CDG or GVA to visit southern burgundy?
 

We are going to France this fall, visiting burgundy area. We have flown into CDG numerous times, arrive exhausted, pick up the rental car, then have to navigate the peripherique. Not a fun way to start a vacation.Is the Geneva airport any easier to exit than CDG and would it be fairly straightforward to cross the border into France? Are there any flights into Orly anymore?

Nancy

No contest: taking Beaune as the destination, GVA is 144 miles away on mostly low traffic highways, CDG 208 miles including the stressful Paris bypass. GVA is a small, easy to navigate airport. The border is often unmanned, with most non-suspicious vehicles waved through when staffed.

If Burgundy-bound do book your rental car for pickup on the French side of the airport, which will yield lower rates and less conspicuous local plates.
The one drawback is that a CHF40 Swiss highway sticker is required for the short stretch between GVA and the border, and a French rental car will most likely not have it, unless a previous renter invested into one (odds are better in the fall than early in the year).
If so motivated you can circumvent this by taking the D884/D1206 roads between Geneva and Bellegarde, where you can hop back onto the A40 highway.

Orly these days caters to domestic and leisure destinations, mostly on charter/low-cost/developing countries carriers.

As an alternative, you could fly to CDG and take a direct TGV train from the airport to Lyon which is only ~45 minutes by car from Beaune. I believe the CDG-Lyon direct runs every two hours and takes about two hours.

i would consider flying to lyon(lys) also. right decent airport. has lot of connector flights from cdg,bru, fra, muc, etc. the cost is probably the same as memphis to cdg. and you will miss cdg completely. skip the train hassle. stay overnight in lyon and start from there.

check additional cost of rental in swiss. i would not consider driving and overnight parking a car with swiss plates in france. gave up renting belgian cars for french trips. the plates are thief magnets. ua has a lot of empty planes flying into bru. ua has direct flights usa-gva. nice airport.

I will look into the Sixt rentals at GVA, and the cost of a CHF40 Swiss highway sticker. How far a drive is it from GVA to the French border? Will also look into flying into Lyon.
Do not want to do a train, too much hassle w/luggage.

Did check w/Sixt, very reasonable prices from GVA French sector.

GVA French sector is technically in France already, with its own access road to Ferney-Voltaire, the nearest French town.

GVA to the French border by highway is 7 miles.


I usually rent a French rental car for longer trips into France, especially southern France and urban areas, but Burgundy is one place I have no qualms driving around with Swiss plates, it is rural and very safe.

While I second flying into LYS, I don't see absolutely no problem driving in France with CH plates. I did this numerous times (even in Southern France) and never ever had any problems.

Just a word regarding getting out of CDG. Going towards Burgundy, you don't have to take the peripherique or going through central Paris. In fact you take the outer ring road A104 and join then the A5 which is painless, but I agree that GVA and especially LYS is easier.

I haven't either, but a neighbor had his Audi stolen, and a friend nearly had his Mercedes carjacked, both in Provence.

Somehow I feel French (-branded and -plated) cars are ideal for touring France, just as American ones are for driving across the US. No need to draw undue attention.

"Going towards Burgundy, you don't have to take the peripherique or going through central Paris. In fact you take the outer ring road A104 and join then the A5 which is painless"
We have flown into CDG numerous times and every time we leave CDG, usually heading for the Loire area, we have made an incorrect turn(one time we ended up driving towards Paris, my husband kept saying, We want to go towards Orleans, I saw a sign for Porte D'Orleans and we went in that direction. Oops). If we never drive on the peripherique again, that would be fine with us.

Fully agree. :)

Are there no direct TGV trains to Dijon/Creusot TGV?

Nope. You need to go to Gare de Lyon for those TGVs. If the OP is headed towards Northern Burgundy (say: between Montbard and Dijon), I'd consider that. If the OP is headed towards Souther Burgundy (South of Beaune), train from CDG2 to Lyon-Part-Dieu would make sense.

Similarly, as between CDG and GVA, depending on where the OP is going to in Burgundy, either might be suitable. For Northern Burgundy, I would go for CDG (using the Francilienne rather than the périphérique). For Southern Burgundy, I would go for GVA (as a second best after Lyon), assuming that the OP's flight timings to GVA are as convenient as for CDG, which may or may not be the case.

IME. car rental rates are often cheaper from the French side than the Swiss side. If renting from the French side, I would not personally pay for the Vignette for the 10 or so miles of Swiss motorway. I'd use ordinary road to cross Geneva, on the assumption that this is not rush hour (it is also possible to route entirely on smaller roads the French side if the timings are bad from crossing Geneva).

From my experience, flying into GVA is more reasonable than flying into CDG. Driving out of GVA is quite simple especially if you have a GPS. We always rent from the Swiss side but that's a matter of preference.

Flying into LYS is a good idea but, for us, the flights were not accommodating since we'd have to depart at 5:30am. Maybe flying an open jaw into LYS and out of GVA would be a possibility if the cost of the rental wouldn't be excessive.

Bobette

IME, Avis and Hertz will typically not charge a drop fee between French locations. If returning to Geneva, French-side, therefore, it should be OK. I have in the past hired cars in or near MRS and returned them in GVA (French side) at very reasonable rates without problem. OT, returning to GVA, Swiss side, would be very expensive as cross-border returns are charged a substantial drop fee.