Congratulations on booking your holiday!

I'm so envious - never having been at Christmas before.
We started going to DLRP earlier this year, and have been twice - both times flying into Beauvais and hiring a car. For us (2 adults, two children), the cost of hiring a car is cheaper than paying for the shuttle transport (e.g. for a 4-day stay, the car hire was £150, whereas the return shuttle close to 200). We used Hertz and then Sixt, both were absolutely fine with no problems whatsoever. With Sixt we were actually upgraded from an Economy 4-door car to a BMW 1-series, which was a nice bonus! We booked on both occasions through Expedia. We hired a booster seat for our younger daughter - this was arranged at the hire office and cost ~ £25.
Some helpful tips:
i) I would recommend taking a SatNav (with Western Europe maps), as this makes the journey from the airport to DLRP much easier. It can be done using an old-fashioned map if you don't have a SatNav, but the many slip-roads could cause a headache (i.e. difficult to correct your course once you veer off), especially on your 1st run.
ii) Be careful when choosing which class of car to hire, that you choose one with 4 doors (if you want 4 doors that is). Some classes are described as having 2 or 4 doors, and there is no guarantee which you will get (as witnessed by us in June when another holidaymaker was most upset at being give a 2-door car for 4 hefty, elderly adults!).
iii) Be careful to adhere to the speed limit, and keep your eyes peeled for the sign in the link below (as this warns you of speed cameras ahead). On my first trip, I was caught speeding on the motorway (i.e. > 110kph) as I was oblivious as to what this sign implied.
http://www.abelard.org/france/first-arrival.php
iv) Finally, I would advise you to take out insurance for the excessive policy excess under the hire car rental policy, as this will work out cheaper in the long run than paying the daily EDW charge with the rental company. I took an annual policy out through this website:
http://www.insurance4carhire.com.
I hope you have a wonderful trip!!
