I’ve driven in France and taken the train. I generally prefer the train, but driving is nice to explore more remote areas. Driving "in a foreign language" is nerve racking. Driving and navigating/spotting (looking for signs, where to turn, parking places, etc.) are each full time jobs, so both of you will be fully occupied. The auto accident fatality rate in France is over twice what it is in the US. That said, driving is still driving — nerve racking in a strange city or when you’re trying to find the right route in a strange area and pretty "normal" other times — it’s just that the unfamiliar area problems are worse with the language and culture barrier.

Driving in Normandy was OK. Things are pretty well signed for tourists and there wasn’t a lot of traffic. Driving in the Alpes Maritime and Provence around Nice was much more hectic. Lots of traffic and a combination of crowded expressways and narrow winding mountain roads. Agressive French drivers produced many scary moments in the mountains. However, having a car in that area was great as the logistics of meshing bus and train travel make it tough to get to some places.

I’d be inclined to rent a car for a few days to explore Provence, Alpes Maritime, then return it to Nice (thus avoiding huge drop off charges to return it in Paris). I’d take the train — either day or overnight TGV to Paris. If you’re doing this just before your flight home from CDG, there’s at least one day train and one overnight that go directly to CDG airport from Nice, so you don’t necessarily have to spend a night in Paris prior to your return home.

Did you find that there were a lot of toll roads in France? Or that gas cost you a fortune? It seems cheaper to rent a car for the week then to get a train pass, but that also depends if we’d be spending upwards of $300 USD or more for gas during that week. Luckily, I won’t be driving, my friend will be and he’s very calm when getting lost! I’m just concerned if we should book hostels in advance because we’ll need a parking space, or if it would be possible to just show up and hopefully find a place when we get there (I’m thinking with cities like Lyon this would not be a good idea…I live in Boston, and if the parking is half of what it is here, I definitely want to book in advance!)

Thanks for your advice; it is greatly appreciated!

I’ve used a France Rail pass that includes a car rental, and that’s worked pretty well.
I can take the train to someplace such as Dijon, then pick up a car for local exploring, and continue my trip by train.
Old Lady’s comments about aggressive French drivers are right on the mark, so you have to adapt to higher speeds, and a different "style" of driving. And, sometimes, when I’ve been meandering along on a country road (not a National Highway or autoroute, mind you), I’ve encountered impatient/high-speed drivers. You also have to be aware that, in many situations, the traffic entering a road from the right has priority, even if you seem to be driving on the more "important" road—- there are exceptions, and they’re clearly marked.
So far, I’ve emphasized the negatives, but the roads in France are excellent, and well-marked, so I do enjoy driving there!
The autoroutes allow high-speed driving, but are a little boring, and always require tolls, and often have many trucks. I can remember many times driving along an autoroute in the rain, with a zillion trucks, and constantly having to change lanes while passing trucks!
As far as driving in big cities, like Lyon, I’ve done it, and I think that Lyon is easier than Paris. Having said that, I wouldn’t recommend it, simply because there’s a lot of traffic, you may not know where you’re going (if I get lost there, I can find my way because I know the city fairly well), and because there’s such good public transport.
To summarize, use the train for long-distance travel, don’t use a car in big cities, but do consider a car for certain areas (A good example might be Beaujolais,which is roughly between Macon and Lyon, and can’t be seen easily unless you have a car).

Gas is expensive. I think it’s the equivalent of $6.00 US per gallon or more right now. My usual experience is that the price per liter in Europe is just about equal to the price per gallon at home (I live in an area with relatively cheap gas prices) — so costs 3.8 times more in Europe.

There are toll roads in France. We took one through the mountains, kind of "above the Riviera." Tolls are expensive, but since you’d take a toll road as the fastest, easiest way to get from point A to point B, I don’t think it’s a big deal for the situations where you want a car. If the object is the fastest, easiest way to get from place to place, why drive?

I think you’ll find that you’ll pay at least twice the advertised rental rate by the time you’re through with taxes, insurance, and all kinds of other special charges (it’s usually at least 10 euros a day for a second driver) on your rental car. Lease + fuel + parking + minimal tolls + drop-off fee (if you don’t return it to the exact spot where you rented it) usually doesn’t pay when compared to the train for 2 people.

The Rail/drive pass does work well if you want to rent a car for a few days to explore. The daily rental rate looks high, but it includes VAT (11 to 45% depending on the item and the country) which often isn’t shown in the advertised rates. A French rail pass will be a good deal if you take any long train trips. A 4 day French rail pass costs about the same as round trip Paris/Nice, so you end up with two days of "free" train travel with the pass.

I brought this thread up because I’ve got a question regarding France pass.
The current price for a France saver is around 195 dollars for 3 days, plus 28 for each additional trip.
I actually summed up all the small trips I am planning on doing it around southern France and it comes to around 290, way cheaper than the pass.
In what circunstances are the passes worth ? Only long distances?
 
 

Passes are quite often not the best deal. You can often get great deals if you book advance fares.
 
Passes may be useful if your itinerary is not fixed (so you can’t get advanced fares), or sometimes the particular configuration of fares just works out that way.
 
In some countries, like Italy, it is almost impossible for the pass to be a good deal. In Germany, the pass may be a good deal. I’m not sure about France.

Trains are pretty expensive in France, so a railpass usually saves money for long trips.  It won’t save money for short, regional trip.  The best bet is usually the combination of a railpass for maybe 5 days to use for the long, expensive trips (those that cost more than the average per day for the railpass) and point to point tickets for the shorter cheaper trips.
 
A railpass is convenient if you take local and regional trains that don’t require a reservation because you can just hop on the train.   However, buying tickets is pretty easy in France — you can buy them from www.sncf.com or from automated kiosks, plus there usually aren’t long lines at the ticket windows,

Thanks again oldlady and Traveler,
 
I wont be traveling long distances, so I will get point to point train tickets and maybe getting a car for 1 day or so to reach small towns.
 
Cheers,
 
C

Before you decide about using a car to reach small towns in France, be sure to check first about whether rail (or bus) service is available for the the towns you have in mind, because many small towns are served by public transport. Two exceptions are the Alsace and Beaulolais regions. In these areas, having a car is almost a must if you’d like to see some beautiful villages.
If there are towns that you’re considering but are not sure about rail service, ask and I’ll try to look them up!

Thanks Basie,
 
I don’t have a plan for the small towns yet. Not even sure if I will. I am trying for the first time to go with the flow and not plan my itenerary that much.
For now the only cities I will definetely stop at are Toulouse, Montpellier, Marseille and Nice. Everything in between is a ? ….
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(but I will check public transportation on those villages!)
 
C.

Between Marseille and Nice, for example, there’s very good rail service to numerous small towns. The main-line trains don’t necessarily stop at a lot of small towns, but there will be regional trains, called TER, which do stop at lots of small towns, especially between Cannes and Italy.
One small town that can’t be reached by train is St Tropez, but you can get there by bus from Toulon or St Raphael.
I don’t want to discourage you fom renting a car if you can, but only to try to minimize your expense!

I really don’t mind take the train/bus to small towns, specially with gas prices these days.
I still have a lot of research to do with regards of places in southern France. As soon as I have more ideas of possibles places to visit I let you all know!
 
I got an used Let’s Go France 2006 just to start reading about it, but it seems that they don’t talk much about small towns transportation. Still have some homework to do.
 
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