LGT

Hello All - hopefully I'm correct starting a new message instead of tagging on to previous thread. We're travelling to France early Sept/13 for 12 nights. Flying into Paris - flying home from Lyon. 5 nights in Paris, then planning to rent a car for remaining 7 nights:

Day 1 - drive to Juno Beach ( Cdn ) overnight

Day 2 - finish memorials & drive to Orleans - overnight

Day 3 - explore & drive to Dijon - overnight

Day 4 - explore & drive to Annecy - 2 nights

Day 6 - explore & drive to Lyon - 2 nights

Fly home from Lyon. Hope above gives us good intro to France - so difficult to choose. Orleans & Dijon negotiable. Trying to limit actual driving to 3-4 hours per day - anticipate many spontaneous stops along the way

Grateful for all suggestions.

Thank you.

Michael

Orléans is considered the pits. Anywhere else in the Loire valley would probably be preferable.

nytraveler

You are trying to pack way too much into limited time. In the days you have I would pick two places to stay - so you can actually see something.

IMHO Normandy requires at least 2 nights just to see the Museum and the invasion beaches - never mind the Bayeux tapestry. To see much of the Loire requires at least 3 nights (we were near Chinon for 6) to see much of anything. And Orleans is really not the best place to stay - I would at least stay in a place that has a chateaux - such as Blois or Amboise.

LGT

Michael & NYTraveler - thanks for your civil comments. It's draft - a starting point only. Everyone has to begin somewhere, don't they? Will omit Orleans. As stated, this is our first visit. I can't believe the other comments posted when someone is asking for help. How sad. I've always received great responses.

adrienne

You need to use either mappy.com or viamichelin.com to estimate your driving times. I always add 25% to whatever time they give for driving (and I always need that extra 25%). You also need to add time to stop for food/health breaks.

If you check the driving time from Orleans to Dijon it is 3 hours on the motorway but you want to be able to stop and explore enroute. Avoiding the motorway it will take 4.5 hours for this trip, plus the extra 25% plus stopping for other things.

Rather than stopping in Dijon for the night why don't you head to Annecy and stop someplace along the way for the night. Since you have no place special in mind to visit why go out of your way to stay in Dijon. You won't have time to do any sightseeing there. Driving directly from Orleans area to Annecy takes a bit over 7 hours (plus the 25%) plus stopping wherever takes your fancy.

LGT

Adrienne, great advice - thank you! We're a bit too ambitious. We'll skip Dijon and focus on a longer drive from the Beaches heading to Annecy. Feel better already

Southam

You can certainly "see" Juno beach by driving yourself, but you won't get the experience provided by the tours which specialize in the Commonwealth landings. For Canadians, the subsequent tank battles in the Caen area were a critical part of the offensive and a hidden story that will be difficult to perceive without an expert perspective. It might be cheaper to take the train to Bayeaux or Caen for a tour, then hire a car at Caen.

oliolin

Re the Loire Valley, Tours may also be a nice place to stay - it is a university town with good restaurants and nightlife. You can see the castles and chateaus during the day - you won't be able to enter them after a certain hour in any case.

I would skip Dijon for this 1st trip. Also - as much as Annecy is charming, it's a long drive for you to get there, without much on the way. Getting to Lyon is actually much easier with a train from Paris than driving. One potential option would be to take the car and do a round trip from paris then drop it off and take the train to Lyon. In your round trip you could cover:

Paris - Juno - Bayeux - Mt St. Michel - Tours - Loire Valley - Paris.
You could keep the car for another day and take a day trip east towards the champagne region.

One other thought is that based on the intensity of your last 7 days, you may find that you've got too long in Paris. Not that you'll see everything in 5 days - not even close - but if this is the first of potentially more trips in the future, 3 days could be enough for a taste - then you could spend some more time in the other destinations (or add additional ones)

PS in the end, the amount of time you choose to spend in each place is a matter of preference. you can take the whirlwind tour in one day, to get a taste and build up your desire to come back again, or spend a week to really get to know a place in more depth. I lean towards the first of these two, because I appreciate the variety, and do tend to come back again to places I liked.

Whatever you choose - sounds like you're in for a wonderful time. Enjoy!

LGT

Oliolin - thanks for great advice! We were definitely too ambitious in our first draft - an all too common mistake for eagre first timers. You want to see everything

A quick trip to Juno Beach is gumming up the works, but something we want to see. Loire Valley & Dijon are out. Really don't want to sacrifice Annecy - thinking of breaking up the drive with an overnight in Beaune, then on to Annecy. That would mean 3 nights in Lyon before flying home - could always 3rd day for a day trip?

Would welcome your feedback.

oliolin

Sounds like you have a plan

3 nights in lyon is great, I think you'll have enough things to see and do that you won't really want to take a day trip outside. You won't need your car in Lyon either so you can return it to save yourself any hassles with driving or parking there.
A few random things I remember well from Lyon are:
- Terre Adelice ice cream - wonderful ice cream in the old town, with lots (~200?) of unique flavors. Even though I didn't love some of their weirder flavors (tomato basil, thyme), I really enjoyed trying them.
- Losing myself on purpose in the croix rousse and trying to find all the secret passageways hidden away. (They are marked pretty well, so it's more the fun of exploration)
- Delicious food, simple and fresh, in all the restaurants of the pedestrian streets of rue des marroniers or rue merciere. Always accompanied by wine from the region (and so affordable)
- Walking by the river in the evenings seeing all the people come out to the boat-restaurants/bars
- The Tour at Fourviere - they had volunteer guides and I got my own private tour from one of them (more than half in french but I managed...)

Just in case you are looking for more things to do in the area, and if either of you are big wine fans, you may want to check out some of the excellent Rhone valley vineyards as a detour on the way to lyon. they are due south of the city along the river (and off the highway), about 1 hour south of Lyon and further down from there, say down to Valence. Some potential small villages you could look at and find some interesting wineries in could be Ampuis, Crozes-Hermitages, Cornas, and Malleval just for the view of the town among the hills.

LGT

Thanks again Oliolin for your great tips!