College student in France
 

I am a 21 year old college student, I am going to France for the first time for the first two weeks of March. I am staying with a friend in Paris who is there studying abroad, so I'll be doing day trips from there. I am planning on doing a day trip to Reims, Mont St Michel, Tours, and Versailles. Are there other cities I should visit instead?

I'm also thinking of going to the south of France for a couple days. I bought a France Rail pass for 5 days. I was thinking of taking the overnight train to Cannes and spending the day there. The next day I would spend in Monaco. And the next day I was thinking Nice and then taking the overnight train back to Paris. I have heard good things about other cities in the south of France. Are these the best 3 cities to visit?

Also, I am currently planning on being in Paris for 4.5 days. (My flight lands at 10 am.) Any suggestions on itineraries for those days?

Since you are a student, I would go to Aix en Provence, Avignon, and Arles instead of Cannes, Monaco, and Nice. It will be w-a-y too cold to go to the beach, a major attraction of your choices. Avignon and Aix are both college towns, so there are lots of great things for students to do, and historic and cultural centers. Arles has a wonderful Provencal museum, Roman ruins, and scenes that Van Gogh painted.

March in Paris can be quite cold and available daylight very limited. A day trip to Mont St Michel is a long day spend in a bus most of which will be in darkness.

Pass riding on French trains may not be as easy as it appears. You´ll need reservations for TGV, Téoz, or Lunéa trains which add expense but the real problem is that seating is severely limited for rail pass riders. For example TGVs to Tours, or St Pierre des Corps, may not have pass rider space at the most desirable times. You can always take the Intercité trains but the en route times can double making many day trips impractical.

The overnight train to Cannes actually arrives just before 11am meaning you´ll have 5 to 6 hours of daylight once you are there. The Nice to Paris train leaves at 8pm and arrives Paris just before noon. The travel times alone among the locations you have purposed can consume a good amount of your valuable vacation time and without tickets specific to a known departure, you may be spending more time in any given location than you planned.

Ackislander´s idea of Avignon or Aix-en-Provence could offer you much more as an exploring and inquisitive student than what you´ll find along the Côte d´Azur during the dead of winter.

Overall I might suggest you cut the destination count and try to spend more time in select locations (researching each city before you arrive): Dijon, Strasbourg, Tours, or perhaps Avignon.

There are plenty of wonderful places to explore in and around Paris which could easily been undertaken in only two weeks time: Auvers-sur-Oise, Chantilly, Fontainebleau, Provins, Versailles, or Chartres.

I would eliminate Tours unless you are using it as a base for some sort of touring trip of the Loire Valley. I'd also skip Monaco and the Riviera and instead visit Aix-en-Provence or Avignon. As noted, it's cold and bleak in March most of the time in France, and those train trip schedules may not be ideal. I'd also question whether the train pass is the best deal for you - I hope you did your homework on that - though it's late to be getting the advance discounted fares.

Get a good guidebook for Paris and set your priorities; 4.5 days there isn't really much time at all for a city so rich in historical and cultural sites.

Ha ha, a whole day in Monaco, which is worth about 3 hours!

eurocheapo.com/paris parisvoice.com for ideas
sunfrance.com
Couple of good sites for you
usually hop regional trains like a local
seat61.com/france
My favs in the south Carcasonne Arles lecalendal.com
Go to Monaco a fair amount on business expensive and
underwhelming.

Have fun!

Rather than Tours, go to Chartres. Or take the TGV to Angers because Angers itself has a castle while Tours is a train stop to other destinations in the Loire valley.

You should spend more tim ein Paris. Excursions to Avignon, Strasbourg, Chartres would be easy on the train. Can you return your rail pass if it doesn't work to your advantage on these routes?