10 days in France
 

My husband and I arrive CDG at 8:10a on Thursday, Oct 3 and depart Sunday, Oct. 13.
I would appreciate some input on our itinerary. We plan to spend the majority of our stay in Paris. We would like to do day trips to Giverny and Champagne. We are also considering a 1-2 night trip to the countryside such as Burgandy, Dordogne or the Loire Valley. We traveled to Nice, Provence and Paris for 10 days in April of 2012, so have a handle on the Metro and RER in Paris. We want to see Monmarte, l'orangerie and perhaps revisit musee d'orsay.

My husband wants to go by train directly to our visit to the countryside on the day we arrive so that we return to spend 7 days straight in Paris. We don't travel abroad often, so those who do can weigh in on the feasibility of this.

We stayed in the Latin Quarter in 2012 near the Censir Debauton Metro and the Rue Mofftard. We would like to stay in a 3 star in a different area. Friends have stayed at Hotel de Lutece and Hotel St. Paul Rive Gauche. Hotel de Lutece is booked, so will probably go with other hotel. My husband prefers the hotel over an apartment so we have assistance with our needs and he can practice his French.

I know I need to get the hotels booked ASAP and buy the train ticket and ticket to Champagne houses.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

It sounds like a nice trip, but I think the Dordogne is too far for a 1-2 night trip. The Loire would be easily doable for a couple of nights - 2 nights would allow a full day of chateaux. Burgundy could be combined with a trip to Champaign - perhaps a 3 night trip. If you take the train to your destination, you will want to rent a car in order to fully enjoy your sightseeing.

You have no time at all for trip to the Dordogne, You could do the Champagne region or the Loire for a day or two, with a car rental.

fff, I think that your DH has the right idea of heading off straight from the airport, so long as you are comfortable driving after getting off the plane.

you could drive to Giverny, [just over an hour from CDG] and then down into the Loire region for a couple of days, before returning your car to Tours and getting the train back into Paris.

or drive to Reims and stay in the champagne region until you return to Paris.

Whatever you do, I would put all your time in Paris at the end of the trip, then you are in the right place for going home, and you don't waste your time there by splitting it up with a 2-3 day excursion.

I agree that you can't really do day trips to the Dordogne or Burgundy.

Have a great trip!

Starting directly from CDG we find easy and it does consolidate your trip, as you have already mentioned as a plan.
Getting to Giverny is easy, and a pretty drive. We continued on to Rouen for our first night as we were going to Normandy. Continuing on the first day to the Loire might be a little challenging for first day jet lag driving.
Staying in that area and then going to the Loire would be possible.
Have you considered Normandy?
Does a TGV leave from CDG to Tours? I don't know, but if so, you could do that, rent a car there and tour the Loire.
Perhaps see Chartres on the way to Paris to return the car at Orly for your Paris portion of the trip.

Thank you for your replies. We were not thinking of renting a car in Paris, but rather taking a train to a destination where we either rent a car and the driving is easier than the Paris area, or perhaps an area where we need no car at all. Last trip we rented a car in Nice, drove to Arles, enjoyed driving around Provence, then turned the car in at Avignon and took the TGV into Paris.

I was not clear in my post. I thought that Giverny and Champagne could be day trips out of our Paris base using perhaps a guided tour for Champagne and maybe Fat Tire Bicycle for Giverny or just taking the train to Giverny and doing self-guided.

My husband is not keen on Normandy for this trip. He likes the idea of going to an area that has a great deal of wine production. We are big fans of Cote du Rhones, but I am not sure of the area they are produced as I have not researched it and we are not married to the idea of having to go where Cotes are produced. We watched a several part series on France by Rick Steves and the Burgandy area is quite appealing. My husband initially liked Strasborg, but has decided it is too far.

FFF,
We are doing a similar trip in a few weeks. We are flying to Paris, taking the train to Beaune and staying there for five nights, after that we go to Paris for a week. While in Beaune we won't have a car at this point, but have arranged a few tours and will go to Dijon for a day. We have never been to Burgundy before so we would like to see a bit of it on this trip.

What lodging did you land on in Beaune? What tour company? Will you take the bus between Beaune and Dijon?

With so many chateaux around Paris (Versailles, etc) I'm not sure I would go to the Loire to visit Chateaux.

We've visited many popular winegrowing regions in France (Alsace, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone, Sauternes, Cahors, Loire, Dordogne, Languedoc, many more). We usually stay in these regions for 2 weeks at a time (8 weeks near Cote du Rhone & 10 weeks in Dordogne). Our two favorite winegrowing regions are Alsace and the Cote du Rhone if seeing vineyards/wineries & pretty villages is your primary interest. Burgundy is nice too.

Fortunately, there are easy-connection TGVs that go to both of these areas from CDG:
- Avignon - lv CDG at 11:40 arrive at 2:30
- Strasbourg/Alsace - lv CDG at 12:36 arrive at 3:04. There is a 10:26 departure too - but that might be tight.

For the other areas, you'll have to go into Paris, get to the appropriate Gare, and take the train from there.

Stu Dudley

Thank you Stu. We have decided against the Loire Valley for this trip.

Cote du Rhone is what we drink most often so it would be especially meaningful to visit that region. I have been focusing today on Dijon and Beaune, but I may have to shift my thinking based on your most recent post. Thank you.

There may be some grape harvesting on the Cote du Rhone in early Oct. We were there for 2 weeks in late Sept/early Oct about 10 years ago, and the roads were purple with grape juice seeping out of the harvest trucks.

Beaucastle gives a nice tour - reserve in advance for an English tour.
http://www.beaucastel.com/en/

Stu Dudley

If you choose to visit Provence/Cote du Rhone, we've vacationed in Provence for 18 weeks, and I've developed a 27 page itinerary that describes our favorite villages, markets, scenic drives, etc. I've sent it to over 3,000 people on Fodors. If you would like a copy, e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach one to the reply e-mail. Do so soon. We are going for a short 5 day trip tomorrow morning, then back home, and two weeks after that off to Spain.

Stu Dudley

FFF,
In Beaune we are at Hotel le Cep although we looked at several others. One tour is a wine tour with Burgundy Discovery. I did not want to drink wine and try to drive around the area. The other tour is focused on historic and cultural sites. There are several companies that do this that leave from Dijon or Beaune. We chose Burgundy by Request. For transport between Beaune and Dijon, we are taking the train. It is a short trip with frequent departures.
On the other hand we did visit Provence a few years ago and stayed in Avignon and Fontveille as our bases to tour the area. Stu's recommendations are very helpful so you might consider taking him up on hos offer

Waterdog, thank you for your information. Are you pleased with Hotel le Cep?

Stu, thank you for the itinerary. It is wonderful!

FFF,
We hope we will be pleased with le Cep. We leave in a couple of weeks for France.

I have a suggestion for you...I hope to do this one day but can't seem to plan my trips to Paris when Giverny is open. Go to Giverny, and then go to L'Orangerie the next day, first thing.

denisea.........great idea! Somewhere on a thread someone discouraged a visit to Giverny at this time of year because the gardens are not as beautiful as say spring or summer. So we have decided that should be for another trip. Do you agree with that?

waterdog..........I looked at website. Quite nice. No room for our dates :(. A travel agent planned our last trip. This such late planning. Once I get this trip locked down, I will begin planning the next one...........for our 30th wedding anniversary in late September of next year!

Giverny is not all about the gardens--the high point for us was seeing Monet's house.

Fool....I have yet to find out. I have not been to Giverny yet! I regret not going a few years back when we were in Paris in summer. The past 3 trips have been late in the year after Giverny is closed. I imagine that there may be times when the gardens are at their peak, but I would go anytime Giverny is open.

But, the advice (from another poster) I think is genius.

FFF,
In Beaune also try La Poste. There are several others that look very nice. You could always check out the reviews in TA to get more ideas. September/October is very busy in the area because it is harvest season.
Re: Giverny, we went to Giverny a few years ago in September. The late summer/Fall flowers were in bloom and there were NO crowds. And as Underhill says, a high point of any trip is seeing Monet's house

We were at Giverny in early October last year, and there were plenty of late blooming flowers in the garden. The ponds, water lilies, willows, and bridges were lovely.

Remember, Monet lived there in all of the seasons and his appreciation of the different times of year are reflected in his works.

Remember, Monet lived there in all of the seasons and his appreciation of the different times of year are reflected in his works.>>

also, his later works are much brighter and "splodgier", reflecting apparently his failing eyesight which meant that he found it more difficult to distinguish the separate flowers and colours - or so we learnt from the exhibition of his works at the Marmottan museum in the 16th - out by the bois de boulogne.

http://www.marmottan.fr/