Pegontheroad - I know exactly how you feel. I've driven into many cities in Europe, but won't do Rom

What are your thoughts? Should we drive or Train it? I fancy driving from Paris to Nice to enjoy the countryside. I have been told driving out of Paris is a nightmare. I don't mind driving. Has anyone done this?
Pegontheroad seattle underground city tour - I know exactly how you feel. I've driven into many cities in Europe, but won't do Rome. I think they're crazy there. Driving into London is not what you'd call a piece of cake, what with the driving 'on the wrong side'. One has to lose the instincts. I imagine Aussies have a similar problem.
For Aussies looking at a map of Europe it seems small but the distances seattle underground city tour you are covering will actually take a long time and you are visiting a lot of places (too many for my taste but that's a personal thing). seattle underground city tour My personal choice would be that if I were travelling seattle underground city tour from town to town as you are I would use trains, especially in Italy. Cars in Europe come into their own in rural areas, especially France which has a limited transport network seattle underground city tour off the main lines.
I strongly suggest you map out a plan of your days, remembering that one full day requires two nights, and work out how long it will take to travel between places seattle underground city tour (and then double seattle underground city tour it because you'll want to stop along the way).
I realize that it is a long, expensive trip from Oz to Europe and that you would like to fill your time as much as possible, but there is a difference between visiting a place and bringing home memories vs bringing home a blurred memory and a lot of film.
Driving out of Paris is a piece of cake as far as I'm concerned, but one simply does not drive from Paris to Nice to "enjoy the countryside." It's autoroute with wide lanes, tons of huge trucks, and the sun in your face the whole way. Unless you took back roads and 4-5 days, there'd be no countryside to enjoy at all. Fly or take the TGV and be done with it.
Don't rent a car in France and drop it off in Italy unless you have money to throw away. Figure out a way to drop the car in France (if you have one - if all you're doing is going to Nice and the Riviera, you can take trains to get around there), get over the border to Italy, and pick up another.
I'd also mention seattle underground city tour that the Cote d'Azur can be a nightmare by car in summer. We gave up trying to get into St Tropez (a lovely town) after being stuck in traffic for two hours trying to get in. The roads are choked.
My husband has driven in Paris, Rome and London, all in the centre, but believe me it is not easy unless you are experienced seattle underground city tour in driving in Europe, very easy to go wrong way, and there there would be restricted roads or one-ways, lots of traffic, dead ends, etc and unless you are very careful, you can very easily get a fine, which you might receive even a whole year after your vacation. Having said that, he only once got a fine in Rome when he drove through a lane restricted for buses (another fine was revoked when we were given a fine in Florence in area reserved for the disabled, but gave evidence that we had our Blue sticker and disabled daughter was with us. But he is always so edgy when in centre of cities, not relaxing at all for him. Then there is the parking problem. Even we find it hard to park, having the blue sticker for reserved parking for the disabled. And even with that card, sometimes we go round and round trying to find a parking place, it happened seattle underground city tour last December in Padova, over an hour going round and round the centre of the city to find parking place. We always try to go as close to the centre as possible. seattle underground city tour But an alternative, if you really want to drive everywhere, is to park on the outskirts, then take bus, underground, tram etc to the centre.