Traffic from Paris to Champagne and reverse?

I%26#39;m planning to rent a car in Paris on the evening of Friday, August 4th to drive out to Champagne. We will then drive back to Paris in the late afternoon of Sunday, August 6th to catch a Eurostar to London that evening. I am wondering if renting a car in Paris is a wise idea given potential traffic congestion at those times? We would love to have a car for the duration in Champagne but if the traffic in and out of Paris will likely be horrendous, we%26#39;d probably rather just take the train out to Champagne and walk around Reims/Epernay. Any insight would be much appreciated! Oh, and a friend who once lived in Paris made a good point that although traffic to and from Paris is generally a nightmare it probably isn%26#39;t too bad in August given the vast majority of French people are on holiday then. Does the August holiday period really affect Paris traffic flow significantly? Thanks in advance to any of you in the know!

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Given the short amount of time you have, I don%26#39;t see why you would want to drive out of Paris on a late afternoon when you can get there by train in under two hours. You can rent a car when you arrive, or the next day.

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Thanks for your reply, Francophool. We thought that the drive out there (to Reims or Epernay) would be under 2 hours, if there isn%26#39;t traffic. Is this not the case?

We would prefer a car because we%26#39;d like to drive around the countryside and visit some of the smaller champagne producers on one of the 2 days. I figured getting a car once we were out there might be, first, complicated (assuming the car rental agencies are at the airport so we%26#39;d have to get out there from the train station and back?) and, two, that we%26#39;d also likely have to spend time looping back to wherever we started in order to return the car. I know little of the geography, though, so maybe we%26#39;d have to loop back anyway to get on the highway and therefore that last point doesn%26#39;t matter?

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You%26#39;re right...it%26#39;s closer than I thought.

What I%26#39;d do is rent a car at the Gare du Nord. The rental places are at the west end of the station, lower level, which leads directly to the garage. Exiting the garage you need to go to the right, over the tracks, and then left on rue Max Dormoy, the first street. That leads to the Peripherique at the Porte de la Chapelle, where you go right and then onto the A3.

Driving back there are some one way streets near the station, so some advance planning would be a good idea.

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Merci beaucoup, Francophool!