My husband and I are roughly planning our trip to Europe next June, 2023. there is a direct flight from Seattle to Paris and it is the least expensive so it’s looking like flying in and out of Paris is our best bet.

*We want to spend time for exploring in Paris.

*We would like to go to the Alsace region to bike through the small villages on the Route du Vin (perhaps stay in Kayersberg?) day trip to Strasbourg

*We want to go to the Bernese oberland to do trail running and hiking, stay in Wengen or Lauterbrunnen

*We want to see the Luberon region, stay in Gordes, see the Gorges du Verdon, find a countryside Airbnb to relax in and also take a sight seeing tour around the villages in the area.

Logistically speaking, I’m wondering what would be the best option for us.

Paris —> Kayersberg —> Wengen —> Gordes (or Avignon)> Paris

OR

Paris —> Gordes —> Wengen —> Kayersberg —> Paris

** also, is it possible to day trip from Paris to Strasbourg, spend the day biking through the small towns if we didn’t want to transfer to new accommodations? Or is too much to do in a day?

Finally, how much time might you recommend in each place. We have flexibility with our stay. 18 nights is our absolute max.

Thank you!!

To get to Strasbourg or Colmar, take the TGV. Last minute reservations are the most expensive. I think that it is too much to take the train to major town and expect the nice biking routes to be close enough for just a day's outing. Obernai, the first town from Strasbourg, is a 30km. drive. I think that for such a visit, Colmar is the better starting point as the better known wine towns such as Ribeauvill� are within 20 km. of Colmar.

https://flic.kr/p/7psvPc
But even then, considering the time spent getting the bikes, getting out of Colmar, it would be better to plan a full day, at least one overnight with a late return to Paris, for a bike tour. Or instead of going back to Paris, the Alsace is a stop-over on your way to Switzerland.

I would do a week in Paris, with flying into CDG, easiest/cheapest way into the city is via RER B, which leaves you at lovely stop at Jardins du Luxembourg in the 5th arr; 3-4 nts in BO, you could also opt to stay in Interlaken which gives you access to both sides of the valley and to Bern if the weather is not clear for the mountains. Not familiar with your other choices for stops, will let other experts so direct you there.

Each of your transfers is going to take a full day; getting into and out of a rural area is never straightforward. Then there are arrival and departure days. So for eighteen days away from Seattle you would be spending six of them in transit. Doing the Gorges du Verdon from Gordes also means you’d be spending most of the day in the car.

Can you see yourself dropping one of those regions altogether?

I suggest you do some homework.
If you consult Michelin.com for maps, for example, Gordes is some distance away from Gorge du Verdon. Check the travel times. and the speed limits. You'd be lucky to even reach 40mph. Too, once you're on the road thru the Gorge, if you average 20mph, you're driving recklessly. I once rounded a curve (talk about hairpin turns!!!!!) going about 10mph, only to almost head-on a biker around a curve. At that point, I could see ahead maybe 250 feet, at most. That said, it was enjoyable, but 18 days for all your planned stops is, well, cramped.

Thank you everyone I am trying to figure out what part of the trip to cut. We know we want to see Paris. I love the idea of then going to the Alsace region after to have a little bit more of a relaxing experience after being in the city. We are really interested in biking through the small villages. We absolutely love trail running and mountains so I thought Wengen would be perfect. But then I thought it would be so nice to end the trip with a very Provence style Villa to relax after everything, but I�m wondering now if we should cut Alsace or Provence. Does anyone have a preference?

Since you have to fly out of Paris, you will have to return the evening before your flight. It would be best to put all your time in Paris together at the end of the trip, one less hotel that way.
On landing in Paris, go directly on to your destination.

Normally I’d agree with Sassafras, but Seattle to Paris is already a long flight. Unless you’re flying in business class with a flat bed, starting gently in Paris might be the way to go.

What to cut out is something only you can answer. With regret, because I love Provence, I’d suggest it is too far this time. Instead, take your time in Paris, go onwards to Alsace, then to Lauterbrunnen (again, each transfer is still a very full day). At the end, treat yourself to a couple of nights relaxing in a luxury hotel e.g. the Relais et Chateau brand, somewhere not too far from Charles de Gaulle.

Unless you can be content with Paris + Provence, in which case I encourage you to look at the trail running possibilities in the Alpes de Haute Provence (admittedly not as spectacular as the Swiss Alps): https://www.tourism-alps-provence.com/trail-running/. This puts you closer to the Gorges de Verdon. For Alsace and its white wines, you could substitute cycling around the Cotes du Rhone and Ventoux robust red wine areas, including of course the famous Mont Ventoux. In between the two is your little dream Villa for relaxation, and at the end, that night in Paris so as not to miss your plane.

You won’t really be sorry whatever you choose, just choose to cover less ground.

thank you! I think we really do need to see the alps�
have you been to Alsace? I want to be able to see the most beautiful villages so unique to France that we just don�t have in the US. My husband and I love to just wander the steets enjoying our surroundings.
Could we mix Alsace and just do Paris, Wengen, Gordes?

is a day trip to the Luberon from Paris too much?? TGV to Aix and then a private 6 hour tour to the mountain top villages and TGV back to Paris??

It may be opportune for you to spend some time with SNCF-connect.com or sbb.ch. Try some dummy bookings using this year’s dates and see if the travel times look manageable to you. Don’t forget to add time for checking out of and into hotels, and getting to and from the stations.

A whirlwind day tour bookended by long train rides is not at all the same thing as wandering the streets soaking it in, so you will have to be honest with yourself about what you want most.

Loved cycling through Alsace…over 40 years ago. After that, we continued cycling through Burgundy and the Loire Valley back to Paris. Does it compare to Provence? Unanswerable. It was, and I am sure still is, lovely and not like the Western US.

Try browsing the tourist web sites of the respective French departements, or the Web site of “Les plus beaux villages de France” and see what appeals to you. There are many regions with towns of beautiful character, and they are not all so far away from Paris and Bern as Provence.

FTOttawa, thanks for noticing their initial very long flight. You are absolutely correct. Best to start in Paris.

Strasbourg, while a city rather than a village, has a city center and a neighborhood of half timbered houses along the river that are as unlike US cities as you can find. You will be close enough to give it a day. I think you would like it.
google images of Strasbourg France.

Let me offer another thought on arrival after a long flight: yes, you are going to be fatigued and pretty much worthless after a flight from Seattle. But, in my opinion, the most productive way you can spend that day is by using that as one of your transit days and taking the TGV to either Avignon or Strasbourg. I know you can take the TGV straight to Strasbourg from CDG. Even if you have to go to Gare de Lyon to go to Avignon, I still think that I would consider that a more productive use of arrival day than counting that as one of your days in Paris. Maybe you would have a nice meal in Paris, but you probably won't see much. I once went to the Cabinet War Rooms in London on arrival day (coming from DFW) and never recall being so tired in my life, Afterwards, we rented loungers in St. James Park until our apartment was ready. By contrast, I used arrival day in Switzerland in 2016 to make the trek from Zurich to Wengen, and found that to be a good use of time on a day where my attention span for seeing the sites was somewhat limited.

I'm not a cyclist, but having stayed in Colmar, I think it might be a good base for a cycling trip of the region. There are undoubtedly some threads on cycling trips to Alsace and I would search for those. We only spent part of a day in Strasbourg, but it seemed like a nice town worth some exploration. However, with 18 days, if you are going to spend a couple cycling through the route du vins towns, you will have to make some tough choices.

I loved Switzerland, but we had 2 weeks, and spent a full week in Wengen. One thing to factor in: we arrived on June 9, and some of the most popular trails were not open that year when we left on June 16. Weather is unpredictable there, so factor that in to your decision.

I also suggest staying in Paris at the end of your trip, not at the beginning. Given your interests, I would cut out the south of France. Going there to relax might be nice, but then you'd miss out on 90% of the reason people go in the first place.

I have to say, I am a bit amused at your "I want to be able to see the most beautiful villages so unique to France that we just don’t have in the US." You could go anywhere in rural France to see that.

Thank you all for these suggestions. Now I�m thinking more about the �tired� factor after flying from Seattle + time change and then immediately exploring Paris.
what if we started by flying into Marseille and going straight to a relaxing place near Gordes. (Or fly into Paris and go straight on the TGV to Avignon?) renting a car. Using the first few days to re coop and rest, and the next few days exploring the Luberon. Then we would go to Paris and spend the week in the city once we were adjusted, Alsace on our way to Switzerland. Fly out Zurich (if all is affordable.)

do you think it would be a little overwhelming flying and then renting a car to get to our accommodation in Provence/navigating while being tired and never to France before? Vs. just starting with Paris?

Don't do any significant driving on the first day if you can avoid it. If you want to end arrival day in Provence, that's not a bad plan, and taking a connecting flight to Marseille might be OK, but would leave you well short of your target for arrival day if you are trying to get to Gordes. On the other hand, if you take a TGV to Avignon, you're 40km from Gordes, and that might be a doable drive to end your day if you manage just a little rest on the way. If you wanted a shorter drive, you could opt for, say, St.Remy which is only 20 km and involves less city driving (a straight shot south from the station, which is on the edge of town).

Open jaw flights could be helpful indeed, but the basic advice still stands, by the way. With only 18 days, why try for four far-flung destination areas? Which can you cut? Or can you increase your time away from home to a minimum of three weeks?

There are plenty of picturesque villages where you can relax in northwestern France. Or places to cycle and do trail running in the south of France.

I simply would not drive after a 10-11 hour flight unless I had that business class flat bed on someone else’s dime. On my own dime, I’d pick a really nice hotel and wandering the streets of any one of Paris, Strasbourg or Avignon.

Re: what to cut out
For what it's worth, to me, it would depend on whether you like similarities, or to savor differences:
To me, northern France (Alsace, Normandy, et al) are rather similar to the US (Middle West, South, NE, West Coast), whereas southern France (Midi-Pyrenees, Languedoc, Provence) are quite different cultures.
Depends on what you're seeking

very interesting, thank you. I am not really thinking too much culturally, more visually. I am a photographer and so I am always looking for the most scenic, stunning places visually. I also care about the ambience of the environment, especially traveling with my husband, to add to the romance. Which is why I do think I want to cut something so that I really have time to enjoy each place for longer and really appreciate it.

The colorful villages in Alsace look so stunning and very European. Especially with the backdrops of the vineyards. But then I see the villages in the Luberon, especially lit up in the hillsides at night and among the lavender fields� that too also looks like a stunning place to immerse yourself in. Some of the Airbnb�s we can rent in Provonce look absolutely like the most perfect place on earth. I�m not seeing as many in Alsace that strike me quite in the same visual way. However it seems that biking through the Route du vin from village to village might be a little bit easier and more enjoyable than biking through Provence. Again we�re not looking for major miles on bikes, more to travel around, stop, have a glass of wine and take in the villages.

Of course Alsace is not like anything you can find in the US. You already know that from pictures you've seen.

My first impulse is to say there's already so much to see going form Alasce to the OB, especially with part of your vacation visiting small villages by bike, and then heading back to Paris, that you should take your time and not try to cram in the South.