Advice for driving trip through Western France
 

My partner and I are heading to our good fiends' wedding in Bretagne (Brittany) in September. We want to take advantage of this and turn the trip into a longer vacation.

The wedding is in a small town on the border of Brittany and Normandy.... Since we will need to rent a car for the wedding anyway, we are thinking of flying in and out of Paris and then extending a driving vacation.

Our current thought is to drive south from the wedding through Nantes and Bordeaux (we are both wine-lovers) and head into Spain to Bilbao (and architecture lovers who need to see Gehry's Guggenheim)-- then head back up to Paris through a more central route.

So here are our questions:

1) How long would you give for a trip like this? (we probably can take 10 days or so -- and not sure if this is too little to make it worthwhile)

2) What are the "must sees" along this route or what sites are worth diverting off the route?

3) Are we missing an opportunity for a better itinerary?

As always -- thanks for any insight you may have.

Hi dh,

I suggest that you start with www.mappy.com and www.viamichelin.com.

Change "express" to "without tolls" and see what they suggest.

((I))

There is a lot of “good stuff” long the way on that route including La Rochelle and the Ile de Re,
Cognac, St. Emilion which is only about 35 or 40 minutes east of Bordeaux, the Dune de Pyla, the world’s tallest sand dune about a half hour south west of Bordeaux, Biarritz which has the most spectacularly beautiful, coastline/beach we’ve seen anywhere and St. Jean de Luz .It’s close to a two hour drive from Biarritz to Bilbao.

If you 10 days includes your arrival day, the day of the wedding and your departure day, driving down and back doesn’t leave much time for “smelling the roses” or tasting the wine! You might consider dropping the car in Biarritz and flying back to Paris from there, or driving to Nice and flying home non-stop from there. Among other things, it as a much more pleasant airport to deal with than CDG.

We just got home yesterday, and have sworn to try to avoid CDG if at all possible, as it seems to get worse each year!

<<You might consider dropping the car in Biarritz and flying back to Paris from there...>>

Alternatively, the "Corail" overnight train service proved to be a good bargain in my opinion, departs Biarritz 23:00, arrives Paris (Austerlitz) at 7:15 - - wit ha few weeks advance purchase, 2nd class couchette fares can be as low as 35 euro per person. Driving the same distance is estimated to cost 105 euro for tols and fuel (you do need to add in the 15 euro or so to get from Paris to CDG, if you are doing a true comparison, since you could just drive yourself to the airport if you kept the car).

<<We just got home yesterday, and have sworn to try to avoid CDG if at all possible, as it seems to get worse each year!>>

Really? I thought that CDG was as effortless as I can ever remember, arriving and departing, two weeks ago.

Best wishes,

Rex

Get a well-detailed map. Maybe someone on here can tell you what Michelin map number.

topping...

Our favorite spot along the coast by far is St Jean de Luz. I would suggest a train back to Paris somewhere in the southern part of the country given the amount of time that you have.

Thanks everyone -- it's all very helpful...

THough we may just save Bilbao for another trip and drive a loop around Paris....Loire, Champagne....etc.