Depends on why you want the car. If you want it to drive around Paris, my advice is, don’t bother. You don’t need a car in Paris. It is more a nuisance than anything.
On the other hand if you want to drive out of Paris and visit another place in France, you have several options. First, how long do you need the car? If you want a car more than 17 days, don’t rent a car; lease a car. Peugeot has an Open Europe lease program and Renault has a similar program. Both are excellent cars. All costs are paid up front so you don’t have to worry about extra charges when you return the car. There is full insurance and 24-hour roadside assistance in addition to your getting a brand new car. This is what we’ve done for years and it’s a great program. You need to make all arrangements BEFORE you arrive in France.
If you prefer to rent (rather than lease), again make all arrangements BEFORE you arrive in France. For some reason it costs more after you get there. (I’m sure someone here knows why but I don’t!)
A good start if you want to rent is to click on the blue and red visitfrance.travel above on the left side of your screen. Then scroll right and you will see a list, e.g., Hostels, Airfares, Rail Travel, Car Rentals, etc. Click on car rentals and compare costs.
Dear SalB thank you, your information was very helpful. We were thinking about driving out of Paris , going south and just seeing where we end up. We have about 8 days in France altogether and having been to Paris several times, we are happy to spend a day or two there and move on. Can I ask one more question? Can you recommend where we could go in this short time frame?We are keen to find a place we love and stop to tkae it all in and relax, not rush. Again, thanks for your help, AnaKral
August 24, 2005 at 3:09 pm
Any particular direction or interests? We have a few favorites.
(1) You can head east to Burgundy. Our favorite place there is Beaune and we stay at Hotel Grillon which is an easy walk to the historic center or you can drive downtown and park right outside the old town (except on market day). The hotel web site is http://www.hotel-grillon.fr/ It’s very nice and quite reasonable. Mme. Grillon speaks excellent English. I’m told her husband does too but we’ve never heard him. He’s always spoken French to us. In Beaune you can explore the wonderful surrounding countryside, including Dijon, Chateauneuf (the Chateauneuf just south of Commarin and east of Dijon), the Burgundy canal, Autun, wineries, abbeys, churches . . . the list goes on. There is a marvelous Beaux Arts in Dijon that is definitely worth a trip. Nuits St. Georges just north of Beaune is a very famous wine area BUT they also have a marvelous place called The Cassisium that is a museum of cassis. You do a tour of the facility and then have a cassis tasting. If you enjoy the occasional kir, you will be in heaven. Incidentally, they have an excellent kir at Hotel Grillon!
(2) If you wanted to go west of Paris, you could head for several really nice places, but one we particularly enjoyed was Connelles. It’s an easy day trip to Rouen, Giverny, les Andelys and Norman adventures. We stayed at Le Moulin de Conelles http://www.moulindeconnelles.com/ and it is also lovely. They have an excellent restaurant overlooking the Seine. They also own a private island in the Seine so you can play tennis or swim while watching boaters on the Seine.
(3) Southwest of Paris is Chartres. I probably don’t need to tell you anything about Chartres as everyone has heard of the famous cathedral. However, everyone doesn’t know there are at least two other churches in Chartres that are nearly as glorious. They also have a delightful Beaux Arts museum right behind the cathedral and a stained glass museum worth a visit. If you check in the tourist office (across from the cathedral), they have a pamphlet of walking tours. There is also the little tourist train in the summer that gives you a good overview of the area. We stay at the Hotel de la Poste which is nothing terribly special but it is two blocks from the cathedral and they do have a very nice restaurant. Their web site seems to be nonworking but they are a Logis de France so you can go to the Logis web site and type Chartres into the search window. The Logis site is http://www.logis-de-france.fr/uk/
(4) Further south is Bourges. The cathedral is fabulous and you will see people walking around with binoculars looking at the stained glass windows. We haven’t spent much time there so I can’t give you much advice except to say it does have a nice old town and there is a very nice garden beside and behind the cathedral.
(5) If you want to visit the Loire, you could pick a central place and tour various chateaus. We usually stay at Hotel de Biencourt (again via the Logis de France web site) in Azay le Rideau. The hotel is a block from the famous chateau so you can walk to it easily. They have a nighttime illumination that is worth seeing. From Azay le Rideau you can make day trips to most of the major chateaus. One of our favorites is Chateau Villandry. The chateau is nice and well furnished, but the real draw is the garden. It surrounds the chateau and is simply spectacular. They change it every year so you can revisit often. There is a nice little tea room type restaurant just outside the gates. You park across the street under the trees, stop for lunch and then visit the chateau. The little town of Villandry is worth a walk too. Other favorites are the chateaus in Chinon (ruins but a great view), Amboise (nice, well furnished chateau, great view, pleasant old town), Chenonceau (gorgeous gardens, lovely chateau; it’s the one built over a the River Cher) and we also love the Abbaye Fontevraud just west of Chinon on the Vienne River.
I couldn’t pick a favorite place but my top two would be the Loire and Burgundy. As I said, it depends on your interests but this should give you an idea of some of our favorites. The search is half the fun!
3 Comments On car hire
Depends on why you want the car. If you want it to drive around Paris, my advice is, don’t bother. You don’t need a car in Paris. It is more a nuisance than anything.
On the other hand if you want to drive out of Paris and visit another place in France, you have several options. First, how long do you need the car? If you want a car more than 17 days, don’t rent a car; lease a car. Peugeot has an Open Europe lease program and Renault has a similar program. Both are excellent cars. All costs are paid up front so you don’t have to worry about extra charges when you return the car. There is full insurance and 24-hour roadside assistance in addition to your getting a brand new car. This is what we’ve done for years and it’s a great program. You need to make all arrangements BEFORE you arrive in France.
If you prefer to rent (rather than lease), again make all arrangements BEFORE you arrive in France. For some reason it costs more after you get there. (I’m sure someone here knows why but I don’t!)
A good start if you want to rent is to click on the blue and red visitfrance.travel above on the left side of your screen. Then scroll right and you will see a list, e.g., Hostels, Airfares, Rail Travel, Car Rentals, etc. Click on car rentals and compare costs.
If you are interested in leasing, http://www.peugeot-openeurope.com/html/en/home/home.html?ref=FGTOen33 is the Peugeot web site. You can also access this program and Renault’s lease program via http://www.autofrance.net and the AutoFrance web site.
Good luck.
Dear SalB
thank you, your information was very helpful. We were thinking about driving out of Paris , going south and just seeing where we end up. We have about 8 days in France altogether and having been to Paris several times, we are happy to spend a day or two there and move on. Can I ask one more question? Can you recommend where we could go in this short time frame?We are keen to find a place we love and stop to tkae it all in and relax, not rush. Again, thanks for your help, AnaKral
Any particular direction or interests? We have a few favorites.
(1) You can head east to Burgundy. Our favorite place there is Beaune and we stay at Hotel Grillon which is an easy walk to the historic center or you can drive downtown and park right outside the old town (except on market day). The hotel web site is http://www.hotel-grillon.fr/ It’s very nice and quite reasonable. Mme. Grillon speaks excellent English. I’m told her husband does too but we’ve never heard him. He’s always spoken French to us. In Beaune you can explore the wonderful surrounding countryside, including Dijon, Chateauneuf (the Chateauneuf just south of Commarin and east of Dijon), the Burgundy canal, Autun, wineries, abbeys, churches . . . the list goes on. There is a marvelous Beaux Arts in Dijon that is definitely worth a trip. Nuits St. Georges just north of Beaune is a very famous wine area BUT they also have a marvelous place called The Cassisium that is a museum of cassis. You do a tour of the facility and then have a cassis tasting. If you enjoy the occasional kir, you will be in heaven. Incidentally, they have an excellent kir at Hotel Grillon!
(2) If you wanted to go west of Paris, you could head for several really nice places, but one we particularly enjoyed was Connelles. It’s an easy day trip to Rouen, Giverny, les Andelys and Norman adventures. We stayed at Le Moulin de Conelles http://www.moulindeconnelles.com/ and it is also lovely. They have an excellent restaurant overlooking the Seine. They also own a private island in the Seine so you can play tennis or swim while watching boaters on the Seine.
(3) Southwest of Paris is Chartres. I probably don’t need to tell you anything about Chartres as everyone has heard of the famous cathedral. However, everyone doesn’t know there are at least two other churches in Chartres that are nearly as glorious. They also have a delightful Beaux Arts museum right behind the cathedral and a stained glass museum worth a visit. If you check in the tourist office (across from the cathedral), they have a pamphlet of walking tours. There is also the little tourist train in the summer that gives you a good overview of the area. We stay at the Hotel de la Poste which is nothing terribly special but it is two blocks from the cathedral and they do have a very nice restaurant. Their web site seems to be nonworking but they are a Logis de France so you can go to the Logis web site and type Chartres into the search window. The Logis site is http://www.logis-de-france.fr/uk/
(4) Further south is Bourges. The cathedral is fabulous and you will see people walking around with binoculars looking at the stained glass windows. We haven’t spent much time there so I can’t give you much advice except to say it does have a nice old town and there is a very nice garden beside and behind the cathedral.
(5) If you want to visit the Loire, you could pick a central place and tour various chateaus. We usually stay at Hotel de Biencourt (again via the Logis de France web site) in Azay le Rideau. The hotel is a block from the famous chateau so you can walk to it easily. They have a nighttime illumination that is worth seeing. From Azay le Rideau you can make day trips to most of the major chateaus. One of our favorites is Chateau Villandry. The chateau is nice and well furnished, but the real draw is the garden. It surrounds the chateau and is simply spectacular. They change it every year so you can revisit often. There is a nice little tea room type restaurant just outside the gates. You park across the street under the trees, stop for lunch and then visit the chateau. The little town of Villandry is worth a walk too. Other favorites are the chateaus in Chinon (ruins but a great view), Amboise (nice, well furnished chateau, great view, pleasant old town), Chenonceau (gorgeous gardens, lovely chateau; it’s the one built over a the River Cher) and we also love the Abbaye Fontevraud just west of Chinon on the Vienne River.
I couldn’t pick a favorite place but my top two would be the Loire and Burgundy. As I said, it depends on your interests but this should give you an idea of some of our favorites. The search is half the fun!