My husband and I will be travelling in northern France in September 2010. We fly to Amsterday and would like to visit Bruges then Vimy and WW11 sights before we go to Paris to fly home. Do we need to rent a car? I know trains connect major cities but what about getting around to smaller places. What about travelling by bus?

I wrote earlier in the year and received many suggestions about routes and places to stay. At that time I assumed we'd rent a car. Now that we have booked our flight and I can seriously get this trip planned I wonder if we need a car.
Thanks

Amsterdam to Paris is about 5hrs drive.

Before planning this, it is worth checking cross border drop of charges. It might make sense to train, then rent cars by the day to visit each area.

Peter

You don't need a car in Amsterdam. You can get a train (well two) from there to Brugge.
Then get a train to Lille and hire a car there for the French part of your trip.
Deliver it in before going to Paris, as you won't need it there either.

This is exactly what we did a few years ago. Amsterdam, then Bruges, then train to Lille, where we picked up a car to explore Normandy/Brittany. We dropped the car off in Rennes and took the TGV back to Paris.

Thanks for the suggestions. Progol, since you travelled the route we plan to take I'd like to ask a few further questions. How long did you spend in Amsterdam, Bruge, Paris? Where did you stay (town)in the Normandy area, how long?
Thanks

We did basically what progol did too. 3 days was plenty for Amsterdam, 2 in Brugge , a week touring various battlefields , staying in Ieper at the Ariane and once at hotel du Mont Kemmel, a week in Normandy stying at a small town with easy access to the WWII sites and beautiful Normandy villages. at the Moulin de Vey , near Caen. In Brittany we stayed in Questembert and toured from there. Stayed at Le Residence de Bretagne. Paris we spend anywhere from 1 week at a time to a month