Can anyone tell me what the foliage in Paris and Normandy/Brittany/Loire will be like the first three weeks of October? Will the leaves be at their peak of color then, in the process of fading, or gone altogether? Thanks in advance!

They won't have reached their peak yet in the west. They will be at their peak in the Vosges and the Ardennes in the east.

IMO in Orleans they turn little color but sometime in December just fall off

Don't expect kaleidoscopic fall colors like in parts of the U.S., at least in the Paris area IME

And French friends who have come here in say mid-October are amazed that leaves can be so so colorful - nothing they have ever seen at home -in Paris area - perhaps in other areas Kerouac mentions - but i suggest 'full color' is not what an American has etched in their minds' eyes.

Indeed even in winter some trees in Orleans still have leaves on.

I've been in Paris at the beginning of October and didn't even think about the Fall foliage, it's not a big thing, they don't have it like US New England, etc., they don't have the same kind of trees or climate.

yes what does Kerouac mean by 'peak' - makes one think of a New Englandesque color show?

The Vosges are indeed lovely at that time of year -- but no maple trees, so you'll never get that intense red.

Climate and trees are completely different and while there is a little color - nothing anyone from the US (used to mountainsides that are simply blazing ) would notice. Certainly not anything to build a trip around.

I did once, when my parents came to visit. We drove east through the Vosges and Alsace, then across the Jura and into the Swiss Alps, going through the valleys to the Gotthard tunnel. It was all magnificently colorful and continued to be so as we skirted Lake Maggiore, Domodossola and made it across the Simplon pass before it closed for the winter.

Plenty of blazing colors. People just don't always know where to look.

Thanks, everybody!

well thanks Kerouac because i never dreamt or heard of those color extravaganzas - are color tours the rage like in New England?

What time of year was it?

merci

No, I don't know of any color tours, but I wouldn't rule out their existence, especially in the Vosges or the Como-Maggiore area.