Hi Ditto, thanks for the tips, ideally an automatic, the idea is to spend 4 days in France, otherwise dropping the car in the lovely town of San Remo (spending the night there) is a v. good option. i had a look whether to split the itinerary into two VEN-San Remo, San remo- nice but it seems once you get to the final booking page on avis.com the one-way fees are added on.