We will be in Paris (5th arr.) for 4 nights, then wish to rent a car one way to drive around the Burgundy region, ultimately dropping the car in Dijon to take a train to Bern. I'm not keen on actually driving in Paris. Where should we get the car? Gare Montparnasse? Is there a town we can train to where it might be easier to get the car? I just want to avoid the stress of city driving. Thanks.

It is best to drive out of Paris in your rental car, which saves time and money, not to mention hassle. Do you really want to lug all of your stuff to some suburban location or (shudder) an airport? Driving out of Paris is very easy. For your destination, Gare de Lyon would probably be best because the road along the Seine to the périphérique takes where you need to go to get to the A6 autoroute. No stress. If you are close to Gare Montparnasse, that is super easy, too.

We also never drive in or out of Paris. This year for our 2 trips to France, in June we'll take a train to Marseille and pick up a car there. In the fall we'll take a train to Valence & start there. Last year, train to Strasbourg & pick up a car there. Once when we were visiting Normandy near Rouen, and we took the taxi from CDG to St Germain en Laye, stayed overnight, and picked up a car there.

We returned a Europcar car in Dijon last year. At the time (Sept) the rental offices were not open on Saturdays or Sunday. It is currently the same schedule.

Stu Dudley

Stu, I have a 3 day reservation with Alamo in July, picking up and dropping off at the Gare in Dijon. Can I not assume the rental office will be open on Saturday if they made the reservation?

Unlike Europcar, the Alamo office is open every day.

Stu Dudley