When should one travel by car instead of train when traveling France?

As a rule of thumb a car is usually a necessity if you want to visit outdoor or rural areas, because public transport can be infrequent or even non-existent. On the other hand it is a burden in larger cities, because parking is expensive and you usually get around quicker on public transport.

Travelling large distances between large cities is usually much faster and more convenient on a train, car for one person is probably more expensive as well. In some cases you need it though.

You need to work out a plan of what you want to see and where to go, and based on this figure out when do you need a car, and when you are better off with a train. Travel guides (e.g. Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, etc.) usually contain a lot of information about public transport, so I would start from there.

There are two main differences between the modes of transpositions:

• Train run at their own schedules. Cars run at yours. This is a significant difference and a car lets you get to the place you want at the right time. If you want to see sunset or sunrise in a particular location, for example, you should be driving your own.

• Trains have fixed routes with certain coverage. In France, trains are plentiful but there remains tons of off the tracks locations. Nature and rural areas, as mentioned by Grzenio, are rarely reachable by train. You can sometimes go on via other public transport but they often wont reach and there is a long wait time to connect.

While I have not driven to Normandy I have rented cars in France a dozen times or so and trains a few. While traveling as a group, car costs are often much lower than train because the cost gets divided. You are also free to make unscheduled stops to take in the scenery or visit something that catches your eye. On a train, you've whizzed by it and its gone.

The simple answer is of course, obviously, get a car.

France is - well - France. You want to see every little village, tour around and see everything. So, you'll be "touring" - get a car.

French trains are fantastic for TRAVEL - so, you're in Lyon and you need to go to Paris for some reason; you're in Zurich and you need to go to Barcelona for some reason.

But if you are touring around, obviously get a car.

If you planed to, say, stay in Paris for a week to soak it up, then Milano for a week to soak it up, then Copenhagen for a week to soak it up - fantastic. Of course you'd travel between those places using the awesome trains.

But to tour around and see stuff, you need a car of course. Enjoy France's incredible road system. Cheers!

I agree with all the other answers. Bottom line: the best way to tour an entire country is by Road.

Depending on the type of journey you are planning there are various combinations of means of transportation you could use. For example, if you plan to stay for a long period in a region, say Normandy, and then think of moving all the way across the country to Provence then you could think of renting a car "locally" and using trains/coaches/car-sharing to cover the long distance.

Here car-sharing could be a great idea considering that often such services tend to be a lot cheaper than train fares (especially on TGV lines). Blablacar is a popular car-sharing service in France.

Another way to avoid paying for expensive motorway tolls is that of taking Nationales/Departementales roads (marked with N/D). Often these run parallel, or nearly, to the motorways and their speed limit is of an acceptable 110km/h in the fast extra-urban areas. FYI this is 20km/h "slower" than the motorway which is usually limited at 130km/h. Another disadvantage of N/D roads is that you might go through every single "bled" in France. But that might allow you discover places you would have otherwise ignored.

Regarding snow, car-sharing could partially solve the problem for you as you can expect the driver to have a properly-fitted car. If not you are effectively delegating the responsibility to him -- he will be responsible for it, and will get a ticket if the car is not fitted. Moreover snow would be a problem only if you intend to travel in mountain regions. I think you can safely assume that the main roads and motorways will be efficiently managed by the road maintenance guys. The regions expecting snow should be prepared for it. (This last hypothesis I will verify myself as I will be in France with a car this winter in a mountain area.)