Renting a van (for 9) in France
 

Potentially stupid question -

Two families - 9 people in total - touring Paris and Normandy in March 2015. When we leave Paris we want to rent a vehicle that will accommodate all of us for the Normandy segment of the trip. Is it realistic/affordable to rent a vehicle that large in France?

Thanks,

Rick

You may run into requirements for a special drivers license for a van that large. I would check with Autoeurope and ask:

www.autoeurope.com

A van so large may be difficult to maneuver in historic villages. I would rent two cars.

A van for 9 plus luggage (assuming luggage would be included) would be a very large vehicle, indeed. We had a 10 person family trip to Languedoc this past June and rented 3 small cars; most of the time we only used 2 of the cars, but needed 3 due to different arrival times, etc. We were based in one town for the two weeks and doing day trips so that may be be different from your plans, but in general we had no trouble coordinating our journeys with the 2 (or 3) cars.

a nine passenger van would not be large enough for 9+ their luggage.

So you'd need a larger vehicle. You'll save $$/€€ renting two normal sized cars, plus it will give you more flexibility.

Nine in 2 cars can also be a squeeze. To seat five comfortably in one car it has to be quite large.

7 people is reasonable, 9 is not. Most free credit card CDW insurance excludes vans of this size, so if you have to buy CDW the cost of a large van is prohibitive.

FYI: Budget has offices in Gare de Lyon (easy peripherique access) and Gare du Nord among other places, and they rent 7 person Citroen Picassos for a reasonable charge.

The largest vehicle I have seen here in France is the Peugeot Expert.

It will hold 9 but I think you will be in trouble with the luggage. If you go to this leasing site you will see what it looks like. Click on the little drawings where it says "VIEW EXPERT SPECIFICATIONS" and it will show it configured for 9 people.

http://autofrance.net/peugeot-models/expert/

IMO you would be better off with 2 family vans and it will be a lot easier to maneuver around small towns

I'm going to differ from everyone here because I just drove an 8 passenger Mercedes van for a week in the Dordogne. It was huge and bigger than my mom's SUV. The trunk space was huge and although we only had 6 carry on size suitcases and a tote/backpack each there was room for more when strategically packed. I drove through many small villages, parked, made many turn arounds when lost and only had some scares on the small roads that seemed to be single lane wide and a car would approach in the opposite direction.

Call AutoEurope or Kemwel to see if there are any restrictions. When I was doing my search this type of van came up along with the normal 7-passenger.

Turns out that the other family wants the flexibility of a second car - so that is the way we are going to go. Thanks for all the input though.

Agree that a 9 passenger van will hold 9 people (assuming none need child seat) - but there won;t be room for luggage. You would need a vehicle for 12 or more - depending on how much luggage people have - and might need a special license - or driver for that - don;t know French laws). If it were me I would get 2 full size cars instead - much easier to find places to park - but also need to be careful about the amount of luggage.