"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" writes:

James Silverton wrote:
On 10/31/2011 2:51 PM, Doug Anderson wrote:
Cathy writes:

We are thinking of taking another trip to France. Do you think it is
easy to just rent a car and drive around?

I rented a car for 4 days in August. From Avis in Nice, returned to
the train station in Orange. I rented in advance, from the US.

It was easy. I did _not_ drive around Paris and environs though.

Second that, especially at rush hour. After once renting a car from
a Paris agency and bringing it back during the rush hour, I resolved
never again.

But couldn't you say the same for rush hour traffic in ANY large city,
ANYWHERE? (Not only Paris, London, Los Angeles or New York, but even
Phoenix AZ.)

Certainly driving around big unfamiliar cities at rush hour is no
picnic.

But not all large cities at rush hour are created equal. To name two
I happen to know: Portland and Seattle.

It is much easier to recover from a mistake in Portland than in
Seattle.

I don't know what Paris is like to drive around in first-hand, but if
I wanted to compare with another large European capital city: I'd
rather be driving around Berlin than Paris or Rome or London at rush
hour.

Also, for me, my French is adequate for touristic purposes, but it is
slow and I'm not especially familiar with traffic patterns and signs.
So I don't like to be in situations where I would have to react
quickly.