I will be taking my twin daughters and wife to France for 11 days in May as graduation gift. We have never been there and all i know is we will start in Paris for 3 days. We would like to rent a car and make our way to Riviera for 3 days. We would like to spend 3 or 4 traveling between the 2 places. We like small towns, bed and breakfasts, castles, museums, red wine country. We want to take in a one day cooking class. Any feedback on this itinerary and must see in these areas will be appreciated.
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It sounds to me as if you are trying to do WAY TOO MUCH in 11 days. If you really want your wife and daughters to %26quot;experience%26quot; at least one specific region of France, following your stay in Paris, you should consider using a specific site as a base and exploring the surrounding area as opposed to packing up and relocating every day or two.
In order to really help you in designing a reasonable itinerary it would help if you could state exactly when you plan to arrive and exactly what your interests are. For instance, you might want to consider just taking the train down to Marseilles, picking up a car there and using it to explore Western Provence for 7 - 8 days. It is an area with fabulously preserved Roman ruins, medieval sites of significant import, museums, wine country and gorgeous small towns that are totally imbued with %26quot;Provencal%26quot; ambiance. One of the best options would be to rent a house for a week and use it as your base - this option is feasible because the important sites in Western Provence are all relatively close.
Your plans will also depend upon whether you intend to return the car in Paris - IMO a real waste of time - or you are willing to take the train back to Paris for your return flight home
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And if you want a place to stay in Provence you could rent the fabulous maison des roses in Isle sur la Sorgue. Sigh....I want to go back
avignon-et-provence.com/provence-vacation-re…
Consider a TGV train Paris to Avignon, pick up a rental car, drive to L%26#39;Isle and set up in the house, three bedrooms, two bathrooms (only one toilet) terasse, parking, lounge room, divine! Then take day trips to places like Uzes, Avignon, Arles, Nimes, the Carmargue (good beaches, riding and flamingos if you are lucky)Pont du Gard, Fontaine de Vacluse etc etc. And the wonderful markets twice a week in L%26#39;Isle, like you have never seen before. Buy up big, cook and eat on the terasse.
We did go on to the riveria, driving miles along a coast road with a railway on one side and the ocean on the other, absolutely horrible. The whole way is built up and very slow to travel. We finished in Menton which is a very pretty little town with private beaches below the boardwalk and you can eat a meal with your toes dipping into the ocean.
Fly back out of Nice.
Have a look at my blog, www.lynnbooth.blogspot.com for some ideas or just for photos look at our website www.nickbooth.id.au they will also show some castles etc.
If you really want chateaux then you can take a day trip from Paris to the Loire valley but it is a long day. Otherwise you could drive from Paris and stay somewhere like Amboise for 2 nights to fit the chateaux in then drive down through central France to Provence. But then you couldn%26#39;t have 7 days in Provence and there is so much to see.
Get a reasonable all France guidebook. Lots of Americans like Rick Steves but this tends to mean you keep running into other Americans at the places he recommends. For a flavour of the place the Dorling Kindersley books are hard to beat. Enough pictures to whet the appetite.
Have fun planning!
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You folks need some guide books - both specific to Paris and for the rest of France. Everyone needs to read the books and make a wish list. Once the lists have been prioritized, it will be pretty easy to organize them into an itinerary.
If you don%26#39;t wish to do any of your own research, the forum isn%26#39;t your best bet. Go to a travel agent. We%26#39;re very good at helping you to refine an itinerary, but we aren%26#39;t travel agents. They%26#39;re the folks who are paid to tell you where you REALLY want to go.
The one bit of advice I will give is that you%26#39;re going to be about 50% short of time to do the things you%26#39;ve mentioned.
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Hi tcsunrunner !!
It would be a very enjoyable drive, especially in May, and you would be able to see many of the places you are looking for.
If you are flying home from the south of France, I would recommend you lay out your route on a map, and use viamichelin.com or some other driving info web site to figure out the time and distances required. The site also offers travel info.
Happy planning !!
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I too am drawn to the drive down from Paris via Burgundy (wine, castles etc) only because we have done it so many times but I do agree with Alpillesgirl that you might be planning too much especially as there is so much to see in both Paris and the South of France.
I would suggest taking the fasr TGV train to Avignon - under 3 hours and then you can %26quot;speed visit%26quot; other regions of France as you hurtle through the countryside.
I am slightly dubious about the cooking class but le Mirande (do a google search) in Avignon did do them and it is a lovely hotel to stay in to explore Avignon.
Then rent your car and spend some time exploring the area around Avignon - perhaps using l%26#39;Isle as a base. There is so much to see and do as already referred to in previous posts but you will have your wine country in the Rhone vineyards, Chateaux in the Luberon, the Alpilles, Pont du Gard, St Remy, Arles, Aix en Provence, Mt Ventoux, Fontaine de Vaucluse etc
If you still want the brash Riviera drive to Cannes or Nice for a couple of days and fly back from Nice.
Do however have a good look at some guide books for yourself as others have advised now you have some place names to research.
Happy planning.
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