annerose

My husband and I will be traveling to France in April for business. We need to be in Paris on April 23rd but have about 3.5 or 4 days before to spend in the Bordeaux region. We are interested in seeing Bordeaux, the prehistoric caves in the Perigord region and are also interested in seeing some of the Atlantic coast. Does anyone have an opinion as to whether this is too ambitious a trip for only a few days. Also, can you recommend 4 star hotels in these regions.

StCirq

Well, four days would be enough for a minimalist overview. It will take you 3 hours to take the TGV from Paris to Bordeaux, so there goes a half day. Assuming you want to make the most of your time, you'd rent a car in Bordeaux and drop it off in the Dordogne and take a train back to Paris (there goes another half day). I suppose you could fly out of Bordeaux, but then you'd have to drive back to Bordeaux from the Dordogne, so either way you look at it, you lose a full day in travel.<BR><BR>Assume you've got 2.5-3 days, then. One day in Bordeaux leaves you 1.5-2 days. It will take you a full day to drive out to the Atlantic coast and visit Arcachon, the Dune du Pilat, Cap Ferrat, etc. That leaves .5-1 day. Enough to drive to the Sarlat region, stopping in St-Emilion on the way and maybe taking in one prehistoric site.<BR>You could get by with a half day in Bordeaux and a half-day on the coast if you made it a long day, and that would give you an extra day in the Dordogne, but it's still a whirlwind.<BR>I don't know of any 4-star hotels in Bordeaux, but the Etche-Ona is a lovely 3-star. The only hotel in the Dordogne that I know of that is 4 stars is the Centenaire in Les Eyzies.

lynlor

For a city that is lacking in the hotel department, there is one 4* hotel....Burdigala. [email protected]. We have stayed at this hotel and liked the room, the restauant and the staff very much.<BR><BR>There are many lovely properties in the Relais and Chateaux group in this area, but too many to list here. If you go to: www.relaiscahteaux.com... you will get get more information about location, price and opening times etc.<BR><BR>Yes, it does take several hours on the train, but I don't consider this to be 1/2 of a day. It can be relaxing on the train and maybe you will enjoy seeing the countryside.<BR>

JmVikmanis

We were in Bordeaux and on the Atlantic coast last fall. Enjoyed it immensely. Stayed at the St. James in Bouilliac just outside of Bordeaux (a Relais and Chateau property) and visited vineyards then drove on up to Hotel Richelieu on the Ile de Re just outside of La Rochelle. I think Le Richelieu is also an R&amp;C. Both hotels were wonderful. Would expect spring in these areas to be very pretty. See my trip report probably entitled Bordeaux, Brittany, Normandy, Loire or some such from Oct. 2002 for more details on hotels, restaurants, vineyards, etc. We spend 5 and one half days between Bordeaux and Ile de Re so I would not try to add on Dordogne.

JmVikmanis

Just reread my report on Bordeaux. You can access it by putting Bordeaux and JmVikmanis into the search box. Had some trouble posting it winding up duplicating the first part on Bordeaux and then much later in the thread, adding the info about Ile de Re so keep looking through it to find that info.

annerose

Thank you all for your input. We will revisit our itinerary. It may be better to chose either the Dordogne or the Coast since doing both seems like a lot.