It's rare to find an automatic transmission vehicle to rent in mainland Europe. I advised G to work on his manual driving skills by watching youtube videos and maybe some video games. I don't think he did.
The process of picking up the car was about the same as it is at home in California. We would have been able to rent the car with just a US license, but G went ahead and got an international driving permit. The permit costs $15 plus 2 passport photos, and it's available through AAA. Basically, the international driving permit translates your current US license to other languages. G never actually had to provide this permit, but it was easy and fast to get. You get the permit the day you go to the office, and it's good for a year.
Understandably, G didn't want to rent the car in Paris because he was concerned about driving with a manual transmission. We took a train to Rouen so that we were in a smaller city when he started driving. Additionally, we both had to get the hang of the new signs and driving customs, and doing that is so much easier when the city isn't quite so busy.
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| G with the Toyota we rented |
We were not interested in trying to navigate with paper maps. Since I would be navigating, I wanted to have some sort of GPS-enabled device. We took my iPad to Europe with us and bought a mini SIM data card in Paris - 3G service cost about 30 euros total for the 2 weeks we were there. It is possible to get a worldwide 3G plan through AT&T, but it's more expensive overall. We had 2 gbs for our 30 euros vs. 150 mb for 30 dollars from AT&T. Unfortunately, purchasing a mini SIM card abroad only works for an AT&T iPad. It did not work with G's iPhone.
I'm so glad we rented the car. We are free from train and bus schedules and fares. For the two of us, I think that having the car will be an economical way to tour the country, especially since we will be visiting some out of the way places.
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