jet29

My wife and I (60+) are planning a 3 weeks trip to France (with a detour to Barcelona)

Here is our temporary schedule since we are uncertain if it is realistic within a 3 weeks time frame.


Montreal - Paris (1 night)

Paris - Mont St-Michel (1)

Mt-St-Michel - Tours/Blois (3)

Tours/Blois - Bordeaux (1)

Bordeaux - Toulouse (1)

Toulouse - Carcassonne/Narbonne (1)

C/N - Barcelone (3)

Barcelone - Marseille (1)

Marseille - Nice (3)

Nice - Avignon (2)

Avignon - Lyon (1)

Lyon - Versailles/Fontainebleau (2)

Paris - Montreal

We are looking into using a car thru the leasing plan offer either by Renault or by Peugeot (TT license plate)

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

jet29

selltile

got a better price from Avis thru the Avisfr site. Also Cnd so every dollar does count

Michael

Generally I found Renault to be cheaper than Peugeot. On the other hand, this summer I am going with Peugeot because Autoeurope was willing to meet the Renault price for a car that has a bigger engine. In both cases diesel.

As for your itinerary, is there any specific reason you choose to go to Bordeaux and Toulouse? I would consider the Dordogne as a more desirable first time destination. For Carcassonne I would go over the Pyrenees to Barcelona since you will be going up that coast to Marseille on your way back anyway.

Kristinelaine

We are about the same age as you and your wife. We try to virtually never stay in a place only one night. I try for stays of three nights or more. The changing of hotels and moving around takes too much time and energy away from our trips. Of course, if you must stop in all these places, then I guess you will have all these one night stays. JMHO and I'm not trying to be difficult, but hopefully helpful. We have done trips similar to yours and were generally sorry -- and TIRED!

StCirq

For me, this itinerary has way too many 1-night stops. All that unpacking and packing and moving on gets tiresome.

And why Bordeaux and Toulouse? Why Marseille for that matter? Any particular reason you're not spending time in Paris?

I'd "bunch up" this itinerary a bit, spending more time in fewer places.

Michael

I meant <i>from</i> Carcassonne. I do not consider one nighters a problem, but then we pack light and unpack only the esentials when staying only one night. But you might want to consider stopping for more than one night every so often to give yourselves a breather, if only from the driving. BTW, we are within the same age range. If you do a search on the Loire valley, the Dordogne and Carcassonne, you might find better alternatives to your current itinerary. I consider Blois to be a less interesting chateau than Chenonceaux or Langeais or Chambord.

margo_oz

Yes - I agree with the other posters - it's too hard.

I'm not yet your age - but I found packing and travelling every day just too tiring. You don't see anything unless you drive past it.

Pick the things that are must sees - and spend a couple of days in those region - and do some daytrips.

France will still be there for your next trip!

tomboy

Topping for posterity

RobynFrance

Greetings--I think you will enjoy yourselves more, have time to sip a glass of wine in a cafe toward the end of the afternoon and savor the experience if you reduce your number of stays and enjoy one location at a time--otherwise you are continually on route to somewhere else. I would agree wholeheartedly with the other posters--would suggest going from Tours to the Dordogne--spending 3 nights, do your Barcelona thing following that and then spend 3 nights in Nice--tons to see and do there and vicinity--could easily absorb 5 days--suggest St. Remy rather than Avignon for 2--and perhaps Lyon for 1 on the way back to Paris. I'd definitely select 2 nights enjoying Paris over Versailles and Fontainebleau--especially if you are spending your first days going to the chateaux of the Loire. All that nightly moving is hard on the body--and one never gets the feel of a place because you barely are there.

Good luck.
Robyn France

clairobscur

It's going to be exhausting. I would short down the list, if I were you, regardless your age.

The first places I would axe are Bordeaux and Marseilles.

RonZ

Exactly how many hours of driving between hotel stops are you willing to tolerate? Suggest you go to mappy or via michelin and get some estimates, realizing that these estimates do not reflect actual road conditions nor the time it takes getting in and out of towns and finding the hotels.

Besides reducing the number of destinations, I would avoid looping all the way back to Paris from the south by car. See if you can fly home out of a different city, or drop the car somewhere and get back to Paris by train.

SalB

We've always leased a Peugeot (206 automatic) and have been very happy with it. We've leased from Kemwel and Sodexa. Here's the Sodexa web site. http://www.peugeot.com/sodexa/en

We've had very good luck with them. Their 24-hour road service is fantastic. We had a problem fixed within 30 minutes on Bastille Day weekend once. We've lost a windshield to a stone once and they didn't charge extra. They were wonderful about it. I really do recommend them.

Regarding your trip, I tend to agree with most others. We prefer to drive someplace and spend a few days to relax and get a feel for the area. Every place you stay there will be plenty to see and do. Even tiny towns have exciting tourist destinations and also, the towns are usually close together so you can stay in one and visit several. You find those little out of the way surprises when you spend more time in an area.

On the other hand, if you really enjoy all that driving and that's what you want to do . . . go for it. I have a friend who just likes to drive around and prefers to do it someplace different every year. He has a great time.

jet29

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments and suggestions.

Let me qualify our choice of itinerary by explaining that we already visited Paris on a prior vacation.

Early on in our planning we decided that the &quot;must-see&quot; would be Mont St-Michel, Chateaux de la Loire, Barcelona (having already visited Madrid and southern Spain on a previous visit) and the French Riviera.

We decided also to use the Autoroute network as much as possible and avoiding the Route Nationale grid for safety reasons and efficiency (for the same reason people use the Interstate instead of a state highway). We plan to average around 4 or 5 hours of driving between each leg of the trip. We used the calculating tool provided by Autoroutes.fr for that purpose. We were aware right from the start that our initial itinerary was very demanding and it was for this reason that we wrote our query to this forum.

Our plan is to arrive in Paris and spend the first day relaxing and embarking on our trip to Mont St-Michel (about a 4 hours drive) on the second day with a quick visit to Omaha/Juno Beach on the way. We will try to time our visit to Mont St. Michel with the tidal schedule.

We are then planning to spend 4 days / three nights exploring the Loire Castle region (must see near Tours: Chenonceau Ambroise , Villandry and gardens, near Blois Chateau and Chambord.

As some of you noticed we have a dilemma in as far as our journey to Barcelona is concerned. We thought that a leisurely trip to Bordeaux, Toulouse and Carcassonne would be realistic. However, as mentioned by some of you we could go down this route using A20 through Vierzon/Limoges and therefore viewing instead the Dordogne region to Toulouse where we could spend 2 nights and continue toward Spain by way of Narbonne and Perpignan (for personnal reason we will be stopping in Banyuls-sur-mer for a quick visit) since they are no direct Autoroute from Toulouse to Barcelona.

After visiting Barcelona we have the long drive all the way around to the French Riviera and we think that a 1 night stopover in Marseille or Aix-en-Provence would be adequate. On our way back towards Paris we would spend 2 nights near Avignon and one in Lyon.

As per Versailles and Fontainebleau, we would prefer visiting these two places south of Paris then getting tied-up in the French capital. Obviously, there will be no choice on our last morning but to take the P&eacute;riph&eacute;rique and the A1 to CDG Airport.

Our new (and improved??) itinerary would now look like this:

Montreal - Paris (1 night)
Paris - Mont St-Michel (1)
Mt-St-Michel - Tours/Blois (3)
Tours/Blois - Toulouse (2)
Toulouse - Carcassonne/Narbonne (1)
C/N - Barcelone (3)
Barcelone - Marseille (2)
Marseille - Nice (4)
Nice - Avignon/St-Remy (2)
Avignon - Lyon (1)
Lyon - Versailles/Fontainebleau (2)
Paris - Montreal

We are always open for any and new comments (pro and con).


Jet29

Michael

OK, now that your ideas are clearer, I have a different suggestion: From the Loire valley go to the Provence (you can take the autoroute via Clermond-Ferrand to St. Etienne), and finish your trip in Barcelona. Return the car beforehand in Narbonne or Perpignan and train to Barcelona. Then fly back to Paris on a cheap flight. BTW, you can see Fontainebleau on the way to the Loire valley.

Michael

Oops. My last reply about seeing Fontainebleau on the way to the Loire makes no sense if you want to go to the Mont St. Michel. But since you intend to take the autoroute as much as possible, you could do Carcassonne as a side trip between the Provence and Perpignan.

jet29

Thanks for your positive comments, but actually, we are becoming more confused with all the options available. However with your help we are getting closer to a realistic solution.

Our latest brainstorming is as follows:

Fly into Paris, pick-up our car and stay around the city for 3 nights (Versailles, Fontainebleau and visiting friends)

Paris-Mt St-Michel (1)
MtStMichel - Tours/Blois (4)
Tours/Blois - Toulouse (2)
Toulouse - Carcassonne/Narbonne (1)
C/N - Barcelona (3)
Barcelona - Avignon (2)
Avignon - Nice (4)

Drop the car in Nice, fly back to Paris using a discount airline and then home.

Comments anyone? Thank you

jet29

StCirq

&lt;&lt;we would prefer visiting these two places south of Paris then getting tied-up in the French capital&gt;&gt;

Heavens, yes! I'd prefer just about anywhere to being tied up in Paris Being tied up is NOT my idea of a vacation!

But seriously, your trip is beginning to look more realistic and enjoyable.

jet29

Hello again everyone.

Due to a last minute unexpected event we had to cancel our trip to France for this year. Thank you again for all the info you provided us with and we will hopefully reschedule for next year in June .

BTW here was our last itinerary before we had to cancel:

Montreal - Paris (3 nights)

Bayeux (or St-Lo) - 2 nights
(D-Day beaches &amp; Mt St-Michel)

Amboise - 4 nights (Chateaux de la Loire)

Carcassonne - 2 nights

Barcelone - 3 nights

Arles - 3 nights

Nice - 4 nights

Fly home to Montreal directly from Nice.

We will be back on this forum next winter for the latest info but we will be scanning it regularly. In the mean time if anyone needs our help in planning their trip to France, we'll gladly pass along any information that we have.

jet29

jet29

Hi,

We're in the final stretch of planning our trip to France this June. Our flights and hotels are booked and we will be leasing a Renault car shortly.

I understand that a Canadian driver's license is sufficient for driving legally in France, without a International driver's license. Is this also applicable to Spain, seeing that we will be visiting Barcelona for a few days?

Thank you

jet29

Michael

Compare prices carefully before leasing for that period of time. In other words, what does the lease come out to on a per day basis, and what would an all-inclusive rental cost on a per day basis? For example, I compared rental and lease for 22 days, and the all-inclusive rental (AutoEurope) would cost $776 (2 door Clio or equivalent) while the cheapest lease (Renault) would cost $909 for a Twingo. Admittedly the rentals may be lesser cars than the leases, such as a two-door Clio with a 1.4L engine compared to a 4 door Clio with a 1.6L engine. But if cost cutting is an issue, it might pay to give up something for the lower cost.