Hi gang. Ms_go, allie_go and I are thinking about France next year. Allie has been studying WWII and is interested in seeing the Normandy landing sites, as well as Mont St. Michel. Ms_go and I have been interested in areas to the south for some time now, and throw in a couple days in Paris for good measure, and what do you get? Good times for all.

So the skeleton outline so far looks like this:
* Fly into Paris, spend a couple of nights
* Rent car and drive to Normandy; spend 3 nights somewhere halfway in between Rouen and MSM
* Long drive to the Dordogne / Lot area; possible overnight near Poitiers (Futurescope?); need to think this through more
* One week rental (probably gite) within easy striking distance of Perigeux to the north and Carcassone to the south. St. Cirq-Lapopie area is a definite possibility!
* Fly home from Toulouse via (whatever)

Is it folly to even consider a trip that puts Normandy and the Dordogne together like this? I really don't mind having one long drive in the middle of the trip, but I'll admit it's not the most efficient plan.

Other general thoughts? Specific recommendations? We're wide open at this point.

P.S. We already have DK and Fodors guides, as well as good Michelin maps for our planning convenience.

How about:

Fly to CDG
P/u car at airport or in Normandy (someone here will know the best way to do this), visit Normandy
Train to Paris (visit)
Train to Dordogne w/PREMs (p/u car)
Fly home from ?

All the best to the go Family.

Hmmmm.......Personally, I'd plan the trip the other way around, going to the Dordogne first (in part to take advantage of the PREM fares you can get from Paris to Bordeaux - there's no possibility of getting a PREM fare from Normandy to the Dordogne because there's no TGV line between them).

So I'd go from Paris to the Dordogne via Bordeaux (then the piddly train to Périgueux, where you can pick up a car).

As for the gîte, I'm not sure it's entirely realistic to think you can camp out near St-Cirq-Lapopie (I just don't get why people love this place so much) and tour both the Dordogne and the Lot. To visit the main sites of the Périgord you'd be spending 4 hours a day in the car just back and forth. I think you need dto add another week and spend one in the Périgord and one in the Lot, or abandon the weekly rental plan and choose two hotels, one in each area.

I'd then take a train to Normandy and pick up another car. The drive between the Dordogne and Normandy isn't particularly inspiring. Futuroscope certainly isn't worth making that drive, nor is it worth going out of your way for - it's entirely in French and it's really, really old - most 13-year-olds who've been to an up-to-date theme park in the USA would probably find it embarrassingly archaic.

You might want to get the Cadogan Guide to the Dordogne, Lot, and Bordeaux.

Happy planning!

I would drive between the Dordogne and Normandy, or vice versa. StCirq's suggestion of taking the TGV to Bordeaux can be reversed. At any rate, there are things to see between the Dordogne and Normandy, such as Angers or the Romanesque churches in and near Poitiers.

I meant train from Paris not Normandy, sorry if that was unclear.

I personally like going to Paris first - mainly to recover from Jet Lag. If one of you are suffering more than the other, that person can snooze at the hotel while the others visit Paris on fott and perhaps agree to meet somewhere later. If I hit the roads first, I'm usually napping the first day or two while in the car. Even worse, my wife may be napping & she does all the driving.

Anyway, I would start in Paris. Then visit Normandy by car, starting in Rouen (I would actually take the train to Rouen, and pick up a car there, but there are some interesting places to see on the way to Rouen so you may want a car).

Visit Mont St Michel in the very early morning - get there by 8:30. It will be a mob scene by 10:30. I have close friends who went there mid-day against my advice. They drove into the parking lot, saw the sea of cars and busses, took a picture from the parking lot, and then immediatly left the Mont.

After visiting the Mont, I would drive towards Rennes - visiting some of the chateau along the way, and possibly Dinan or St Malo. Turn in the car, and stay overnight in Rennes. Next morning, take the train to Bordeaux (5 1/4 hrs, 1 train change), pick up a car, & head to the Dordogne.

I agree with St Cirq - don't stay near St Cirq lapopie. I like this perched village much more than she (St Cirq the person) does, but it's not centrally located for visiting the Dordogne. Stay near Sarlat for at least 1 week.

Stu Dudley

Thanks, all. A lot of good ideas here for me to sort through. Yes, we need to use our heads a little more on this one. Fortunately, we have time to do so.

I would not hesitate to put the two (three) areas together on one holiday, and it sounds like you have enough time to do so.
Funny how we have different ways of doing things, but I always prefer to END in Paris, the most relaxing part last. I'd always be anxious to get going on the "adventure" part if I were in Paris first. Frankly, I'd probably do round trip Paris which also probably saves you some airfare, so on arrival, get a car and spend a single night relaxing at a chateau type lodging and then head from there to Normandy. I loved the drive down to Dordogne from there. Then turn in the car there and take advantage of the train fare from Bordeaux back to Paris.

Incidentally, someone recently posted a site for a couple of the neatest atmospheric rentals in Sarlat! You might do a search here and see if you find them.

Your plan to visit Normandy and the Dordogne is certainly feasible, whether you do it all by car or a mixture of car and rail.

In June 04, we combined a trip to the two areas over 3 weeks, including the 60th Anniversary of D-Day. Here's what we did:

a. Picked up car at CDG and drove directly to our B&B near Caen, where we spent 4 nights. Most of our time on this visit to Normandy was related to activities around the commemoration. Without the tight accommodation problems of 2004, I would recommend Bayeux as your base for the WWII sites.

b. Drove to Dinan, where we spent 2 nights. We didn't visit MSM, as we had done that on a previous visit. Dinan is a good base for visiting western Brittany and MSM. If you don't spend a night right on MSM, then follow StuDudley's recommendation that you get there VERY early to avoid the tour buses.

c. From Dinan drove to Brantôme in northern Périgord, where we stayed one night. This was an all day trip, and not terribly interesting, except for the destroyed town of Oradour sur Glane.

d. Then on to LaRoqueGageac, where we stayed for two weeks, joining 10 other friends at our "gite" (actually, the Chateau Malartrie, which you will see in practically every photo of the town), It was a marvellous place to stay, but hardly economical unless you have a large group. We found LaRoque very well situated for our daily jaunts through Périgord. We never got much beyond a 30km radius of the town, and there was much more we could still have seen and done within that.

e. LONG and not very interesting drive from LaRoque to Senlis (NE of Paris), about 20 min from CDG where we spent the night before catching our flight home the next day. Even on a Saturday, we were stuck in traffic for an hour or so on the Paris péripherique. On the other hand, I found Senlis a perfect place to stay before departing from CDG. (did the same this May). Hostellerie de la Porte Bellon, if anyone is interested.

Several of our party flew home from Toulouse, and I think that that would be preferable to the long drive back to Paris, if you don't take the train.

I second St.Cirq's recommendation of the Cadogan guidebook. It's witty and informative. You might also look for Joy Law's "Dordogne" which is an absolutely first class guide to the history, sights and gasatronomy of the area.

Oops, I don't know what "gasatronomy" is, but I meant gastronomy

Hi GO,

I will be visiting the Dordogne region and Paris this Sept.

Look for my trip report.

Thanks again, folks. As usual, I have more in mind than I should squeeze into a two-week trip, but that's not a bad problem to have.

I'll repost when I have a better plan outline to work from.

Looking forward to your TR, Ira!