Should we take the car or train to Paris???

[jenweber630]

Hi -

My husband and I are planning on going to Paris for a 3-day weekend in August for our anniversary with our 6 month ds. I want to take the train but my husband is INSISTING on driving. I think 600 miles to drive for just 2 nights in Paris seems a lot of driving and our son is not necessarily great on longer car trip - however the Eurostar is particularly expensive in August... Does anyone have any particular advice??

Thanks!

you cna take the car on a ferry i dont think its that expensive.

Train it.
Paris in three hours from Waterloo.

Train - driving in Paris is best avoided

Train! I made the mistake of driving in Paris, b/c I was the only one among a group of students who could drive a manual. BIG mistake!

Driving and parking is nightmare in Paris, even if you have a Smart car, be prepared to get car scraped. If you live in the south get the train any further north get a bargain flight and save on ferry and petrol.

Oooh, get the train - it really is more relaxing. They have a family bit on the Eurostar where there is a bit more room which might be worth enquiring about. We have done it 4 times now with our 2 and it really is fairly easy. Metro and buses fairly do-able in Paris as well (well, except for stairs in Metro, but that is rather par for the course with underground travel unfortunately...)

Thanks for the advice - I'm working on convincing my dh!! The best tip was that our car would likely get whacked by another car... He said "well, we'll just park it at the hotel" but I'm thinking most of the cheap hotels that we would stay at wouldn't have a car park...

If your DH drives to Paris then I guarantee he will certainly not want to repeat the experience again!!.

Would strongly suggest you take the train instead of driving there especially if you're only going to be there a couple of days.

Apart from anything else you pay a lot to use the toll roads on the motorway to Paris.

Have stayed in Paris a few times and none of the hotels I've stayed in had any sort of parking facilities available. Parking generally in Paris is also at a premium, city also has lots of parking restrictions (all written in French as well).

Parisians drivers also tend to use their car bumper to bump other cars to make more room!.

Thanks everyone - just booked eurostar today and got a free 1st class upgrade as well as a 3*hotel right next the the eiffel tower 3 nigths for 2 and hubby is NOW happy to take the train!!