Honfleur is quite lovely but you don’t really need to spend more than a day there. DH and I did a driving trip several years ago and we did Honfleur and Etretat in the same day. We rented a car at the airport in Paris and headed directly to Rouen where we toured Rouen that day and the next morning , leaving early drove to Etretat. It was raining and there wasn’t need to spend too much time there although it is an overwhelming sort of feeling to stand there and see the same view that Monet saw and painted, the same with the harbor in Honfleur. We are not big lunch eaters when we are touring and we don’t go into shops very often and so we can accomplish a lot in a day. We had a cafe stop in Honfleur and saw the harbor and the historic church and drove on a high road to see a good viewing spot and then left to go to Caan. I 100% recommend the Peace Museum as it as excellent overview of the Holocaust but also the history of the French resistance. We based ourselves in Bayeux to tour the Normandy beaches and historic sites and the Bayeux tapestry and the cathedral and enjoyed several outstanding meals. Both Bayeux and Rouen are foodie destinations. We spent a morning touring Mont St Michel and truthfully the best part of that experience is seeing the Mont from a distance. it is overrun with tourists and tourist shops and once you climb up the stone stairs which we had to do in a driving rain, there isn’t all that much to actually see in the Abbey itself. This was one place where we did have some lunch as we needed to warm up from the rain and there wasn’t all that much to do and we had already prepaid the hotel. It is very organized about getting to the Mont with massive parking and then to move toward your hotel with an access code through a barrier. You park at your hotel and then there is a van that takes you to where you cross on a footbridge to access the Mont itself. After that it was on our way back to Paris with a stop at Chartres, return the rental car in Paris and just enjoy Paris for another 4 days.
@Momofadult - we rented outside of Paris but we got a manual transmission. My H was comfortable driving a stick shift and they are easier to find and less expensive to rent. One issue we had was the GPS maps in the car were for Germany and Holland. Since we were in France it wasn’t helpful. Luckily we figured it out before we left the train station where we picked up the car and they found us a handheld model. Driving in the countryside it was extremely helpful to have the GPS.
The reason that people rent cars outside the city is for a lower cost and to avoid having to drive inside the Paris city (which can be a little nerve wracking). If you rent a car at a train station or airport you are paying about $40 Euro extra for airport/station fees. But, there is obviously a convenience factor and a larger selection of cars.
I have never rented an automatic, so cannot answer the question on how easy it is to get one once you arrive at the car rental place. I consider the manual shift driving part of the adventure! As long as I don’t combine manual shifting in a right hand driver seat on left drive roads. Been there, done that… shifting with my left hand while driving on the left hand side of the street facing numerous roundabouts was a lot of concentration and issues with automatic muscle control - my right hand kept reaching out for the shift stick
My husband can drive stick shift as he quickly learned when we went on a monthlong trip to Spain 30 years ago and automatic was not really an available option. This time in France we were given an automatic transmission with diesel. He had extensively printed out maps for all of our driving destinations before we left and it was very easy. The road signage is very good. We only messed up once but it brought us to the outsanding destination of Auvers where we had an enjoyable detour
Thank you all for the rental car experiences! I have taken driving lessons on a manual in preparation for a trip next month to rural Germany. I have an automatic reserved, but my concern that one won’t be available worked to my advantage. Hubby was so worried about me on the Autobahn with an unfamiliar vehicle and transmission that he agreed to take this trip with me as the designated manual driver if needed! It will be nice to have company this time, I’m usually solo as DH doesn’t like to travel.
Sorry OP for the diversion - but I do appreciate the responses
Don’t know if it’s still true, but the car we rented the last time we were in France was a diesel. Don’t put non-diesel fuel in it! Luckily we didn’t wreck the car…
If you’ve reserved an automatic it should be available. One time we got into trouble was when our car had a flat tire and the agency somehow couldn’t just change the tire and tried to give us a stick shift car instead. Finally they located an automatic in one of the nearby locations, but the whole thing took the best part of the day. That was in a mid-size city with several rental locations nearby, I imagine it would have been harder in the countryside. However, we rented cars many times in Europe and that was the only time we ever had a problem, so it’s likely you’ll be OK (don’t tell your husband!)
Yes, do make sure you know the word for diesel, I recall pulling into a gas station with no attendent and bad wi-fi and whichever I instinctively wanted to do would have been a mistake.
Also, rent the smallest car you can, you’ll see in the smaller towns, at least, that many rental cars have scratched up wheels. Those old roads can be narrow and any place with tour buses, hold on tight! My wee little VW Rabbit’s proximity sensors went off when a tour bus passed one of the times.
We traveled there last summer, mid-June. Stayed in a beautiful apartment in St. Germaine. Loved the area. Felt very immersed. Favorite things:
-Walking everywhere! So many lovely streets to discover and little cafes to eat at.
-Loved the Pantheon, especially the crypts below. Teens really enjoyed this too.
-Exploring Luxembourg Garden late afternoon/early evening. Wish we had brought a picnic.
-Fav museum was Musee d’Orsay, hands down. Could’ve spent two days here.
-Fav cathedral: Saint Chappelle on Ile de la Cite
-Took a day trip, early train from Paris to Bayeux, went to the Bayeux Tapestry museum (excellent) and did the half day Omaha tour (highly recommend Overlord Tours) and returned to Paris. If I had the chance to do it over I would’ve stayed the night there and spent the next day touring more towns along the coast.
-The boat tour along the Seine was nice, especially for late afternoon/early evening of arrival day. A lot of sites, no energy necessary.
Enjoy your trip!
We traveled there last summer, mid-June. Stayed in a beautiful apartment in St. Germaine. Loved the area. Felt very immersed. Favorite things:
-Walking everywhere! So many lovely streets to discover and little cafes to eat at.
-Loved the Pantheon, especially the crypts below. Teens really enjoyed this too.
-Exploring Luxembourg Garden late afternoon/early evening. Wish we had brought a picnic.
-Fav museum was Musee d’Orsay, hands down. Could’ve spent two days here.
-Fav cathedral: Saint Chappelle on Ile de la Cite
-Took a day trip, early train from Paris to Bayeux, went to the Bayeux Tapestry museum (excellent) and did the half day Omaha tour (highly recommend Overlord Tours) and returned to Paris. If I had the chance to do it over I would’ve stayed the night there and spent the next day touring more towns along the coast.
-The boat tour along the Seine was nice, especially for late afternoon/early evening of arrival day. A lot of sites, no energy necessary.
Enjoy your trip!
This is all great! Enjoying the rental car discussion. H is adept at manual (I can but hate it, not an expert). When we went to Ireland a bunch of years ago, we landed in early morning in Dublin and then immediately drove across the country to Galway–manual and left hand side driving, and no sleep. Amazing we made it there alive! He was very good at the left-hand, manual driving, but that’s no way to start, lol.
Similarly to @somemom we had the same experience with not knowing what Pump to use at a station with no attendant. We also almost used the wrong one. I made the assumption that green meant diesel which is what it is at my local station, I was wrong! Luckily another car came to the rescue and saved us from putting the wrong fuel in.
We also use Overlord tours in Bayeux. Our guide was excellent. We had a rental car and could have self toured the area I’m so glad we went with a tour. We learned so much. Hotel D’Argouges was our hotel in Bayeux and it was lovely and walkable and had a decent parking lot.
I felt so guilty for my rental car question which was only tangentially elated to the OPs concerns. I’m relieved others have found the diversion profitable! Thanks for the “diesel” reminder. Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch, but now I have looked up “diesel” which is also “diesel” in German. That I can remember if necessary!