mattd05

Hi everyone - i've just spend the last hour reading this forum - it's a great source of information.

I have 13 days in France in April/May next year. I have put together an itinerary (places I wish to see & where i have friends/family to meet). I think i'm trying to fit in far too much - but would appreciate any feedback. I will be traveling entirely by Train on a Eurail Pass.

- Days 1-3 Paris
- Day 4 Paris to Bayeux (via Rouen - hoping to get a few hours of sightseeing here)
- Day 5 Battle of Normandy sights & Mount St.M (Too much for one day + traveling time?)
- Day 6 Rennes
- Day 7 Tours
- Day 8 Travelling time to Bordeaux
- Day 9 Bordeaux
- Day 10 Toulouse
- Days 11 & 12 in Nimes/Avignon + travelling time
- Day 13 in Lyon

I'm not really interested in Museums - Mostly historical buildings/castles.

Thanks for your help!

cocofromdijon

Pff! I'm exhausted for you already!
you're going to spend most of your time in the train.
I won't choose for you but you really need to reduce your list (maybe according to your friends' place only)

happy travels and welcome to France ><

adrienne

Way too much. You mention 12 places in 13 days. Have you checked the travel time between towns plus getting to/from the train stations? You'll have very little time to connect with friends and family plus sightsee.

Sightseeing is not only museums. It's walking around towns absorbing their charm, stopping in cafes, churches, browsing in shops or markets.

I would pick Paris and one or two other areas and focus a bit on what you're seeing. Your friends/family would probably like to show you the sights of their town and will be disappointed if you have to jump back on a train 2 hours after you've arrived.

aggiemom

Hi mattd

I'm not nearly as well traveled as some folks here, but I also think this is way too much. Although, I do understand the "I want to see it ALL."

My personal limit is at least four nights in one place. I have found out through experience that I get too grumpy and disoriented if I stay less than that.

mom

Viajero2

The itinerary looks great for the first 4 days; after that, it gets unrealistic. I wouldn't do (probably couldn't) Normandy D-Day sights AND Mt. St. Michel in one day; you will not do justice to neither one and memories of both are going to be a blur, so what's the point of just passing by? Start decompressing your itinerary from Day 5 on, i.e. pick three main home bases: Normandy, Bordeaux, Lyon (suggestion) and explore for three days each.

cls2paris

Hi Matt - your itinerary sounds a bit ambitious to me also. You will be spending a lot of time on trains, add to that the time it takes to get to/from the station and find a hotel.
You also lose much of the first day arriving and being jet-lagged.

I suggest you look at a rail page to see how long the ride will be. I did a quick for you -
Paris to Rouen - 85 minutes
Rouen to Bayeaux - 2 1/2 hours
Rennes to Tours - 2 1/2 hours

You cannot take a train directly to MSM as there is not train station. You take it to a nearby town and catch a bus. I drove there so have no experience with the trains but I know there is info on this site about it. It takes at least a couple of hours to tour MSM and more depending if you are doing at noon with the hundreds of other travelers.

Take some time to check the times between places, and it may be different depending on the time of day, train type or day of week.

Here are some websites that have train information:
France rail site:
http://www.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic/...geUK&WB=HP

If you are going to be on the move almost everyday, I would suggest you reserve your hotels ahead of time. That will save you time when you arrive. I learned that it takes more time than I thought possible to orientate myself to a place and find a hotel. I prefer to spend 2 nights in a place so I get a full day to sightsee. But I will do one night in a place if I can get there early enough in the day. Everyone has different opinions and comfort levels. You'll find that the pace is slower there, and in many small towns, things close up between about 1:00 and 3:00.

Which are the places where you have someone to visit? Will you stay with them? That will at least cut out the time it takes to find a hotel.

How lucky you are to have people there that can show you where they live!

Randy

Way to much for 14 days. I would recommend staying in Paris the 14 days and taking one or two day trip out of Paris.

No you can not do Normandy and Mont St. Michel in one day. There are tours in Paris to these areas that you could take.

If you like buildings and castles, Versailes is only a short ride on the RER from Paris and that can easly take a whole day.

StuDudley

Matt

After you whittle down your list like others have suggested, also consider where you will be on a Sunday and Monday morning when most stores are closed. They also close for a 2 hr lunch starting at 12 or 1. Paris is the exception, and so is MSM and Normandy.

I don't think Tours is nearly as interesting as the other towns on your list. If you just plan to take a train there, and then find an organized tour of the chateaux, I don't think the time you hve alloted is nearly enough to locate the tour and adhear to their schedule.

If this were my vacation for 13 days, I would spend 4 entire days in Paris, and then catch the TGV down to Provence, rent a car, and then spend about 7 days there. Then take the TGV to Lyon, spend the night, then take the TGV to Dijon. Spend the night there & take the TGV to the CDG airport the next morning for your flight home.

There are also some TGV connections between Provence (Avignon) and Rennes through CDG - so check them to see if you can do the Normandy/MSM thing, then Provence - without too much lost travel time.

Stu Dudley

ira

Hi matt,

I would plan for 6 days in Paris and a week visiting France.

Do you want to visit Normandy, Provence, the Dordogne....?

Michael

When traveling by train you lose time because you must follow the train schedules rather than hop in a car and take off, and you lose time in connections. Of course, the time might be recuperated if taking the TGV. Regardless, you are trying to do too much. Stick to visiting friends and family, and hopefully they will give you a taste of the area. You'll just have to come back to France to see the other things that interest you.

mattd05

Thanks for all your help!

I guess my list was way over ambitious - but my plan now is to cut about everything down by about half. Are there any highlights from my list above that you would suggest?

Thanks!

StuDudley

I don't think "highlights" would be a way to plan a short trip like yours. You need to group some destinations together so you don't wast time traveling from one spot to another. For example, Paris, Normandy, Bordeaux, and Provence would require way too much traveling. Paris, Provence, and Lyon would be very efficient, because you can go to/from both places on the TGV - even directly from the CDG airport. It's 3 hrs to Provence, and when you return to Paris for your flight home, you can take the 1 hr TGV to Lyon and spend 2 days there, and then get to CDG from Lyon in 2 hrs for your flight home (if you don't leave real early in the day). You could throw in an overnight in Dijon f you wanted to add another town - from Dijon there is an 6:30AM train that will get you to CDG by 8:30AM.

You have never mentioned "a car" - do you plan to rent one to see the Loire chateaux, Provence, Normandy, etc?

Stu Dudley

StCirq

Oh Lord! Where to start?

Stu's right - don't make this a "highlights" trip, make it a logical destination trip.

First of all - are you sure you want a Eurrail pass? Point-to-point tickets may well be less expensive, especially once you pare down this itinerary. You can check this out at www.sncf.com. And since you won't have a car, what are your plans for visiting Normandy and le Mont-St-Michel? You can't get to most of the D-Day sights by train, and to get to le Mont-St-Michel requires a train ride followed by a bus ride followed by a short trek.

I'd knock Tours, Rennes, and Toulouse off the itinerary right away. Well, it IS possible to get from Rennes to Avignon in a day, but it's a 7- to 8-hour train ride and with one route exception involves going back through Paris.

I would stay on one "side" of the country, visiting Paris, Normandy, and the Loire, or Paris, Provence, and Lyon. In 14 days, with three venues, without a car, you'll still be spending more time than you probably can imagine just getting from one place to the next.

eric502

Two years ago we stayed in Bayeux for a week and saw all the sites and then went back to Paris and stayed a week.

On arrival in Paris we rented a car and drove to Bayeux, not a bad drive, or you could take the train and rent a car when you arrived in Bayeux. We saw all the sites, the Normandy beaches and drove over to Mt. St. Michel for a day. You can easily spend a week in Normandy seeing all the sites.

Have a great trip.

cmeyer54

We also did a little less than 2 weeks in France. Arrived Paris and drove to bayeux - spent 5 days there. You'll need 2 days for the beaches, memorials, etc. A day for the Bayeux sites -catherdral and tapestry. a day for MSM - its a beautiful drive. we also spend a day at utah beach, St Lo and Ste Mere Eglise. We used bayeux as our base for those days. On the way back to Paris, we stopped at the Peace Memorial in canne and Giverney. Altho we could have spend more than 5 days in paris, we were able to see a good number of things, take a segway tour, climb the eiffel tower, roland garros stadium, louvre, arc, memorial de la deportation, river cruise, notre dame, musee d-orsay, pantheon,etc. Yes, we were busy as can be but it was fun!

Momliz

Also, you mentioned visiting friends and family - you could have them all join you somewhere, so that you wouldn't miss out seeing someone.

But I totally agree with concentrating on one one or two areas, geographically related or near each other. I am in the middle of planning our 2 week trip, also in April. We will spend 1 week in Paris, and 1 week in a small part of the Dordogne - we will be bicycling (sorry, stCirq, I hope we don't get in your way!) so we will see an area in 1 week that could be covered in a couple of days in a car. But, we will really get to know it. I tried to figure out how to squeeze in Normandy, one of my kids would have loved it, but the travel times Paris-Normandy-Dordogne were just too much, even though I love train travel. The only way that I would remotely consider an itinerary like your original one would be to sleep on the train, but even then it's too much work. The whole point is to relax and have fun.

Considering the time of year, go to Paris, then Provence - the weather will be much better than Normandy - save that for a September/October trip. Spring in Provence is delightful. Tours, Toulouse and Rennes are nice, but could be done in other trips.

StCirq

Not to worry, Momliz. I'll be in the Dordogne in March, not April. But if you see a deux chevaux on the road between Le Bugue and Les Eyzies, what out! That's my nighbor, and he's got cataracts!

StCirq

jeez, what's up with my spelling today? That should be "..watch out! That's my neighbor..."

mattd05

I can't thank you people enough for all the advice!.

I will be on a Eurail Pass as I will be visiting other countries (France will be the last one). I don't think driving is an option due to my age (Rental Car companies tend to put an expensive surcharge (often more than the daily rental rate for 23-25 year olds)

I would like to concentrate on just one area, but I must absolutely goto Rennes & Avignon because my friends are there - so i've decided to make room for an extra day to give me a full 2 weeks.

- Days 1-4 Paris
- Day 5 Early morning train to Bayeaux - Spend remainder of day here
- Day 6 D-Day Sights tour, remainder of time in Bayeaux
Day 7 MSM - Arrive at Rennes early evening.
Days 8-9 Rennes
Day 10 - Back to Paris, Take TGV to Avignon (2.5 hours) - Arrive Avignon late afternoon.
Days 11-14 - Avignon with Friends
Return to Paris via TGV

Again, am I being too optimistic trying to fit this in?

cocofromdijon

looks fine to me

Enjoy!
and come back to see the rest ;-)
corinne