Renting a car before you use the railpass shouldn’t be a problem, but you probably need to have the pass validated first.  You can do that at the TGV station in terminal 2 at CDG.

Thanks Again!!

Sorry about butting in…  Have you considered www.sixti.com ? Since you are going for a prepaid car rental anyway getting one from sixti may be a better deal, especially if you do not plan to exceed allotted 500km. 

Be sure to compare like costs.  The rail/drive pass includes the Value Added Tax for the car rental.  Most quoted rental rates don’t include the VAT which can be around 30%.

THanks for the heads up.  I will be going over 500km (through, normandy and Mt. St. Michel).  It is a close call though with price.  Wish I had a short little trip to take to rent one of those little cars!  Looks like fun.  Had not seen those great rates before though. BTW it is www.sixti.com not sixiti for anyone looking for the site.

Well, if you would consider going to Normandy for three (or more) days, try ALAMO (www.alamo.com) with the contract ID 675899. I would not call that rate cheap, but it is reasonable, and with that contract ID you can put second driver on the contract at no extra charge. Unfortunately, fees and taxes add more then 50% to the base rate, so make sure you get to the “Step 3” where they give you actual total you’d have to pay.