We are travelling to France in late Oct. and early Nov. This is not our first trip to France so we are looking to see new places. We have about 2 full weeks and we plan on flying into Paris and heading for Normandy - there are 2 people in our group that are really interested in seeing this area. We are planning to stay here 3 nights then head over to the Champagne region for the next leg. We would like to pick out a couple of places we could stay and not have to move hotels and see Strasbourg, Dijon and Reims. We will be renting a car and travel by train when necessary. I am not sure how far these areas are from each other - can you help?
Thank you.

Nancy a fine city itself often overlooked may be well located for this triangle of cities. Could go by train or car from each to the other.

Strasbourg, Dijon area has lots to see from a base.

I think Reims is quite removed from these two places and you should either stay there one night or hit Reims on the way out of Paris and move onto Dijon or Strasbourg area later in the day. Reims, however, has enough to make you linger for most of the day - especially when you stagger out of the Champagne tours!

Thanks so much for all the great info. Does the new TGV run from Strasbourg or any other cities in that region?

New TGV-Est runs Paris to the following new TGV stations outside of Reims but to station in the centre of Strasbourg. Dijon is on a different TGV route. Also TGVs run directly Paris into Reims, Metz and Nancy and Luxembourg, going off the main new line. But fast trains going on will just stop at the new outside city stations from which presumably there will be shuttle trains into the towns or you change to the TGV Paris-Reims which also serves the new out of town stations.

So it would be feasible i think to train from Strasbourg to Reims if that's the question.

But fares on the new TGV line are said to average 40% higher than the older line - the source of many complaints i've read so day tripping may be costly on these lines. That said if doing paris-strasbourg, strasbourg-reims and strasb-dijon and back to paris then you should at least look at the France Railpass which can be used on any train for a reservation fee only (but i haven't heard if the fee will just be the usual 3 euro fee such as on all TGVs or a bit more like on some similar trains in other countries)

Pass pays for train fare but not reservation. France passes are not sold in France to my knowledge - in US RailEurope, largely owned bb SNCF, or the French Railways sells them as do many of their agents. I always recommend calling BETS (800-441-2387) for any questions on passes as they are experts and you can actually talk to someone knowledgeable - not possible it seems on RailEurope. but go to www.voyages-sncf.com and see real fares in France and also scour that site for some special online only fares that can be very cheap if a bit hard to book. that site has schedules as well.