Made our way across Paris to pick up the car about 10am. Wouldn't you know it, its raining. Not the best conditions to try and drive in Paris. But as long as our route back to the hotel (where we left our bags) keeps us clear of the Arc de Triomphe we should be OK.
Took us ages to get out of Paris, about 1 hour. Traffic was awful, and that was on the freeway, not suburban streets, weather was awful, BBC weather says a number of unstable weather fronts are moving across Europe over the next couple of days, might even be a chance of snow. But soon we were barreling down the freeway on our way to Clermont-Ferrand, about 400 km south of Paris, where we'll be spending the next couple of days.

More from Clermont tomorrow.