How to get to Giverny from Le Havre w/out using ship tour?

[goofynewfymom]

We will be arriving in Le Havre on Sunday, July 18 and you all have been of great help to assist me in deciding how to spend our day. It's going to be Giverny, but I am trying to figure out how to get there, without having to do the tour with Celebrity (just don't like those big tours!) Has anyone done this on their own, or have any ideas of how I can do it? I looked at the train schedule, but it gets back too late...what about taxis and if that would work how expensive would it be? I need help!!! Thanks everyone, Stephanie

[Hlitner]

At the risk of being bold, have you considered just renting a car? Driving in France is pretty much like in the states except they drive faster on their main autoroutes (similar to our interstates). You should be able to get a 1 day rental from most of the majors for about $80 per day.

Hank

[LynnSD]

We did take this tour on a Princess excursion. FYI it was a very small group - maybe 20 people - so much else to see in LeHavre - and when we arrived in Giverney we were given several hours of free time, nothing "guided." We stopped in Rouen on the way back, same deal. So you might want to investigate what the ship's tour includes. It was absolutely gorgeous, by the way, well worth it. Good luck!

[goofynewfymom]

Thanks Hank and Lynn...Hank, I believe you are on our cruise (7/17 Connie)...I so appreciate both of your suggestions and I will investigate both...renting a car sounds great to me. What about reading the road signs? Are they all in French? I think that would work really well for us, but I do worry about not being able to understand the road signs...I could start learning a little French...just road signs of course! Let me know what you think if you don't mind...thank you so much. Stephanie

[samscruiser]

I don't believe you will be able to find a car rental location open in LeHavre on a Sunday. I've been trying since Sept. w/out any luck.
If you are successful, please post who/how you contacted them.

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[Hlitner]

Regarding the Sunday rentals, that can often be a problem (I did not know you were there on a Sunday). We have had luck in Italy using Europcar on Sundays. They have actually delivered cars to the pier on Sundays for a small fee (about $20). I am not sure if they will do this in France, but you might try calling that company and also making calls to the other major companies (Avis, Hertz, etc). Another method is to look up the local tourist office on the web and send them an e-mail regarding this issue. We have had a lot of sucess with this latter method,,,,its amazing how much help is out there if you ask. Independent travel does sometimes require lots of this kind of effort, but most of the time there is a solution. Regarding road signs, France uses standard international signs and roads are well marked. Would you believe that French stop signs actually say "STOP" (you hear this Quebec?). We always take our Michelin maps when driving in Europe, and you can get these at most USA book stores (its fun to plan your route). One interesting thing about France is their high speed toll roads. The tolls are pretty steep, but they actually accept credit cards at the toll booths. Since I usually don't know the tolls and don't want to mess with this issue, I simply hand them my Amex or Visa (it only takes them a few seconds to process and this is a norm in Europe). I hope you have luck finding a rental company for a Sunday. If you solve this issue, please post your info here so others can benfit from your work [smile].

Hank

[Hlitner]

I just took a look on the internet and you might want to ask about rental cars on the following form:

[url="http://perso.wanadoo.fr/lehavretourisme/gbcon_con.htm"]http://perso.wanadoo.fr/lehavretourisme/gbcon_con.htm[/url]

This will go to the LeHavre tourist folks.

Hank

[smeyer418]

We have driven to Giverny from Normady. It is actually a very easy drive on the Piage(the French equivalent of a toll road). The French avoid toll roads so the road was fairly empty. They do drive fast(but so do I-- witness a 92 in a 55 mile zone ticket in OK). The Piage is expensive by US standards(it wasn't too bad when it was 10 franc to the dollar but with the Euro doing so well I would say it will be expensive. I was doing 130-140 kilomters per hour(78-84) and I was constantly being past. The speed limit is between 110-130. Its a great and easy road. Driving in France is ok except in Paris(I did that too-on a Sunday to return the car). The suggestions above about the the rental are good ones but if you can only drive an automatic it will cost you about a third more. Good luck email me if you want more specifics.

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