I would stay more than two days on the French Riviera, so many lovely high-end towns and cities to visit, like Nice, Monaco, Saint-Tropez etc. And maybe an additional couple of days to relax. From the French Riviera you can even visit the Cinque Terre, the Italian Riviera is also said to be beautiful.

The French Riviera is one of the tops on my list for future holidays as I have always done research on it, but never managed yet to visit.

Lourdes is lovely, you feel like you are in heaven on earth at the Santuary of Our Lady, it should not be too crowdy with tourists in late September.

Do not include too many places since you have only 12 days and since you intend to include Paris as well, there is plenty to see there. Also take into consideration travel time as there are considerable distances to the places you mentioned. Do you intend to take internal flights in France, drive or take trains?

We plan to fly into maybe Nice, take a train to Lourdes, and then Paris. We would fly out of Paris. Maybe flying into Nice for four days, a train to Lourdes in the morning and leave the next morning for Paris. This would give us 31/2 days in the Riviera, 3/4 of a day in Lourdes, and then 6 days in Paris and maybe a day trip from there.

Sound good?

This does not sound good to me. IMO the time travelling is excessive for the time you will have in Lourdes.

The only train that I can find (with a brief search) from Nice to Lourdes is via Toulouse and takes more than 10 hours including the stop over. Driving would be more than 7 hours non-stop. So neither will give you 3/4 of a day in Lourdes. Lourdes to Paris is another 6 hours by train.

I would not attempt this myself and would leave out Lourdes this time. Alternatively look at staying further south (Montpellier, Perpignan?)rather than around Nice.

There may be flights which will reduce the transit time but again I would want to spend longer in or around Lourdes to justify the hassle! The Pyrenees are beautiful and there is plenty to see in this area if you like mountains and fantastic scenery.

This doesn't sound good to me, either, as the logistics of getting between the Côte d'Azur and Lourdes are going to be problematic and eat way into your vacation time. I wouldn't go to Lourdes to begin with (my absolutely least favorite place in all of France), but that's a personal decision and obviously many people flock there. I'd divide my time between Paris and the Côte d'Azur and leave Lourdes for another trip.

What you have planned at present is like flying into Washington, DC, bolting for Florida for two days, then a detour to Wisconsin.

I do agree that spending just one night in Lourdes is way too little, at the very least 2 nights, especially since you are using public transport and not passing through driving a car (still way too little time in my opinion).

We had combined our visit to Lourdes a quite a few years ago with a holiday in Spain, but we were driving a hired car - arriving at Toulouse airpot, first holidaying in Spain, then end of trip a two night visit to Lourdes and back to Toulouse airport. For us it was worth the Lourdes visit, a unique experience for sure, it does feel that you are in heaven on earth. End of September should not be too busy, unless some very large prayer group from different countries would be organizing a tour or it is an anniversay of the shrine.

We always prefer to do holidays in September as it is less crowdy everywhere, since most schools in Europe start in September, some beginning, others towards the middle (we are lucky as in my country schools start end of September, college beginning of October. I even check when they start in that particular country I visit when planning my holiday, especially if we plan to go for a few days to a funpark, we hate going to crowdy places.

Our two-night trip was as follows:

We had walked around the town of Lourdes in the afternoon after checking in (at a hotel which was quite central) on our way to visit the sanctuary. We visited the main church and grounds there, so lovely as it is near a river, assisted in the holy rosary with the candle-light procession and afterwards heard the night mass near the shrine.

The next morning we went again for a quick visit to the sanctuary, and to buy souvenirs in the shops surrounding it, then spent the rest of the day driving around the Pyrenees mountains. Yes, the scenary is really spectacular, we drove near the mountains and went up a cable car enjoying the beautiful scenary below, and a walk close to a waterfall (sorry can't remember the name of the exact location, but you will find it for sure if you do some research on the attractions that are in Pyrenees close to Lourdes, it is very popular. So I do think that it is definitely worth spending at least 2 nights, even 3 maybe to take it more leisurely considering time for transport.

About travel to these three places you are interested in, I just checked Ryan Air low cost flights, and they fly to Lourdes, Paris and Marseilles. You might be interested in landing in Marseilles and find accomodation somewhere between Marseilles and Nice on the French Riviera. Do not stay in Marseilles itself, I have never been, but from what I read it is not a nice place to stay. But there are many towns and villages along the riviera to choose from and you can do day trips from there. The more high-end the resorts are, the more expensive the accomodation. I can't wait for a holiday to the Riviera, which I might combine with a trip to Lake Maggiore or the Cinque Terre in Italy.

So, IF it were me, and were planning this holiday in France, I would stay 3 days in Lourdes, 4 days on the French Riviera, and 5 days in Paris. That way you would have time to relax a bit in every place. I would not add any more stops for sure, since you would not be driving, too much of a hassle to go to train stations or airports, time wasted in travelling, etc.

If you do not want to spend 3 days in Lourdes, then I would stay there 2 nights the least, and add another day in Paris.

If you need any help or suggestions, I would be more than happy to assist you. You might also have a look at EasyJet airlines, they do low cost flights in Europe, I did not check out this airline for you.

Enjoy planning your holiday, and of course your trip!!

Thank you so much! I appreciate everyones input! Anna, I think your idea is great. It is important for my husband to go to Lourdes and I want to se the Riviera and Paris. I will also check into flights between the locations.

Thanks again!
Michele

Micheled,
This could get confusing!
Michele_d