We have just returned from a 6 week trip which started in Nice and ended in Paris. The idea of the trip began in December of 2011 when my niece announced that she was going to Paris in March. I gathered together info that I had amassed from our trip earlier that year to share with her. In doing so, I got very nostalgic and mentioned to DH that was should go back for another look-see. We had spent 8 days in Paris in May and loved it, but felt we had barely scratched the surface. What emerged was a trip that covered Nice, The Luberon area of Provence, Montpellier and finally Paris.
Through the help of folks here, on Tripadvisor and a lot of research on the Internet, we had an absolutely wonderful trip. I haven’t done a trip report in a long time, but wanted to do one as a way to journalize our trip as a reminder to me as well as to pass along any information that might be helpful to others. I am not the great raconteur so I hope that it will provide you with a bit of a look into our trip.
The flights and transit -
I wanted to try and take advantage of Optiontown’s low cost upgrades to Business class. We had used it last year when we flew on SAS to pick up our Volvo in Göteborg, Sweden as part of an Overseas Delivery Program . I began watching airfare in January and by March when the prices looked like they were going to go higher; I booked economy tickets on SAS from ORD to NCE [via ARN] and the return CDG to ORD [via CPH]. We flew from ABQ to MDW using points on Southwest. Of course, in mid-July, the airfare to Europe on all airlines dropped like a stone, but we weren’t able to rebook to take advantage of the savings. Oh well, what are you going to do?
We did get our upgrades and it was really nice to be able to stretch out [170°] and get some sleep. IF you are not familiar with Optiontown.com - you pay for upgrades at about 25% of the cost of what you would pay to airline. You pay optiontown and then wait to find out if you have gotten upgrades. You are notified between 4 days before departure and 4 hours. When we did it last year, it was pretty close to departure time when we found out [12 hours ahead on outbound and 6 hours on return]. This time we found out 4 days ahead on outbound and 3 days on return. IF you don’t get an upgrade, they refund your money. The biggest drawback is that they only deal with a limited number of airlines, mostly carriers in Asia. SAS is the only European airline they currently deal with so it really limits using them but we are more than pleased as we saved close to 50% of the cost of Business class tickets.
We took No Jet Lag on both transatlantic segments and we had no jet lag eastbound but are still having some since returning home. Having to deal with 2 different ends to Daylight Savings time hasn’t helped at all. {France went back last weekend}.
On the way to Europe, we spent the night at a friends’ house in Chicago and on the way home we also spent the night in Chicago at the Marriott Renaissance on West Bryn Mawr. I got it through Priceline and it worked out perfectly. We took the hotel shuttle from ORD to the hotel [a phone call to them and the shuttle picked us up right at Terminal 5], and in the morning, we took the “L” to Midway as we had lots of time till our flight to ABQ. The “L” station at Cumberland on the Blue Line was a 2 minute walk across the hotel parking lot. We switched to the Orange Line at Clark/Lake and arrived at Midway with plenty of time to spare.
More to come….
A Wander Through France
Recent Activity
View all Europe activity »
- 1 Need a focus/theme for trip
- 2 Must-do Day Trips from London
- 3 Hotels in Sorrento
- 4 Spain and Portugal Itinerary 2 Week Vacation Help
- 5 private tour from cruise port in Naples
- 6 Help! Creating a Budget for my DS Graduation Trip to Europe
- 7 Airport shuttle from CDG to Paris
- 8 10 days in Andalusia in Feb 2014 - best home base
- 9 Germany with 6 month old.
- 10 Venice - Verona - Padova - Vienna Trip Report
- 11 Which tour company would be best?
- 12
Just Returned from a Gate 1 Danube River Cruise
- 13 Help with Provence and French Riviera
- 14 Southeast England - more planning ?
- 15 Any experience with Chateau des Monthairons (Dieue-sur-Meuse near Verdun)?
- 16 The Adventure Begins.. Sarge56 in Italy
- 17 Apartment in Seville
- 18 Irish Pub Arrival Time ?
- 19
Venice - another trip report (deja vu all over again)
- 20 Germany and Italy
- 21 day trips from Stuttgart
- 22
A bit of Scotland, wing mirror casualty, 7 days in London, and a Fodors GTG
- 23 Bathrooms Along This Itinerary (Day in Rome)
- 24 two weeks in Croatia Bosnia and Montenegro
- 25 EU Rule On Olive Oil Roils Europe!
ttt
This sounds like a fantastic trip. I can't wait for more!
--Annie
Me, too. Waiting for more.
Why Montpelleir?? I am looking for a reason to stay there as they have a new Marriott Courtyard....
Bookmarking
The Itinerary:
5 days in Nice
14 days in the Luberon
4 days in Montpellier
14 days in Paris.
The Accomodations:
*Nice - A residential unit in the Hotel Negresco. www.vrbo.com/174633 The unit was ok, no view and a bit dark. We didn't spend any time there other than to sleep, have a quick breakfast.
*Saint Saturnin les Apts - A gite in Saint Saturnin les Apts
www.accommodationinprovence.com/. This was perfect! More about it later.
*Montpellier - Courtyard [we had enough points for 4 nights]
Paris - Apartment - www.vrbo.com/339804 This is our second stay at this apartment. Great location, great owner. More later.
Local Transportation:
*We used buses and the train in Nice.
*We rented a car using Kemwel and got the car through Europcar.
[We picked it up when we left Nice, drove to Saint Saturnin
les Apts and then turned it in when we left Montpellier.
More about this later.]
*We took the iDTGV from Montpellier to Paris.
*In Paris, we arrived on Wednesday, so we bought a carnet to last us until Monday when we recharged our Navigo Découverte. We had to buy another carnet for the last 5 days. [I will plan better next time to arrive and depart on Monday to maximize using the ND.] We really love having the flexibility to just hop onto public transit when we are tired or have a distance to go. We used buses a lot more this trip, as we wanted to see where we were going rather than being in the metro. And we walked - a lot!
@HappyCheeseHead - we added it in to the mix [which threw off my plans for arriving in Paris close to Monday for ND purposes, see above] because we had enough points for 4 nights [15,000 per night]. We really didn't have much idea what it was going to be like [the city] other than knowing it was a university town and that Stu Dudley liked it!
We actually really enjoyed our time there and felt it was a good transition between the very quiet times in Provence and the big city time that was Paris.
I will go into more about Montpellier later in the report.
Looking forward to the rest of the report and the Montpellier portion as well. We will be in the south of France during the Cannes Film Festival and are trying to decide between the JW in Cannes (which would probably be insane) and being over in Montpellier, or staying at the Marriott property in Nice, an AC property.
This is great, Deb! So glad you're writing about all the amazing places you visited. More, please.
Very happy to read of your trip Deb. I'm sorry that we didn't get to meet up in Paris. I didn't forget about contacting you, but the 6 days that I was there were jammed packed with business and personal commitments and I had little time for anything else. Hopefully some other time.
In the meanwhile, I shall enjoy reading about what looks to have been an awesome trip.
M.
Really enjoying your trip report, DebitNM. You were such a big help on our trip to Santa Fe last summer that it is great to hear of your wonderful travels.
Enjoying this.
Love reading all the details...looking forward to reading more!
Looking forward to hearing more about Sylvain (he's a treasure) and all the rest.
[I will return shortly, fighting jet lag and end of daylight savings - twice! And so much stuff that has accumulated in 6 weeks.]
Stops along the way
Paris:
* A walk along the Canal St. Martin. [We did the boat last trip; thought it would be fun to walk the route]
* A concert at Saint Chapelle [Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"]
* Trip by train, bike to Giverny
* Jazz at 38Riv
* Edward Hopper exhibit at Grand Palais
* Sunday Mass at Notre Dame [and I was able to follow along!]
* "Paris Vu Par Hollywood" at Hôtel de Ville [free and excellent]
* Musée d'Orsay to see the Impressionism and Fashion exhibit
* Musée de l'Orangerie [we missed it last trip]
* A bit of a rest in Jardin du Louxembourg to people watch
* L'Opera Garnier
* Musée Marmotton
* Tour Montparnass
* Château de Vincennes
* Promenade Plantee
* Cimetière du Père-Lachaise
* Opéra Garnier
* Musée Cognac-Jay
* Bois de Boulogne
We did 3 walking tours:
- Hemingway's Paris
- Montmartre
- Architecture of the 16 Arrondissment.
Up next:
Stops in Montpellier
Stops in The Luberon
Stops in Nice
T
Enjoying this very much. I am hoping to put together a slower-paced trip one of these days.
Bookmarking.
6 weeks!!!
How nice.
Great report.
Enjoying your report and looking forward to the next installment! We went to the. Musee Cognacq-Jay this summer and loved the collection there.
Great info, DebitNM. Looking forward to more.
The Luberon
These were all within a 30 minute drive from our gite.
Roussillon - A must do! Pretty colour washed village houses that have used the pigment found in the ochre.
Bonnieux - Lovely little village but unfortunately our car was broken into here and thus left a tad of a sour taste for us. Peter Mayle's stomping ground in "A Year in Provence."
Oppede Le Vieux - a great old church and old village.
Menerbes - beautiful village
Gordes - took us a few tries to get there, VERY busy even in off season.
Saignon
Colorado Provencal - Walked amongs the ochre and saw the incredible natural formations and colors.
Isle sur la Sorgue - the Sunday market was excellent.
Banon
Simiane La Rotonde - found a little pottery shop that had beautiful piece at great prices. The roads heading there had the most amazing lavender fields, endless!
Sault
Mont Ventoux - The peak is covered in white granite giving a snow covered impression. There were so many bikers riding up to the summit! IT will be the stop on Bastile Day for the 2013 Tour de France.
Lourmarin - a great Friday market.
Trips a bit further out:
Aix en Provence
Manosque
Forcalquier
St Remy de Provence
Glanum - absolutely amazing! Dating to 6BC these Roman ruins are some of the oldest classical buildings in France, abandoned in the 3rd century. The oldest and smallest triumphal arch dates to 20BC.
Avignon
Gorge de Nesque and Venasque
And further still:
Pont du Gard
Gorges du Verdon
Your outline just whets the appetite beyond any reasonable amount of whetting! Just get your nose to the grindstone and indulge us all! Great stuff. I like it when you explain the whys as well as the whats and hows. You do that well.
Happysheesehead,
We were in Montpellier this past June on a daytrip from Avignon. I had read that "it's underrated". Whatever that means.
No sooner did we leave the train station that we decided this place is special.
I had printed out a walking tour. Usually the walk between the sights are nothing to write home about. Not here.
I can see coming back to this area and using Montpellier as one of our bases.
Can't wait for DebitNM's report and experiences with the Andrew's credit card.
{Myer - the Andrews FCU [true]chip and pin card worked perfectly! We used it for tolls, unmanned gas pumps, stores, railroad tickets from machines, parking machines in unattended lots. The only time it did not work was with 2 different locations of InterMarche supermarkets in The Luberon. It had to be their system. IF there was someone there [clerk] we usually had to sign. BUT when there was no one there, it worked as true chip and pin.}
Great trip, Debit. You might have been in Nice around the time of our daughter's brief stay. Your gite sounds great.
I'd have thought the Nice apt was OK from the website, too. I am always a little suspicious when they post tons of photos of the local sights (look! The Eiffel Tower! it's in the same city!) and not many of the actual apartment.
I'd be interested in your impressions of the Paris walking tours. Your Paris place looks like a real find.
Great report, Deb. Tell me about the markets in Provence and what you loved, please.
Six weeks in France alone sounds like heaven to me. I am enjoying your report and reliving some of the places you have visited such as Glanum, Gorge du Verdon, and of course, Paris.
Eagerly awaiting more!
Love hearing about your trip, and looking forward to more!
ooh. lala. Looking at google and more, as I read through your trip.
A frendly top to let you know I am still hoping to read about your time in Montpellier...... Busy time of year though, I understand
Great read! And just wanted to say another big Montpellier fan here.
Deb, please more info about the Andrews FCU card. Am very interested.
We based in Montpellier and loved it.
TDudette,
DebitNM did all of the preliminary research on the Andrews chip & pin card.
I went thru the arduous task of applying for it and used it on our trip to Provence & Paris this past June.
Essentially the card is programmed to take it's cue from the vendor. If the vendor accepts "sign" cards then it acts like a swipe & sign card. If the vendor does not accept a sign card or if the vendor's end is programmed for unmanned, then it functions as a true chip & pin card.
I used it about half a dozen times in restaurants just to see what would happen. Sometimes I was required to sign and other times I was required to enter my pin and not sign.
I used it at train station ticket vending machines and everytime it functioned as a chip & pin card.
I had no trouble using it.
I too am interested in Montpellier. While we were there on a day trip from Avignon, I'm starting to look into a trip to Languedoc and Paris for 2014 (it appears Italy will be 2013).
DebitNM,
What happened to the rest of the report?
Hr
I have been beyond busy...next week I should have time to work on this....sorry~~
waiting almost patiently
What are the mechanics of applying for the FCU card, please.
there are several threads on here about the Andrews Card, including posts from me on how I got the card.
Basically, you apply for the card:
http://www.andrewsfcu.org/credit_cards_and_loans/credit_cards/globetrek_rewards.html
You will need to join American Consumer Council since you [most likely] won't meet the requirements to join AFCU. They give you the opportunity to do so once you start the appilcation process.
So you end up with a membership in American Consumer Council [which was free] and a membership at AFCU with a minimum deposit of $5 for a share. Then you end up with the credit card.
When I signed up, I needed to email them a few things re: ID and maybe my tax return, I can't recall exactly. The whole process for me took just about 2 weeks and I had our cards. I read that folks who applied after me had to submit lots more paperwork [don't know why, credit score or other reasons??] and it took a lot longer.
Hope this helps.
I think mine took longer because being on the verge of retiring I used that status and they asked for a lot more "stuff".
It seemed like every time I thought I had completed everything I received more forms to sign.
Eventually I was done and when I called to ask why the card hadn't arrived after two more weeks I was told they come from Canada.
deb,you hit all the places I have visited and loved most of them.There is never enough time in Paris or Provence to enjoy it's riches.
Thanks.
Ok, no one fall over dead. I am going to try and get this done. I have forgotten some details, but should be able to tidy up some. I am doing this on iPad, so please excuse the typos and auto corrects.
I don't have my notes with me, so I will do what I can with details about Nice. We had no car, so we used the trains, buses or walked which worked well for us.
We took day trip to Villefranche-sur-Mer(which we loved) and then on to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, via the train. Unfortunately, the trains were on strike that day! We made it to VsM ok, but ended up walking!! To SJCF! And then , we waited for almost 2 hours for a bus back as several passed us that were full and didn't even stop!
VsM was a charming little town with winding streets and a great beach. If I was looking to swim in the Meditteranean, this is where I would do it. Sandy beach, pretty calm, stunning water. I could see spending a few days here, although the cruise ships do dock in the harbor and I am guessing it gets crazy in season.
SJCF was also nice. We went to Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, which was beautiful. The gardens reminded us of a mini Versailles, especially when the fountains did their thing.
Another day, we took the train from Nice to Bordighera. I wanted to set foot in Italy, I know, corny but being so close, I just had to do it.
We were going to go to Ventimiglia but I got talked out of doing so, folks saying there was nothing of interest there. We actually walked around a bit while waiting for our Italian train. It was a market day, and it seemed nice. We walked out to nice park and along the sea.
Got on the train, headed to Bordighera. It was pretty day, sunny and mild so we were able to walk along the sea. Most of the restaurants were already closed for the season, but we did find a few open and had a nice pasta lunch.
On the train home, we de died to get off in Monte Carlo, again, we were there, so why not.
We walked around the harbor a bit but much of it was blocked from tents etc that had been there for a boat show. We did have a drink at an outside cafe and watched the lights come up. We walked to the casino, which was a beautiful building, but not being dressed appropriately, we did of go in. We walked back to the train and headed home to Nice.
We de died = we decided. Luckily, no one died.
Hey DebitNM, We went to the monthly market in Ventimiglia as a trip offered by our Menton hotel. I must tell you that it is huge. We walked the length of it and didn't buy one thing! We were also glad someone else drove and dropped us off at a convenient spot.
For future, there is a sweet downtown with a separate, covered market that the locals used and I enjoyed that more. There is also an upper, older section that was very inviting but we had to catch the van so couldn't visit. I think you were OK to miss it but I thought it would be worth a return visit on a non-market day. Also, the market covered much of the waterside board walk.
I know what you mean about wanting to get an Italy fix!
Hi Debit, enjoying you report. As an ipad user I immediatly knew no one died
Are you using the Ipad for navigation?
We walked around the harbor a bit but much of it was blocked from tents etc that had been there for a boat show.
Did you see my boat? This is the one that blew the kids away when we were in Monaco in 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Moura
We had cocktails on it, sf!
We used paper maps to navigate, ziggy. We started off with a GPS, but it was less than stellar and then some "kind" soul decided to break into our car and steal it out of the glove box. By then it had stopped working ,so it wasn't such a big loss.
Having seen markets throughout Provence, after Ventimiglia, we know that it was far from great. It was the first we had seen ,so it was fun to walk amongst the vendors.
Here's hoping that you recall some of your Luberon visits, especially places you ate! Can't wait to see more of it all!
....and I think we are finally going to hear about Montpellier and the Courtyard, LOL!
I am going to be there 4 nights to use some category 1-4 certs, so I am going to enjoy getting the local info from you regarding the town and your stay.
Are you still in France right now?
Deb,
What happened to Montpellier?????
I am going to be in Montpellier in September. I would also like to read about your time there!
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/montpellier-france-a-short-trip-and-report.cfm