Barcelona to Paris - Road trip in between?

Old Apr 29th, 2017, 02:29 PM
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Barcelona to Paris - Road trip in between?

Hi all! My husband and I are planning our first trip to Europe in September of this year. We plan to start in Barcelona and end the trip in Paris, for a total of nine of ten nights. After reading blogs for countless hours I could really use some community input based on our preferences! This is what I think we should do:

1) Fly in to Barcelona, stay there for three nights.
2) Take a train to France and then rent a car once in France. Drive up to Paris with one or two overnight stops along the way. Not sure where to go! Please help! I want to see the tiny charming villages but we also love wine. I don't think we necessarily need to go to the vineyards, but it might be nice. I was thinking possibly Carcassones and Limoges.
3) Spend four or five nights in Paris. Fly home.

My concerns are that we are either giving the cities too much time or not enough time. We will both be in our early thirties and really enjoy taking in different landscapes and eating good food. We love visiting different restaurants. Neither of us have been charmed by big cities too much (we've lived near Miami and Seattle, although we love New Orleans) and aren't the types who love to spend hours in museums. We are, of course, interested in going to Louvre but I don't know if taking in art is really our thing yet. We will go to some museums around here before our trip just to get an idea of what we like but it's not been high on the priority list for us as of yet and I know the museums in Paris will be on a totally different scale. I think we would enjoy seeing different types of architecture and older civilization, but I'm really not sure. We really want to soak in the culture. My question is this: I am concerned we will get bored staying in the same spot too long (Paris) or that we will regret not being there long enough (for both Paris and Barcelona). I know it is very hard to say what we'd enjoy, but could you guys please try!

Do you think we should nix the roadtrip and stay in the big cities to give them more time?

Thanks so much for your time and help!

Natalie
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Old Apr 29th, 2017, 02:49 PM
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Why Carcassone? From outside, the view is magnificent but inside, it's a restoration circa 1850 with one tourist shop after another . As your time is measured I'd pick something else.
Why the Louvre? If you don't know if art is your thing, why would you start with a giant museum? There are so many smaller museums in Paris. The Orangerie is one example of a museum that won't exhaust you.
You mentioned reading blogs. What about guidebooks?
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Old Apr 29th, 2017, 03:16 PM
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It sounds like it would be helpful for you to figure out what kind art you like. The Orangerie (mentioned above) is a wonderful small museum full of Monet's waterlily paintings. D'Orsay is a larger museum focussed on Impressionist works. Another small museum that you might enjoy is the Rodin Museum. The Louvre is overwhelming for even for art lovers.

If it was me, I'd nix the road trip, but it is your trip, not mine. There are many day trips you can do from Paris, and I'd suggest you get your dose of small towns that way. It gives you more flexibility as you can choose each day whether to stay in Paris or go on a day trip I spent 10 days in Paris son my first trip there and we couldn't tear ourselves away to do any day trips!

I second Envierges' suggestion of reading guidebooks. Guidebooks give you information you won't find in blogs. Fodor's has an excellent guidebook for Paris that also covers many day trips outside the city.
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Old Apr 29th, 2017, 04:10 PM
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Thank you very much to you both! I will definitely acquire a guidebook ASAP. Having only decided to take this trip last week, I haven't purchased one yet, but have been obsessing about the trip since so I should get one soon.

I thought that we simply must go to the Louvre but this input is very valuable. I think I will take Kathie's suggestion and stay in the big cities with day trips from there. That is a great idea. I will definitely read into the museums that you guys suggested as well. Thanks again.
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Old Apr 29th, 2017, 04:57 PM
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Drive up the Auvergne (Le Puy-en-Velais), and once past the Auvergne, you will be in wine country, either Loire valley wines (Sancerre), or if you angle left, you are in Burgundy.
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Old Apr 29th, 2017, 10:46 PM
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Actually angle to the right (east).
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Old Apr 30th, 2017, 01:42 AM
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I would angle to the west instead and head up through Bordeaux, La Rochelle (Ile de Ré), and then maybe up through the Loire. I can't see bothering with Carcassone and certainly not with Limoges (why on earth Limoges?). Obviously, around Bordeaux you will be saturated with wine country. And from there on up the coast it's lovely country, then you can head inland to the Loire and get some different countryside and plenty more wine.

I don't know why anyone feels obligated to visit the Louvre. I've made something like 200 trips to Paris in my life and been to the Louvre only a half-dozen times. There are no "musts" when traveling. That said, I never, ever tire of Paris, even though it is a big city and I'm not a city person. You can always get out of town and do any number of daytrips to fascinating places.

I would concur with those who say stop reading blogs (a lot of which are written by ill-informed people who wish to think of themselves as writers) and start reading guidebooks and history books. It helps a LOT, when you are actually on the ground, to know more about a foreign country than that it has "different architecture and an older civilization."
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Old Apr 30th, 2017, 03:32 AM
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Limoges ? I went there xxxx years ago and bought my porcelaine wedding set. I saved 25% at least.
Unless you want to buy porcelaine however ...

I love Carcassonne. Outside and inside. Yes it has been redone in 19th century (didn't check but believe above poster) but same goes for Lascaux 2 : you only see a reconstruction.

I would also vert left and do La Rochelle Bordeaux etc.
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Old Apr 30th, 2017, 03:40 AM
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Carcassonne is the brain-child of Viollet-le-Duc (which if you haven't read French history won't mean much). You can go and view it and be impressed and not know a thing about it or what it was originally, or you can go with some history behind you and know what and how it turned out the way it is. Either way it can be interesting, but I wouldn't make a detour to see it. You could go to Fougères on your way north and see a huge, original, untampered-with castle.
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Old Apr 30th, 2017, 04:42 AM
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On Carcassonne, some props, please, for Prosper Merimee of "Carmen" fame.
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