Renting a car in Paris
Until this weekend, we had been traveling by train and plane on our trips out of Paris. In the summer of 2014, when Mark joined me after the COC Study Abroad program, we rented a car at the airport (CDG), which is a significant distance outside of the city. We explored Normandy and the Champagne regions, driving over 1,000 miles in just over a week.
For the most part, driving in France is no more difficult than driving in the U.S. They drive on the same side of the road, and their road signs are fairly easy to understand (though it’s a good idea to look them over online before you get behind the wheel). It’s also smart to know what side your gas tank is on, and how to open it (in Germany once, it took ages for us to figure-out how to open the tank – even a gas station attendant didn’t know how to do it). Oh, and have a (chip) credit card handy for the péage (toll road). You’ll go through one station to take a ticket, and another before you exit the freeway to pay with your card.
Fortunately, you don’t need a car if you’re visiting Paris, or most other large cities in Europe. If you want to go out to the countryside villages, though, a car is a pretty nice way to get around. This weekend was a road trip, so we started by renting a car at Europcar at the Gare de Lyon (a train station) in Paris. Getting in and out of the city requires several one-way streets, quick turns and forks in the road, and time spent on the Périphérique (the ring-road that circles the city). Even with GPS, it helps to have two people navigating!
Here’s something nice about French freeways: there are clean, well-lit gas/snack areas attached to the freeway on both sides, where you can pull-off for a quick coffee, food and potty stop. There are also frequent rest areas with picnic tables and bathrooms (like ours).
Alise-Sainte-Reine
Saturday, we left Paris and set the GPS for Alise-Sainte-Reine, southeast of Paris in the Bourgogne (Burgundy) region. Today was another leg of Mark’s Magical History Tour: we were going to visit the site of the Siege/Battle of Alesia, which took place in 52 BC.
There is a museum describing the events, including some weapons of war used by both the Roman army of Julius Caesar and the Galls, led by Vercingetorix. Outside, they’ve got a reconstructed section of the earthen walls constructed by Caesar’s men which encircled the Galls during the siege.
Just up the road from the museum, we explored the ruins of an ancient Gallo-Roman city that dates back to the first century AD. You can see what’s left of the basements and foundations of many homes and boutiques, as well as the bronze-workers’ furnaces.
Troyes (French pronunciation: [tʁwa])
Sunday was our day in Troyes, in the Champagne region of Northern France. The town has also been around since the Roman era, but the oldest buildings date back (only) to the 1500s.
Troyes is well-known for its stained-glass, which adorns buildings and historic cathedrals throughout the region. We visited two churches that boast some fabulous stained-glass: the gothic Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul (built from the 13th to the 17th century), and the 13th century gothic Basilique Saint-Urbain de Troyes.
In the main square of Troyes, they’ve got the Mairie (Town Hall) and one of the best carousels (manège) I’ve seen yet. I’ll leave you with a few photos – I really can’t get enough of these merry-go-rounds in French towns of all sizes! They often have a theme, and the one in Troyes is “Modern Times”, including science, botany, and inventors.
