cccmoral

My husband & I are attending a wedding on July 2016 in Saignon. We are in our late 40s and enjoy food, wine & museums. We have 14 days. Planning on flying to Paris and takingTGV to Avignon. We have been to Paris before & so we are more interested in exploring Provence and proceeding to Spain & possibly Portugal. We also have been to Barcelona .
I must admit I haven't done much research yet but I would appreciate any input / suggestions that you have. We plan to take the train throughout most of the travel.
Thanks in advance!
CMoral

PalenQ

From Avignon you could head over to the east coast of France and from Hendaye/Irun take an overnight train to Portugal or from Avignon take the train to Barcelona and transit via high-speed trains to Madrid - spend a few days there - perhaps doing a day trip to Toledo - fantastic Toledo!

And then take the AVE high-speed train down to Seville and Andalucia - so many great things there - Cordoba, Seville itself, Granada, etc.

Or from Madrid you can take an overnight train to Lisbon or Porto and spend time in Portugal. Would be hard to both the Seville area and Portugal in your limited time frame.

If not into overnight trains check on cheap flights.

For loads of great stuff on trains check www.ricksteves.com; www.seat61.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com - download the latter's free online European Planning & Rail Guide that has suggested rail itineraries in each country.

Fly back from Spain or Portugal.

Michael

From Nice and Marseille there are cheap flights to Madrid and Lisbon.

<i>we are more interested in exploring Provence</i>

That being the case, you probably will not have more than a week for either Spain or Lisbon. You could land in Madrid, rent a car a visit the area around Madrid (Toledo, Segovia, Avila, perhaps as far as Salamanca). A guidebook would help in making decisions.

A similar choice can be made in Portugal looking at the area between Lisbon and Porto, and the coast to the inland areas.

PalenQ

Provence and the Cote d'Azur would make a wonderful 10-12 day trip, especially by car. So many neat places and total traveling distance much lower if going by train.

nytraveler

I would not head to Andalusia in summer. The heat is just too hellishly awful - highs of 100 are routine and 120 is not impossible. While Madrid can also be very hot it's usually not that bad - so you might do time there with a couple of day trips. But if it were me I would focus on the Riviera and Provence.

kimhe

Perhaps go to San Sebastian close to the French border, and en route to Portugal along the beautiful Atlantic coast.

Belle Epoque San Sebastian is the food capital of Spain if not all of Europe, has got some of the finest city beaches on the continent and it's European Capital of Culture 2016: http://www.euskoguide.com/places-bas...stian-tourism/
http://www.cntraveller.com/recommend...-san-sebastian

The 51th edition of the San Sebastian jazz festival - one of the oldest in Europe - goes on July 21-25 2016: http://heinekenjazzaldia.com/en/news...-jamie-cullum/

cccmoral

great ideas!! We probably would just skip Portugal and concentrate on Spain.
Kimhe, thanks for mentioning about the jazz festival.

PalenQ

Portugal is cheap compared to many European countries if that is a factor and its cities a bit less mobbed than Spain's I think.

Tabernash2

I recommend Lisbon and surrounding areas for day-trips. We loved it there. Much less expensive, like Pal says. People friendly. English-speaking not a problem.

And you've already been to Spain.

There are easy day-trips by train from Lisbon, like to Cascais or Sintra. And lots of historic neighborhoods to wander in Lisbon.

We loved the Hotel Avenida Palace, in the heart of old Lisbon:
http://www.hotelavenidapalace.pt/en/hotel-overview.html

Gorgeous building, excellent customer service, sumptuous breakfast banquet included, served in a beautiful dining room.

cccmoral

@Tabernash2 Did you rent a car when you were in Lisbon?

Tabernash2

No, we didn't.

Cabs there are very cheap. We walked everywhere. Rossio train station is next door to the Avenida Palace. The other train station is a long walk, so we took a cab one way.

I could see how you might want a car to explore the coast further from Lisbon.