly blast back to Paris sans car. There are direct TGV trains Provence to CDG Airport even.

At the end of a week in Paris, I rented a car from a train station to travel north to Normandy. I mistakenly thought the station was outside the peripherique. That was one of the most stressful days in my life as I tried to figure out how the heck to get out of the city and onto the highway with my 14 yr old son as copilot. Another time, I spent a week in Paris then trained to Avignon for a few days without need for a car. I then picked up a car at the small Avignon train station for a visit to the Luberon hill towns. That worked very well.
Ann Marie