I use a TomTom Go910 with no issues at all. You have to pay attention on the Perifereque (lousy spelling) as the exits are close together.

I suggest he picks a couple of big landmarks (Orly, CDG etc... ) and uses them as a gross error check - which will stop him having to sleep in the car in the future!

The only thing I have noticed is that for some reason the suburbs e.g. Le Plessis Robinson are treated as seperate towns and are not on the Paris map. So it comes up with destination unknown.

Wish him luck!

Thanks for the quick reply Barry. He drove back from the outskirts of Paris, up to the euro tunnel and through to the UK a couple of months ago with no probs - even negotiating the Le peripherique route. However when on a return visit he tried to find an address in the centre of Paris, he ended up going round in circles for 1-2 hours before giving up and sleeping in the car. You can imagine I didn't sleep a wink all night worrying about him. He's only 21 and hadn't driven abroad before these visits. Thanks for your concern Barry, I will be wishing him lots of luck. Are you quite familiar with Paris? I might post the address of where he'll be going in due course to see if you can envisage any problems. Thanks again from one worried mother.

If he's going somewhere in CENTRAL Paris to somewhere in Central Paris it might be less stressful to get a taxi and not have to look for a parking space, otherwise known as gold dust ....... all the best to him and you!

Hi again Alsacienne,

my son's causing me to stress out once more. He's not sure yet which hotel he'll be put up in. It's unlikely that the firm will pay taxi fares for him as they're providing him with hire car. They must be a money pinching bunch

I don't know whether he would be able to hire a Sat Nav here with his hire car. The major players offer them, and they'd certainly be programmed for central Paris. I think that the problem can arise when there are road works or diversions for parades etc. He might find comfort in having a printed backup, and I can thoroughly recommend http://www.viamichelin.fr as a route finder ...... and it's in English if you want it to be. All the best, and please don't worry. If he loses his way it's only a matter of time ... he just mustn't hit anything!!

Thanks Alsacienne,
they usually give him a sat nav to take with him. I hope he'll stand up for himself and tell them that after the fiasco last time he'd rather use a taxi than a hire car. Surely, taxis wouldn't work out a lot more expensive than a hire car for a whole week. He'd only be using them for return journies back and fore to work. Anyway, I'll tell him to take a look at the site you recommended for routes. Thanks again. I'm sure you'll hear more from me. Hope you don't mind.

FAO Alsacienne and Barry,

Thanks to you both for your help. My son returned safe and well last night and thank goodness, no sleeping in the car this time
He picked up the hire car as planned from CDG BUT....the sat nav was in French and there was no way (that he could find anyway) of converting it to English. However, he used the viamichelin route finder that Alsacienne recommended and found his way to within 5 mins of his workplace. He then phoned them and they sent someone to meet him. His hotel was about a 5 min drive from the workplace and had no probs driving back and fore. He was lucky on his return to the airport as a taxi was leaving for the airport at the same time as my son so he followed it and arrived in plenty of time. I'm one happy bunny
He'll be doing the same again a week on Monday when he returns for a week's training. Hopefully, I'll be more relaxed each time he has to do it. Thanks again, it's been good to share my concerns.

No problem, glad to be of any help. It's funny that most French won't drive over here - but then when you consider that their busiest motorway looks like the M1 at two in the morning it's hardly surprising.

Off to France in 11 days... for Easter weekend. Yippeee.

Hi everybody,
Please don't be fed up of me Son's on his travels again. I wonder if Anybody can do a little translating for me. I've been trying to find out where in terminal 2b CDG the Europcar desk is. When I clicked on a link it came up in French.

Agence située face aux Niveau Boutiquaire entre les aérogares ABCD du Terminal2.

I did do o level French but I'm afraid I can't be certain what that means. I also found a map of the terminal but all the signs were also in french. I'd be grateful if anybody could either translate that for me please or can suggest an English labelled map (hopefully with the europcar desk showing). The last couple of times he flew it was in to terminal 1 but this time he's flying in to terminal 2. Thanks again for your patience with me.

Hi Shirley! Me again!

Agence située face aux Niveau Boutiquaire entre les aérogares ABCD du Terminal2.

The agency is situated opposite the shops on the shopping level between the departure areas A B C and D in Terminal 2.

CDG is a very confusing airport, and many passengers complain (rightly so) every year. There also should be some signage close by saying Car rentals (Location de Voitures).

All good wishes,

Alsa xxxxxxxxx

PS I've just had a quick look at the Aeroports de Paris website (http://www.adp.fr), and although the site can be translated into English, the maps firmly remain in French! I suspect you should get your son to investigate the area marked as NIVEAU 0 - Espace Services that runs between the parts of the terminal. In emergency he could ask (assuming he finds anyone to ask!!!) OOOOOOO EHH Eurocar/Budget/Hertz SI VOO PLAY?

Thanks again for helping. Isn't this website marvellous with people like you taking time to help others.