Gretchen

I suggest you travel with your 22-24" (carryon if you will) for your entire time. Having a larger bag for part of your trip as you mention will only complicate everything. We always take a taxi to or from CDG, but have also done the RER. It is NOT fun or easy if you have a large bag--and if you (as you are describing) wanting to slow down and take things easy!! The taxi will cost about 50E and just begins and ends a trip on a less stressful note (to me).
If you aren't renting directly at the airport, Ira's idea of training to a destination and renting there is a good solution. and just for comparison, we were definitely not spring chickens when we did the Normandy lap.

PalenQ

Or take the train out to say Versailles and rent you car, if heading west it's a breeze from Versailles and you can hit many wonderful places en route - rather than taking a train to say Normandy and renting a car there - on return just head to Versailles to return your car.

crossen

A lot of water has gone over the damn since I last entered anything in this forum. That does not mean I have not been busy. I have read and reread all your entries as well as have done a lot of other searching on the Internet. Now is the time for me to get very serious about setting our itinerary.
I have booked our flight to Paris in October and we are planning to be in France for 14 nights. We would like to spend some time in Paris (about 6 -7 nights) and the rest of the time in Normandy and Brittany. We will be traveling independently and we plan to rent a car. I think we would prefer to spend about 3 nights in Paris after our arrival, and then take a train to Vernon, Caen, Rennes, ?? and rent a car. There are so many possibilities to consider, but places that are at the top of our list are the D-Day Beaches (Bayeux or Caen - ?) and Mont Saint Michel. After that is more of Normandy (Honfleur) and some of Brittany (Dinard, Saint Malo, Dinan, etc., etc.) I realize that every place we want to go in Normandy and Brittany is probably a tourist destination, but we enjoy getting off the Tour Bus circuit if at all possible. We also try to experience local life as much as possible, but this may be a bit naïve on my part. That is one of the reasons why Brittany holds some mystique because I think it might not be as congested as some other places. As far as accommodations go I would prefer small hotels (even in Paris) or B & B lodging. Our luck has been very good with B & B’s in the past and although we don’t speak fluent French, we are not afraid to speak (I’m sure we really make a mess of the language). We were in Paris for about 10 days over Bastille Day a while ago and whenever we tried to speak French, people were very happy to help us and they also seemed to appreciate the fact that we even tried to speak the language (they obviously could tell we were not familiar with French). I may be naïve in thinking that it would be the same in Normandy and Brittany, but I am willing to give it a try. My ancestry is also Celtic (Irish, Welsh, Scot) and that is another reason why Brittany holds such appeal.
If you have any suggestions I will be very appreciative. I have looked at your trip report FMT about your time at a Gite near Dinard (at least that is where I think you were) and I thought it was excellent. Lots of ideas (random Menhirs, etc.)!
My first big question has to do with renting a car. Should we take a train out of Paris and rent a car at the train station when we arrive (again Vernon (Giverny), Caen, Rennes, etc.?
A very rough itinerary is:
3 nights / Paris
2 nights / Honfleur
2 nights / Bayeux
1 night /near Mont Saint Michel
1 night / Dinard
1 night / Quimper
1 night / Auray
Drive to Rennes / Train back to Paris
3 nights in Paris
I have worked on 15+ different itineraries but I’ll just start with this to see what people think.
Thank you very much for your help.

StCirq

Sounds like a good plan. I'd spend a bit more time in Rennes - great city. Not sure about Auray, but I haven't been there.

In Bayeux, check out the Churchill Hotel and the Château de la Bellefontaine for accommodations.

And I would take the train out of Paris Gare St.-Lazare to Caen, pick up a rental care there, see the Mémorial Museum there (half a day), then move on to Bayeux, where I'd make sure to see the tapestry and the cathedral.

Your attempts to speak French will be well met in both Normandy and Britanny. Good for you.

PalenQ

St-Malo is one sweet city - unique even though it was largely rebuilt after WW 2 - it is right on your route - so at least take a look or even base in this awesome seaside city.

Breizh22

Hi Crossen,
I read you search to travel in Brittany.
You can come easily in Brittany by train.
In Brittany, you can go to all big cities on the coast by train. (Vannes, Lorient, Quimper, Brest, Saint Brieuc, etc..)
Train is very convenient.
So everytime you need to move, try to use train. It will be the cheaper solution.

But if you need to travel outside cities or in center of Brittany, to visit an interesting site, sometimes you will need a car.

DoYouBreizh is a car and driver service to explore Brittany.
We provide a car with driver to tourists (few hours or few days)
Its an availability of vehicle and driver to free you from the constraints of organizing your personal travel.

If you need such service, you can visit our website : http://www.doyoubreizh.com

We wish you a good trip in France.

DoYouBreizh