France to Portugal with a Rescue Dog: Our Road Trip Across Europe

Our plan was simple. Drive 1,731 kilometers from Paris to Lisbon in three days with our dog and meet up with our best friend along the way. What could possibly go wrong?

The following day, Violet and John William enjoyed the many public sculptures outside the Guggenheim, while Benaz and our friend visited the museum. We enjoyed Bilbao so much that we stayed the whole day before heading to Salamanca. Salamanca had other plans. A missing lockbox key, a host's colleague who insisted it had been there all along, and a late arrival meant we saw very little of the city. We cut our losses and left early the next morning. As we arrived on a sunny day in our new hometown by the beach, it was one of the few times in our lives where we thought: moving here was actually an even better decision than we originally thought it was.

The road trip was over, and after dropping our friend off at the Lisbon airport, all we needed to do was swap our French car for a more affordable local rental. Easy, right? As you can probably guess, it did not go as planned, but that is a story for another day.

For all the wrong turns, missed timings, and luggage hauled up narrow staircases, pulling into our new hometown on a sunny day made every bit of it feel like exactly the right way to arrive. One last piece of advice though: never forget your passport when you need to rent a car in Europe.

P.S. During our time living in Europe so far, and renting five different cars with Violet until we finally bought one (stay tuned for a post on that process), we were never charged a pet hair cleaning fee, despite Violet’s constant shedding. The key was a hammock dog car seat cover, cleaning diligence, and a solid lint roller.

While a plane full of dogs is exactly as wild and fun as it sounds (we never want to go back to flying with just humans again), we have to admit it was not the best night of sleep we have ever had. When the pilot needed to use the restroom, Violet, using those famous guarding instincts, started barking louder than we had ever heard. She mistook the cockpit door for the front door at home, feeling it was her duty to protect everyone onboard.

After arriving in Paris, we had to transfer from one airport to another to pick up our rental car. This was a true “kindness of strangers” moment. The Uber Pet driver who picked us up was so kind. From the look in his eyes, we could tell he was used to picking up tiny 15-pound purse dogs. When he saw Europe’s newest immigrant, a 70-pound German Shepherd-Husky mix rescue from Texas, he was definitely surprised, but still a total gentleman.

Once we arrived at the airport, we thought the hard part was over. Our main problem was severely underestimating how far Paris is from Bordeaux. On a map, when you are working a desk job and dreaming of adventure, they look really close. In reality, they are about 600 kilometers, or roughly 400 miles apart. We were supposed to arrive in Paris at 11 a.m. No problem, we thought. We would be sipping coffee in Bordeaux by 5 p.m. if all went well.

Some car rental companies allow dogs (thanks, Hertz), but many do not have clear policies, so we decided not to bring Violet inside while picking up the car, just in case. Of course, the area where Benaz waited with Violet at Charles de Gaulle just so happened to be the Disneyland Paris drop-off and pick-up zone, providing plenty of excitement while John William sorted out the rental.

By the time we packed up Violet and hit the road, it was already 2 p.m. With 400 miles left to drive, our planned arrival time of 5 p.m. was long gone. We also had not eaten since the night before. We drove around suburban Paris searching for our favorite grocery store, Carrefour. We were so excited to be back in a European grocery store, with its endless varieties of delicious and affordable cheeses, wines, and fresh fruit.

The rest of the day was simple: drive, and drive, and pay tolls (lots of them). After a few breaks, one wrong turn, and a parking struggle, our planned 5 p.m. arrival in Bordeaux turned into an 11 p.m. one. Hauling all of our luggage up three flights of stairs was less romantic than we had imagined, but it all paid off when, while taking Violet out for her much-deserved bio break, we stumbled across Roman ruins. You will spot the pattern of this trip quickly.

The next morning, after sleeping in and grabbing a quick coffee and pastry, we drove to San Sebastián, which was Violet’s introduction to the ocean. In case you are curious, driving across borders in Europe is uneventful. We had Violet’s EU Health Certificate PDF ready, but we were never asked for it.

Next, we picked up our best friend in Bilbao and went out for the night to show Violet some culture. Bilbao is one of our favorite cities: incredible architecture, art, and food to match. We were there during the early holiday season and even got to enjoy a Christmas market.