My husband and I are going to France in October. Thanks to all the help from this board, I have come up with an itinerary and would love your feedback.

1. Leave Salt Lake City at 5:15 on October 13 arrive CDG agt 2:25 on October 14
2. Catch train to Dijon (Oct 14 evening)I hope to stay in Coco's apartment (have to contact her) and we will rent a car in Dijon. (should we pick it up the next day--Oct 15 when we can think?)
3. October 15: tour Dijon and Beaune
4. October 16: tour vineyards around Beaune etc.
5. October 17: drive to Ribeauville or Riquewihr (touring along the way) Stay in one of those places.
6. October 18: take train to Strasbourg and tour(or drive?)
7. October 19: tour Alsace vineyards
8. October 20: make our way back to Dijon, return the car and stay at the hotel Stu recommends
9. Oct 21 take high speed train (at 7am?) and get on plane at CDG at 10:20

Main question--is it too much to get off the international flight at CDG at 2:25 pm and then get on a train (hopefully high speed?) to Dijon? I figure we will be jetlagged enough so it won't matter. Or should we stay the night in Paris and go to Dijon the next day? We are flying business class (frequent flier miles) and we do like small towns much better than cities so I am thinking it will be easier to adjust in Dijon??

I will search this board to find hotel reccos. I know the 2 Alsace cities are touristy but they should clear out in the evening?? We want a place that has at least 3 good restaurants so that we can eat dinner, drink a bottle of wine and WALK back to our hotel (we don't want to chance a DUI). So we need something bigger than a tiny village, but this board does not recco Colmar and we are thinking something more near the middle of that wine route.

Critique away!!!

(ps I improperly posted this message earlier but figured nobody would find it so I apologize for the duplicate)

The train from CDG to Dijon doesn't leave until about 7:30 PM. So you'd be better off taking the Air France Bus or a taxi to the Gare de Lyon in Paris and catching the train there.

A better idea, in my opinion, would be to take a train from Paris [Gare d'Est] to Strasbourg and start your trip there, working your way down to Dijon.

This is a lot of travel for one day--I would spend the night in Paris, get an early start to Strasbourg, spend a night there and then pick up a car.

The Dijon hotel is the Roya, and the train leaves at about 6am.


http://www.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic/...geUK&WB=HP

Is it fairly common to pick up a car in one city and drop it off in another? (eg pick up Strasbourg drop off Dijon?)Because I like the idea of going point to point.

Yes, point to point is very common. In this case you can take advantage of the new fast TGV line to Strasbourg--a big time saver.

For car rental questions I suggest calling Autoeurope on their 800 Number.

Colmar is a very attractive town, by the way.

Hi SH,

You have plenty of time to get your train to Dijon. There is a 16:44 from Gare de Lyon, that you might make, or you could wait for the 17:25 from CDG.

>I hope to stay in Coco's apartment ...

Excellent idea.

I can highly recommend http://perso.orange.fr/schwendi/index.htm
in Kientzheim. You can walk to Riquewihr. Also, the hotel has a very good restaurant.

See my trip report for the route we took from Dijon to Alsace.

I would return the car at the railway station in Strasbourg and take the TGV Est to Paris - 2 hr or so.

Right now, www.novacarhire.com is cheaper than www.autoeurope.com. AE will probably give you a slightly lower price if you tell them that you can do better elsewhere.

Enjoy your visit.

OOPS,

Ira Visits Europe – May, 2007
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=35014078

Ira:

Great trip report! I used your info and am revising some things accordingly. Thank you!

Glad it helped, SH.

Hi, StantonHyde. I think you need to rethink that last day. If I understand you correctly and your plane leaves at 10:20, you need to be at the airport by 8:00 at the latest, better by 7:30. The only train I know of (TGV) that goes from Dijon direct to CDG leaves at 7:46 and arrives at CDG at 9:36, far too late for you. (There may be others earlier but they arrive at Gare de Lyon and you'd still have to get to CDG from there.) You would be better off staying at the airport the night before your flight, or at least in Paris. If the latter, you could then take a taxi or the RER to the airport that morning.

Otherwise your plans look good. October in Burgundy and Alsace should be wonderful.

(Sorry if this is a repeat. I tried to post earlier and that one shows on the "post a reply" page but not on the page we normally read. Hope that's clear!)

The early TGV [weekdays] leaves Dijon at 6:30 am and arrives at CDG at 8:21. On weekends I believe it arrives about an hour later.

With the hotel approximately 50 meters from the station, this is a real time saver.

On the SNCF website, use Roissy for CDG.

After mulling over soooo many posts on this board and the info my post garnered, here is the "final" itinerary:
1.Oct 14, land CDG at 14:30, catch 16:44 TDV from Gare de Lyon to Dijon
2.Stay in an apartment (per Coco's referral) the 14-17.
3.One day in Dijon/Beaune
4. 2 days for vineyards
5. Leave Oct 18 for Alsace. Stay one night in Kientzheim hotel ira recommended.
6. Oct 19: Spend day in Alsace/driving to Strasbourg. Return car to Salsbourg airport, take cab (?) to hotel
7. Oct 19 and 20 stay at the Hotel Cathedrale (per recommendation from this Board)Tour Strasbourg for one day
8. Oct 21, fly from Strasbourg to CDG, get there by 8 to get 10:25 flight to US

I am estimating 30 mins from CDG-GaredeLyon, we would just take a cab? Unless we can take RER.(??)

The amazing thing is that I planned this entire trip using reccos from this Board!! including websites. Thanks to EVERYONE.

Thanks, Ron, for correcting me on TGV schedules out of Dijon. I did not know that there was an earlier train on weekdays to CDG. Good to know. Oct. 21 is a Sunday, but it's a moot point now since Stanton is planning to fly from Strasbourg. This information may help someone else, though.