Transportation from Paris to Mont St. Michel - car or train?
 

My husband and I, along with two children will be traveling from Paris to MSM on a Friday in August. Originally I had planned for us to take a train from Paris to Rennes that morning and then rent a car from the Rennes train station for the duration of our 3 days around Normandy. I thought we should rent the car outside of Paris to avoid needing to navigate Paris and any traffic delays leaving the city on a Friday. I'm now wondering if that is a valid concern worth the extra effort and money? We are staying in the 7th arrondissement. Should we just rent a car from in Paris and completely skip the train ride?

Thanks for any advice!

I would just drive right out of Paris. It really isn't that bad if you can avoid rush hour traffic. Four tickets are pricey for the train and it is not too fun dragging the luggage to the gare, etc. You could always rent a GPS through the agency if you are worried about navigating. Plus having the car allows you to take your time and sight see along the way.

I would definitely pick up the car in Paris. Just be sure to get good directions from the agency to the Peripherique. Driving in and out of paris isn;t really difficult - just driving around in the city versus Metro - and a lot of that is no place to park, (We've done this 5 times with no problem.)

I'm seeing train fares from Paris to Mont St Michel (train & bus through ticket) from 37 euros each way at www.tgv-europe.com.

That would avoid the nightmare Paris bit, and be a far more relaxing option.

Ugh-it wouldn't be more relaxing to me. Between paying for 4 tickets and train bus change I would drive. You can also consider picking up a car at an agency near the peripherique or even at a airport, but I don't think it is really necessary.

Thank you for the replies. In looking over our itinerary while in Normandy I think it may be best to take a train from Paris to Rennes (2 hours by train. 3 1/2 hours if driving??)

From Rennes we would need a car so we can drive through Dinan and then take the scenic route along the coast from St. Malo to Mont St. Michel. This drive from Rennes to MSM should take 2 hours (not including stops). If we leave Paris around 8am and take our time with stops on the driving portion, we should arrive at MSM in the late afternoon - which seems to be recommended to avoid crowds. We will stay the night on MSM then take the next 2 days to tour Normandy before flying out of Beauvais.

If anyone sees anything obvious that I'm missing with this plan please let me know. Thank you!

One alternative is picking up a car outside Paris -- i.e., suburbs -- there's that suburban train -- RER? Others can pipe in if that's a foolish plan.

For the DH and me, several years ago we opted to get the car in Paris as others have described and we ended up looking like that couple in National Lampoon's European Vacation trying to get out of town, circling....

For a forthcoming trip, we are going to do as you plan, take a train to get closer to MSM -- Rennes, Caen, or even Rouen, and do a bit of driving before ditching the car and heading back into town via train.

Two considerations that I wonder about: 1. ages of the children, and 2. holiday schedule:make sure about the schedule for your particular date of travel (I was stuck at a train station for hours on Bastille Day on my way back to Paris--got to know some other travelers well but otherwise a waste of precious travel time).

I think posters may be responding to the issue of cost (a family of 4 in a car vs. train tix) and logistics (children, baggage, etc.) but were we traveling with our lads when they were younger, they would have loved riding the trains. (On that topic, I hope you are packing relatively light).

Have a great time!

This is probably TMI but I can't help it - when I get a chance to talk about our trip to France I usually get very wordy!!! My wife, 13 year old granddaughter and I had nearly the same situation in 2004. We decided to take the train to Rennes, rent a car and drive to Sully (near Bayeux) with a stop at MSM. We took a taxi for the short ride from our apartment in the 7th to Gare Montparnasse. I admit part of the decision to take the train was to give my granddaughter the experience of a train ride but we would do it again because we really enjoyed it. We then drove from Rennes to MSM (for some unknown reason, they upgraded us to an automatic BMW for free and it unexpectedly had a GPS which we LOVED). We walked to the top and had a great lunch at one of the restaurants on the climb back down (had a fantastic plate of mussels - we counted over a hundred). Then on to Chateau de Sully where we unpacked and took a short drive to the beach at Port-en-Bessin before having dinner at some little restaurant. I guess this was a long-winded way to say I would recommend the train. If you click on my name and go all the way back to 2004, I posted a couple of brief trip reports about the wonderful time we had in France.

Mont St-Michel can easily be visited by train and bus from Paris but if you want to see more in the region (and have time for it) a car is far more convenient. A good option is to take the train to Rennes or other bigger cities and rent a car there. Either case try to spend a night at the Mont - it looks fantastic at night just as much as during the day.

Thanks for the replies! We have booked tickets on the train from Paris to Rennes and have a rental car reserved from there. We will spend 3 nights in Normandy traveling through Mont St. Michel, Bayeaux, Caen, Honfleur and flying out of Beauvais. We do not plan to opt for a gps in our car. I'm hoping Michelin maps and an iphone will be enough?

There's pretty good signage as I recall. Please write after the tipand tell us how it worked out!

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