Help pick our 3 week France Itinerary

Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum
21

My cousin and his family just did part of their sabbatical in Les Baux (Provence) - they found a number of interesting things to do with the boys (both under 10) and they didn’t have to move around a lot.

Hubby and I did a tour of France in the late 90s that was pretty close to Itinerary 1 - it was a good balance of wine, interest, etc., but fast paced and we didn’t have children or parents tagging along.

I’d consider reducing the number of stops and staying on one half of France rather than criss-crossing the country. I’d suggest the eastern side for your trip. Consider adding Carcassone in place of the Dordogne, reduce time in the Northern Rhone, add time to Provence, and skip Nice unless you want beach time (and then pick another location on the Cote d’Azur).

Suggested Modified Itinerary 3
-Burgundy (4)
-Provence (5)
-Carcassone/Ardennes (5)
-Paris (7)

22

Lyon is worth a visit. Between Vienne and Valence you can do Northern Rhone. We stayed at Auberge Des Cimes, in Saint-Bonnet-Le-Froid where Regis Marcon cooks wonderful food. Easy to get over to Hermitage or Cornas or St.Peray and visit. Beaune is a great small town to visit, manageable and easy to get around. Recommend Bissoh, in Beaune, japanese restaurant, whose owner has been cultivating young vintners for years and has some gems on her list.

23

There is a TGV in Bordeaux.

24

Correct. The TVG station in Bordeaux is a 90 minute plus drive to/from, say, Brantôme. Plus 3+ hours on the TGV (not to mention car drop and waiting time) to/from Paris. Worth the travel for me; not sure how much fun it would be with a toddler.

25

I loved Mont St. Michel (last visited in 1985).

26

First thing I’d say if that I don’t see the point in saying “this part of France is also nice you should try it” as basically the whole of France is nice :wink: (and yeah I know I’m a homer but it’s still true).

Second, there are two ways to travel: either you do the whole thing by car (except maybe the very last leg of the trip) and in this case it becomes a road trip, much more flexible but with its own constraints of having to pack/unpack pretty much on a daily basis; or you select 2 or 3 “bases” that you can reach by train or plane and then explore from there by renting a car for a few days.

Third, and I’m going to simplify a bit, but you have to understand there’s no transportation going East-West through the center of France. You have to imagine a loop that’d look a bit like a raindrop, and that goes Paris → Lyon → Avignon → Montpellier → Toulouse → Bordeaux → Paris. That’s the way the transportation network is designed. So basically there’s no direct way to go from Bourgogne to Dordogne. It’s either Bourgogne → Paris → Bordeaux/Toulouse → Dordogne, or Burgundy → Lyon → Montpellier → Toulouse → Dordogne. So I’d recommend planning around this loop either clockwise or counter-clockwise.

Taking this into account I could imagine 3 possibilities, knowing that they all end with Paris for a week.

Itinerary 1: the Southwest
Tours (3) [Loire valley castles, Chinon…]
Bordeaux (4) [this city is much nicer than it used to be]
San Sebastian (3) [2.5 hours by car from Bordeaux]
Dordogne (4) [2+ hours by car from Bordeaux]
[direct train back Bordeaux-Paris ~3 hours]

Itinerary 2: the South-East
Burgundy (4)
Lyon (2)
Avignon/Provence (4)
Côte d’Azur (4) [fly back to Paris from Nice, or direct train back from Marseille, reach Paris in 3.5 hours]

Re: this itinerary there’s a lot of flexbility. You can go directly from Beaune to Avignon (2 hours and 40 minutes if choosing the right train) or stop in Lyon. Youcan limit yourself to the area “around” Avignon (Orange, Pont du Gard [must see], St Remy de Provence, Les Baux de Provence, Aix-en-Provence Luberon [especially Roussillon], Ventoux, Camargue…) and move progressively towards Marseille / Toulon (Cassis, Porquerolles, Bandol) and go back to Paris by train. Or you go can farther to Cannes, Antibes, Nice, Monaco for a different experience (and no wine). And if you want a bit more variety and figure that 8-10 days in the South of France is more than you want, you can always add Champagne before Burgundy…

Itinerary 3: a bit of both
Burgundy (4)
Avignon/Provence (3)
Toulouse (2) [Avignon → Toulouse = 3.5 hours by train direct]
Dordogne (3) [Toulouse → Dordogne = 2 hours by car]
Bordeaux (2) [train back to Paris ~3 hours direct]

Re: itinerary #3, Avignon → Bordeaux is a bit long in one go (5.5 hours by train, roughly) so I think it’s best to take a pause somewhere, either Toulouse as suggested or in the Languedoc (Montpellier to enjoy the sea, Carcassonne to visit the incredible medieval town…) and then push on. You can also take a direct train back from Toulouse to Paris (5.5 hours) or fly back.

27

this is really helpful, Guillaume.

28

Normandy Beach, to pay homage to those who died to protect our liberty.

29

If you go to bordeaux :

  • visit saint emilion (very nice medieval city but tourist city and expensive)
  • visit bordeaux center
  • you can pay to visit some great wineries (yquem for example or pontet canet with a little train)

Otherwise this is not the best periode to visit because it’s the periode of the recolt.
Paris - bordeaux 3 hours in train ( high speed train or TGV in french)

30

Glad to help!

Quite out of the way of the suggested itineraries, but could be done as a (looong) daytrip from Paris.

31

It should be at least a day trip for Paris visitors, unlike for those who came in 1994 and would never go home,
except for how American military cemeteries have accordingly been enshrined as official US soil.

32

Is it too late to suggest just going with 20 days at EuroDisney?