fate_golfman

Landing in CDG in late November, I have 5 days of R&R before I go back to work in the Middle East. I have been to France twice before and would love to add a couple more countries in my list of countries visited. Would anyone please suggest an itinerary from Paris to neighboring countries such as Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland and back to Paris. Thanks.

WillTravel

Germany, the Netherlands, and England would also be easy to do starting from Paris. What are your top priorities for places to see? You could even take another flight to a different country.

fate_golfman

Thanks, WillTravel. I have been to Germany, the Netherlands and England before but never been to Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. I was wondering if you can suggest a trip plan for the countries I mentioned. I fly out of CDG.

swandav2000

Hi fate_golfman,

Lake Geneva is ok in November, and it's about four hours by TGV from Paris. I really like the town of Montreux. Information at

www.montreux.ch
www.montreux-vevey.ch

From there you could go on to see Gstaad or maybe south to the Italian section, the Ticino. But the high Alps probably won't be much that early --

Have fun!

s

surfmom

I don't think you are trying to do enough. be ambitious!

I think the tgv goes to either Amsterdam or Brussels (I can't remember). You only lose 1/2 day to get there. Then visit the other for an overnight. Next day, go to Luxembourg, Germany. Day 3: Switzerland and into Italy. Then head to Monaco and finally back to Paris.

You will definitely do some list checking then!

surfmom

Okay, so in reality, I think you are being a bit over-ambitious.

Have you spent time in Paris ? If you want r&r, that would be a great city to wander. You mentioned that you've been to France... where ? There are amazing other places. You may not check off the list of countries - but you will have a wonderful break.

fate_golfman

Thanks everybody.
Surfmom, I've spent a lot of time in Paris working at Eurodisney during its construction in the '90s. I've also been to the south - french border with Spain (city of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port) where I crossed the Pyrenees on foot to kick off the 30-day walk and pilgrimage to Compostela, Spain. The reason I picked Paris as my starting and end points is the ease of airline connections to the middle east - I don't really need to spend time there.

lavandula

Why not travel to Belgium, pick a base and do some day trips - you can easily visit Luxembourg City in a day from Brussels, and the railways in Belgium are quick and convenient. Then you can comfortably see 2 countries in 5 days and get back to Paris easily too. Where you see in Belgium is up to you - most people on this board go for Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp. Maybe with 5 days you would want to cut down the number of stops a little and give yourself a little more time in the destinations that grab you.
Lavandula

rhkkmk

amsterdam and brussells are both easy train rides as is luxembourg and western germany...

fate_golfman

Thank you all. You are all very helpful.

artstuff

You can take the TGV from Paris to Luxembourg City (it takes about 2 hours), which is a geographically interesting city to visit. If the weather is nice, you can train and bus from Lux City to Vianden, LX, which has a great castle perched on the hill overlooking the town. Trier, Germany is almost next door to Luxembourg City, and is certainly worth a visit if you are in the area, especially if you have an interest in Roman antiquities.

Then, you can train from Luxembourg City to Brussels. You can base yourself there and do trips to Brugge, Ghent, and/or Antwerp. Or, spend a few hours exploring Brussels, then move on to one or more of the other towns.

From any of those Belgium ciites, you can easily train back to Paris.

Here's a link to my trip report through BeNeLux. Maybe you'll find something useful in it:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...luxembourg.cfm

Enjoy your travels.

Robyn

fate_golfman

Robyn, thank you very much.