Driving a Rental Car in Normandy.

[audreyh1]

So I have been working hard on our early summer Europe trip, and have been switching around the plans a bit to where I think we’re going to spend about 10 days in Normandy near the coast. I plan to visit Rouen, Honfleur and Bayeux.

So researching all the stuff it became clear to me that we really needed to rent a car from Rouen. Just so much easier to get to the places of interest.

We’ve been visiting Europe every year since 2013 except for a pandemic break and this is the first time driving a rental car. All the other locations were super easy with public transportation plus the occasional small group minivan day trip. In 2019 I did reserve a car rental (automatic) via Auto Europe from Madrid airport to Segovia and San Ildefonso O La Granja, to stay at the paradores in each town. Had my IDL. But unfortunately we ended up having to cancel that part of the trip.

Anyway this is a big step for me (main driver). I have been watching a few videos about driving in France. Pretty interesting and looks doable, even enjoyable. A few quirky things like the ‘priorité à droite’. We plan to use the car mostly to get to two different towns and leave it parked at the hotels exploring the towns on foot, although we’ll probably visit the Normandy American Cemetery and look out over Omaha Beach. Not planning on driving into any old city centers.

Good thing I love roundabouts. Although the French roundabouts often seem to have 5+ exits which makes things more intimidating - higher chance of taking the wrong one.

 

[Drake3287]

Sounds like a fun and interesting trip. Too bad Normandy is so hard to get to from Paris, I'd love to include it on a future trip. I'm guessing as long as you stay out of larger cities you'll be fine with a rental car. I believe France also requires an International Drivers Permit for Americans so don't forget that.

I also use Auto Europe and we've always had great luck with them. They'll also rebook you at a lower rate if you notice the price goes down and you call them. They typically drop a hundred bucks or so for me when I'm traveling in Italy.

 

[audreyh1]

It’s not hard to get to Normandy from Paris. You can get trains to Rouen, Caen and Bayeux from Paris. What was challenging in our trip was getting to Honfleur from Rouen and then to Bayeux from Honfleur.

Yes, I’ll be getting an IDL again.

We have already visited Giverny and I hope we can return one day.

 

[oiseux]

You should not worry, driving in Normandy is super easy. We have friends who own a farmhouse right in the middle of the area you are visiting. Just get a data plan for your phone or rent a GPS. Review the odd rules of the road and don't speed, and you'll be fine. Watch out for the stray cow or tractor. It is all pretty rural and uncrowded.



Even Rouen isn't bad to drive in, for a city. Our friend (French), without realizing it, booked at La Couronne, in a building that has served as a restaurant since the 14th century. No longer the Michelin ** restaurant it was, it was the very first restaurant Julia and Paul Child dined at on their arrival in France, according to her memoir, and was where she first had her epiphany with food. The scene is depicted in the movie Julie and Julia. We sat in a table that overlooked the spot where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake (it is a church/museum now). Yes it is a bit old fashioned, but we had a classic, well executed meal.



Honfleur is lovely and be sure to go on market day. The beaches and museums at the beaches are worth a stop. Are you continuing on to Mont St. Michel?

 

[audreyh1]

Thanks.

No, not continuing to Mont St. Michel because we plan to visit that part of Brittany before too long and it’s not far from St. Malo.

We have international data coverage via T-Mobile.

Oh yeah, sole meunière I presume.

 

[savory]

While I won’t be of any help to you, your post encouraged me to go back to our journal of our self contained bike tour from Venice to Paris where we visited some of the same towns and places. It brought back great memories of the places and the kindness of strangers who helped us along the way. Enjoy your trip.

 

[marko]

It’s not hard to get to Normandy from Paris. You can get trains to Rouen, Caen and Bayeux from Paris. What was challenging in our trip was getting to Honfleur from Rouen and then to Bayeux from Honfleur.

Yes, I’ll be getting an IDL again.

We have already visited Giverny and I hope we can return one day.

+1. We lived in Paris and getting to Caen is pretty much an easy straight shot, even before the days of GPS. Done it a dozen times. At least nowadays you have GPS.

Driving through the middle of Paris can be "fun" however and it is the one instance where I welcome DW's extra set of eyes, navigation and her constant "....watch out for..." back seat driving. You do need your head on a swivel.

But don't worry too much about it. Driving in France or anywhere Europe is pretty much the same as the US. You'll get used to the very minor differences in just a few minutes. Just go with the flow of traffic.

Just remember that if they beep their horns and give you the one finger salute it doesn't mean you did anything wrong!

 

[DrRoy]

We have rented cars in France, Italy, and England. France (outside of Paris) was probably the easiest place to drive.

 

[anethum]

I've bicycled twice in Normandy, but I haven't driven there. (I did drive once in France, in Provence & Languedoc, and had no problems.)

There are many interesting places to visit in Normandy. I suggest that you drive from Honfleur along the coast to Trouville & Deauville, adjacent towns. It's only about 10 miles (16 km) between Honfleur and those towns. Deauville is the fancier of the 2 towns and is a very nice place to walk around with some beautiful old houses. Also, along that coastal road and continuing westward to Houlgate & Cabourg, you'll continue to see the very distinctive architecture found in that part of Normandy. BTW, we biked into Honfleur during a French holiday weekend and the harbor area, while beautiful, was a zoo.

A map such as the Michelin #303 was very useful in the region if you're willing to not rely entirely on GPS. You put in little villages you see on the map into GPS and get routed on some beautiful country lanes.

I suggest that you avoid Caen. It's a fairly large city of much of it was destroyed and then rebuilt after WWII. Except for parts of the old city, it's not an attractive place IMO.

Just northeast of Caen and a little west of Cabourg, you'll start hitting the eastern part of the D-Day landing beach area. Ranville has a large British war cemetery. Only the British cemetery in Bayeux is bigger, I believe. But unlike the US which gathered their D-Day war dead and buried them in 2 large cemeteries, the British generally buried their war dead close to where they died. The result is that there are some tiny British war cemeteries in the middle of nowhere. The British, American, & German cemeteries all look quite different. There's also a Canadian cemetery but we didn't go past it.

There are lots of good WWII museums in the region. The Pegasus Bridge Museum near Ranville is very good. The 2 British and 1 Canadian landing beaches are on the coast between Caen & Bayeux. That part of the coast is all built up and it's all beach holiday towns now, so it's very different from Omaha Beach.

Utah Beach, the westernmost landing beach is on the Cotentin peninsula in an isolated and very quiet area. Nearby Sainte-Mere-Eglise has a good museum and has a huge celebration on the D-Day anniversary. American paratroopers landed there the night before D-Day, as did British paratroopers in Ranville.

Because my friend & I were biking, we tried to avoid major roads. This was particularly nice in the D-Day area because there were lots of interesting historical markers we came across in the middle of nowhere. I saw monuments to the Belgian soldiers who helped liberate one town, similarly a monument to the Danish soldiers near Utah beach, and Canadian soldiers who liberated a particular village. In early June around the anniversary, many towns and even individual homes display allied flags, and many shop windows have special displays. There are reenactment camps, and lots of folks driving around in WWII-era US Army Jeeps. In the little tourist office in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the women working there were all dressed in WWII era clothes and had hairstyles of that era, while big band music played in the background. There was a wonderful atmosphere.

BTW, if your previous visit to Giverney was outside of May/June and this year's trip will be during that time period, it's worth revisiting because the majority of the flowers are perennials which are in peak bloom in May & June.

 

[Stwicky]

Driving in Europe is one of my favorite things. We have put thousands and thousands of miles on rental cars all through western Europe and the UK for the last 15 years on holiday. The driving is excellent and easy.

One benefit of having a rental car is being able to access great AirBNB places away from city centers. We typically find places to stay late in the day after a long drive watching the countryside change.

Best of luck in Normandy. Are you doing a battlefield tour? We are considering the same this summer.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

Does the rental company provide insurance ? You will need primary liability coverage in addition to coverage for any damage to the car itself.

I can't speak for the coverage on your primary personal auto policy, but I know for certain that mine only provides coverage in US territory and Canada. It would not extend to any auto (owned or rented) in any other country.

 

[JDARNELL]

In Sept we rented a car in Paris and spend a week driving in Normandy. I considered renting in Rouen however it made no sense to take the train over from Paris to get the car as our first night was going to be near Monte St Michele. Staying right in the park but the town was a huge score in that we went out to the island in the late afternoon. after everyone had left and was able to get to the Abby the next day before the tour busses arrived. Once they arrived it was chaos and we were on our way out.

No issues other than a couple of gas stations wouldn't take my chase card at the pump. The driving was easy and we used Bayeux as a hub for part of our trip. As for lodging we used booking.com as we went along.

 

[OldShooter]

... We plan to use the car mostly to get to two different towns and leave it parked at the hotels exploring the towns ...

You'll do fine driving, but be sure to check with your planned hotels about parking locations and costs. Both can be difficult, particularly in older sections of towns. Parking, if available at all, may be two or three blocks away from the hotel.

 

[audreyh1]

Driving in Europe is one of my favorite things. We have put thousands and thousands of miles on rental cars all through western Europe and the UK for the last 15 years on holiday. The driving is excellent and easy.

One benefit of having a rental car is being able to access great AirBNB places away from city centers. We typically find places to stay late in the day after a long drive watching the countryside change.

Best of luck in Normandy. Are you doing a battlefield tour? We are considering the same this summer.

No, although we plan to visit one location. More to enjoy the Normandy history, views and culture including gastronomy of course.

If you enjoy driving you’ll probably enjoy visiting the battlefield and cemeteries.

 

[audreyh1]

You'll do fine driving, but be sure to check with your planned hotels about parking locations and costs. Both can be difficult, particularly in older sections of towns. Parking, if available at all, may be two or three blocks away from the hotel.

Right, parking at the hotels will be a requirement. As such we will avoid staying in the older historic areas but rather more along the edge.

 

[audreyh1]

Does the rental company provide insurance ? You will need primary liability coverage in addition to coverage for any damage to the car itself.

I can't speak for the coverage on your primary personal auto policy, but I know for certain that mine only provides coverage in US territory and Canada. It would not extend to any auto (owned or rented) in any other country.

Yes, in Europe liability insurance is typically included in the car rental price and additional CDW is available for purchase.

 

[tulak]

Be careful, you might enjoy driving so much you won’t go back to public transport.

Driving in Europe is pretty easy, especially outside of major cities. It always helps to pre-plan the routes, figure out parking, but if you’re not in a hurry, even a wrong turn isn’t a big deal. As a bonus, GPS is pretty good about giving you lane directions, which comes in handy for roundabouts.

 

[Fermion]

We actually took a ferry to Normandy from Ireland. (it was amazingly inexpensive, around 30 or so euro per person IIRC). My wife rented a car near the ferry dock and we drove around Normandy with no issues at all. Drove to Mont St. Michel too and had the omelet that was more expensive than the rental car! My wife had no problems driving around Normandy and to Disneyland Paris, except in Paris the motorcycles lane splitting is a little bit unnerving.

 

[euro]

So I have been working hard on our early summer Europe trip, and have been switching around the plans a bit to where I think we’re going to spend about 10 days in Normandy near the coast. I plan to visit Rouen, Honfleur and Bayeux.

So researching all the stuff it became clear to me that we really needed to rent a car from Rouen. Just so much easier to get to the places of interest.

We’ve been visiting Europe every year since 2013 except for a pandemic break and this is the first time driving a rental car. All the other locations were super easy with public transportation plus the occasional small group minivan day trip. In 2019 I did reserve a car rental (automatic) via Auto Europe from Madrid airport to Segovia and San Ildefonso O La Granja, to stay at the paradores in each town. Had my IDL. But unfortunately we ended up having to cancel that part of the trip.

Anyway this is a big step for me (main driver). I have been watching a few videos about driving in France. Pretty interesting and looks doable, even enjoyable. A few quirky things like the ‘priorité à droite’. We plan to use the car mostly to get to two different towns and leave it parked at the hotels exploring the towns on foot, although we’ll probably visit the Normandy American Cemetery and look out over Omaha Beach. Not planning on driving into any old city centers.

Good thing I love roundabouts. Although the French roundabouts often seem to have 5+ exits which makes things more intimidating - higher chance of taking the wrong one.

Driving in Normany will not be difficult for you. However, one thing popped to mind since you mention reserving an "automatic transmission car" for a previous visit. Manuals are still much more common than automatic transmissions in Europe, so there is a decent chance that you could arrive in France and they don't have an automatic transmission car available. This has actually happened to me even at London Heathrow. I ended up taking the manual as I have driven manuals all my life, and it turned out fine, but given the left-side driving (i.e. shifter on the other side), I would have definitely preferred an automatic in that case.

 

[audreyh1]

On manual transmission:

Yes, I’m aware that I could end up with a manual transmission. My first car was a little Toyota Corolla manual transmission and I drove it for many years. That was ~40 years ago. However in my mind I can still feel the clutch shift sequence and using my left foot. Hopefully that will come right back if needed.

In Europe with hybrids and EVs becoming more common this manual transmission fixation should finally fade away, but probably not fast enough for my traveling lifetime.

 

[audreyh1]

Please tell me more about the toll roads. I understand that the A and N letter roads usually have tolls. I see tap to pay is common.

Is it true that when you enter a toll road like an autoroute, ‘voie rapide’ etc. you pick up a ticket and then you insert the ticket and pay at your exit of same road?

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

Driving in France is easy. Toll roads are a bit expensive. Haven't driven them since 2017, but I just paid cash at that time. Roads are in far better condition than the USA though.

 

[tulak]

Please tell me more about the toll roads. I understand that the A and N letter roads usually have tolls. I see tap to pay is common.

Is it true that when you enter a toll road like an autoroute, ‘voie rapide’ etc. you pick up a ticket and then you insert the ticket and pay at your exit of same road?

I used Apple Pay when paying for toll roads in France. At least I'm pretty sure it was Apple Pay. I used my Chase Sapphire Card. It wasn't an issue, even though I remember having to focus to make sure I was in the right lane.

I can't remember if I got a ticket or not.

This was in the south of France, driving from Avignon to Nice, but I imagine it's similar in the north?

 

[audreyh1]

Right. Tap to pay works easily from what I see. Mechanically I think it would be easier to hold out the card to tap at a Toll Booth than manipulating my watch for ApplePay which also wouldn’t reach as far. I have short arms.

 

[Sunset]

I had to look on you tube to see about driving in Normandy, and it's nice that they drive on the "right" side of the road.
That makes it look very doable to me, and means the gearshift is on the "correct" side.

Watched this video, of a person driving and all the whining she did as she drove though some small town. She felt cars should be revered in France as much as in the USA.
It was funny to see her reactions.
She really disliked:

• people would walk on the road,
• Cars are small ,
• Parking spaces are all taken
• Parking spaces are small,
• Backup camera on the car is in French !