michele_d

Hi Everyone,
You were all such a great help with our trip last year that I would like your opinion as to when you consider the best time frame for our next trip. Last year we traveled in Aug, Sept and Oct, starting in the UK, then France, Swit, Germany and finishing in Italy and flying home from Rome. North to south route to avoid the heat in Italy mainly. It was fantastic and we had only 5 days of light rain in 96 days! Unbelievable.

This time we plan to do a south to north trip including Italy, France, Switzerland and finishing up in Germany. We would like to experience a different landscape than last year such as green hills in Tuscany and wildflowers in the BO. We would prefer not to have the 99 degree temps we had in Paris in August! Thinking anywhere from May to mid July. What do you think is best for our itinerary? We are open to dates.

We did a lease car last time. This time we plan to use the 10 day in 2 month 4 country rail pass. Additionally, we will rent three cars: Tuscany, the Dordogne and the Mosel river area.

Our itinerary looks like this to start:

Fly LAX to Venice
Week 1: Venice apt
Train to Tuscany, rent car for week

Week 2: Fonte Bertusi near Pienza
Drop car in Orvieto, train to Rome, fly to Toulouse, rent car for week

Week 3: Dordogne split between two locations, Beynac & ??? (Peche Merle area)
Drop off car at Brive, train to Paris

Week 4: Paris apt in the Marais
Train to Interlaken and on to Lauterbrunnen

Week 5 (maybe only 4-5 days depending on your recommendations): Lauterbrunnen apt
Train to Mainz, rent car

Week 6: first four days Mosel River area
Return rental car Mainz, train to Rothenburg ODT

Week 6 last three days: Rothenburg
Train to Frankfurt, fly home

As you can tell, we like to stay put and experience an area for a little while. I really enjoy apts for the freedom it gives you. Plus we travel very budget minded., picnics etc. I don’t enjoy the, “If it’s Tuesday, where the heck am I”, kind of travel.

I’m excited about the train for this trip. We loved the lease car but want to try a different way this time, although I’m trying to avoid super long train trips, over 6 hours or so.

We have been to all of these places except the southern Dordogne. Stayed in Beynac last time and just did St Cirq Lapopie on the way to Carcassonne. Want to see more of this area….suggestions???

We love gardens and wine tasting, small villages. We love to just set off with a picnic in the morning and drive around on little roads for most of the day stopping wherever we feel like to wander around.

If you could help with the weather aspect I would really appreciate it. I know we really lucked out last year weather wise. I’m not looking for perfect weather. Just what would be your choice of travel dates if you could choose.

Thanks again,
Michele

franco

First of all, congratulations to your "slow" travel style, and to a trip that will be great no doubt.
Personally, I would start in the first week of June, but that's less weather-induced than Venice-induced: I love Venice in June, more than in May, admittedly - there are far less tourists, and it's already summer without being hot. Plus if you go to Switzerland and Germany in July, the probability of having few rainy days (similar to last year) would be higher. Even summers can be terribly rainy (and chilly) in Switzerland and Germany! Of course, they can also be hot sometimes... but I'd be more afraid of rain than of a few hot days.

Rei_n_hubs

I really enjoy traveling in May timeframe. It's nice a quiet but still "tourist season" so most everything is open.

It really is hit or miss. It rained all the way through June here this year and winter was horrible. It snowed in April for heavens sake. I would avoid July because it's busy and lines are overly long.

If you enjoy wine, consider doing the "wine road (weinstrasse) in Germany which is near the Mainz/Mosel river area. You could also consider Idar-Oberstein which is near enough to Mainz. It's a larger "small village" with a bunch of great views and a lovely hiking area.

michele_d

Thank you Franco. I absolutely fell in love with Venice. We were there the first part of October. Just two days of rain. I remember we were in St Mark's and it was absolutely pouring outside. Just buckets coming down. No one wanted to venture outside so we all waited near the exit. Well, it kept pouring for a good 15 minutes and then the water started coming up in the floor drain just across from the souvenir stand inside the exit. We sat on the upside down table, pulled our feet up and just waited. We just enjoyed watching everyone. We laughed and joked around with everyone, as we were all trapped together. By the time the water began to recede there was nearly three inches on the floor. When we finally went outside it was a sea of beautiful colored umbrellas everywhere...and me with my boring black one! It is one of our fondest memories. You can even have fun in the rain. I just want the timing of Venice especially to be the best so I can enjoy it fully again.

Hi Rei_n_hubs. My husband really fell in love with wine while on the Mosel last year. I will look into Idar-Oberstein as a second place to stay in addition to Beilstein. We loved Haus Lippman and want to return there for a few days but my husband will be so happy to hear there is a wine route nearby. Thank you.

bobthenavigator

Great trip--I love it.
We did an 8 week trip some years ago and started in early April thru May. I would push that forward for this trip and start after Easter for the next 6 weeks. We love the flowers that time of year and the moderate temps. We are going back to Tuscany next May.

charnees

Try to avoid Italy from about July 1 to Sept. 15.

michele_d

Bob,
When do you feel the flowers and green hills are their best in the BO and Tuscany? Is it too early in late April for the flowers? I really want to see a different Tuscany (although I loved it in October) this time, those rolling green hills you see in books. Last October it looked more like a giant patchwork quilt in shades of golds and browns. Still beautiful, but I guess I wasn't ready for that much brown. I thought only here in California it looked like that.
Thanks,
Michele

michele_d

charnees,
That is the reason we decided to do a spring trip this time and why we visited Italy in October last year. We had beautiful weather.

Michele

bobthenavigator

See some of the images of Tuscany in late April here.
http://www.slowphotos.com/photo/show...y.php?cat=3827

I cannot speak for the BO, but I suspect the elevations do not get green until early June---the valleys much earlier.

michele_d

Bob,
That's the look I am going for. Great pics!
Thank you,
Michele

sap

Hi, Michele:

Wow, I envy you the luxury of such time and really appreciate your travel style.

That area you are referring to as the southern Dordogne is more likely the Lot and Quercy area, but I'm sure everyone knows what you mean. I am still in the process of researching this myself, but understand that the Célé and Lot Valleys are both lovely drives, with Figeac as a recommended visit mid-point at the loop. You might also want to look into a day driving the Cahors wine road.

Have you been to Albi or that area yet? The villages of the Gorges de l'Aveyron 'tween and including St-Antonin-Noble-Val and Albi are oft-recommended, e.g., Bruniquel, Penne and Castlenau-de-Montmiral. The Michelin Green Guide describes some nice drives in these vicinities.

Also, Stu Dudley has compiled some good, detailed notes about much of this territory. You could do a search for his name and possibly request those pages by e-mail.

StuDudley

>>Also, Stu Dudley has compiled some good, detailed notes about much of this territory. You could do a search for his name and possibly request those pages by e-mail.<<

Yep - lovely area. E-mail me at [email protected] if you want a copy of my 35 page Lnguedoc itinerary.

Stu Dudley

michele_d

Hi Sap and Stu,
I feel this may turn into an even longer trip because there are just so many beautiful areas to see! We are self employed so we do have that luxury of time, although we scrimp and save everywhere else in our lives to be able to do this.

It is sort of an addiction if you know what I mean. If it wasn't for such mundane things as working and paying bills, I would be gone 365 days of the year, but sigh, my kids want to see me sometime so I must indulge them!

I will check out Figeac as I have seen that mentioned many times on this forum. And a wine route would be perfect as my husband and I are in the process of planting our own small vineyard so this could be a research trip. Yah, that's it, a research trip.

We fell in love with the Dordogne last year and if the Lot area is even half as nice I will be in heaven. We love the beautiful drives, picnic in hand and off we go.

I will email you Stu.

Thank you both,
Michele