France
 

I am travelling to Europe in May, 2016, for a wedding in Malta. Prior to the wedding, we would like to travel around France for approx. 3 weeks. We haven't decided which city we will fly into but intend to hire a car and drive ourselves. We have been to Paris before and have seen the main attractions there so we don't need time in Paris again. I would like any advice on where to begin planning an itinerary. We have no expectations except to finish in a city where we can catch a plane to Malta. Mid level accom. budget. We have begun to research regions and attractions but as yet have no goals.

We have been to Paris before and have seen the main attractions there so we don't need time in Paris

REALLY!! LOL

Not really a helpful answer, Gretchen, but I do understand that one would need many trips to Paris to see it all.

No first-hand experience, but looking at the map, I see a ferry line from Pozzallo in Sicily. Google what goes on there but one sees beaches.

Perhaps Sicily could be an option--you could fly from other cities there. Others can give better info. DH and I loved Sicily.

I thought you might get pulled up for that comment, Jayne, but I know what you mean - if you don't want to go to Paris on this trip then that's that, regardless of the reason. I think you'll have to specify some more preferences or parameters, thigh - there are a LOT of options! What are you most interested in? Historical monuments? Cultural spectacles? Shopping and gastronomy? if I had three weeks is consider flying into somewhere like Bordeaux and seeing a bit of that region, then heading down via Arcachon to the Basque Country for a pretty different landscape and cuisine. You could go to San Sebastián and even Bilbao. Then you could motor over to Toulouse and Carcassonne, and finally head east to Provence - it looks like you can fly to Malta from Marseille or Nice.

Sicily is fascinating, and the landscape is crazy - you can be in almost alpine-like villages in the morning, and on the beach or in the thick of it in somewhere like Palermo by evening. Sardinia and Corsica might also be an option?

jayne - I think that it might be helpful if you could give some parameters for your arrival and departure airports. Have you worked out where your easiest entry and exit airports are? There's no point in us suggesting a route that, say, starts in Nice and ends in Toulouse if you can't fly to Malta from Toulouse.

Since the OP mentioned France not sure why everyone i recoing Sicily and sSpain.

If it were me I would check out a couple of different areas to get a taste of a variety or French subcultures - perhaps do a road trip from Normandy through the Loire (lovely chateaux), Burgundy and then up through Alsace. You can definitely fly to Malta from Frankfurt and perhaps Strasbourg or Basel.

We've spent over 3 years "on the ground" in France. Our two favorite regions are Provence & Dordogne. Just below that is Brittany & the Cote d'Azur.

A good itinerary would be:

Fly into Nice & spend 5-6 nights on the Cote d'Azur. Rent a car the last 3 days there & explore the beautiful Nice Hinterland

Drive 2 1/2 hrs to Provence & spend 5-6 nights there.

Drive to Carcassonne, visit for 2 1/2 hrs, then drive to St Cirq Lapopie and spend 3 nights there.

- Drive to the Dordogne/Sarlat and spend your remaining days there.

- Either fly to Malta from Toulouse, or take a train from Brive la Gaillarde to Paris & fly from there.

Stu Dudley

If you go to whichbudget.com and tell it you want to fly from France to Malta it will offer you nine airports (other than Paris). Personally I would pick Nice. I am fond of Nice in the off season and May is probably still early enough it won't be swamped. It makes a very good base city, although if you have a car you might want to stay somewhere nearby.

Fly to Bordeaux and visit the Dordogne for a week, and then drive through the Languedoc to go to the Provence where you would spend another week. If you can get a flight from Nice, a few days there would probably fill out your itinerary.

You should get the Michelin Green Guides for each region to plan the trip in more details.

In May, stay in the southern half of the country. Michael's ideas look good, but you could also visit northern Burgundy (Chablis/Auxerre both very pretty) and then hunker down in Burgundy proper for a bit.

I think Stu Dudley has offered a great general itinerary hitting some of France's neatest regions.

Thank you for all of your very practical and considerate replies. Thanks Stu and Michael, you are most helpful. Valuable advice from others too, thanks.

Gretchen- your comment- really?? Not necessary nor practical. I am not that ignorant to believe that Paris doesn't have so much to offer the tourist but there is so much else to experience in France and with so little time to explore new places, I can't afford the luxury of revisiting Paris.

jayne - there's always one. sometimes, I confess that I'm it, but on this occasion, I think that most of us realised what you were getting at.

Though a few days in Paris are rarely wasted!

hope you have a terrific trip.

Thanks Annhig. Perhaps someone can help me with this question. Which would be the best/ easiest airport to fly into to hire a car and drive out of the cities CDG- Paris or Orly? I apologise in advance if this seems a stupid question to some.

If you want a southern France itinerary, get a connecting flight from Paris directly to Bordeaux, Nice, or wherever since you really don't want to drive that far. It won't cost much more. Train from CDG to a southern city is another option, but fussier since you are switching modes. If you want to visit Burgundy driving from CDG could work. I doubt Orly gets long haul flights so probably not in the equation.

Yes, you can fly from Paris or London or Dublin or Amsterdam to Bordeaux, Marseille, or Nice, so you have a lot of flight choices, some of which may be significantly cheaper than others.

If someone told me "Here's two weeks and a briefcase full of money", I would just download Stu Dudley's reports and follow his itinerary above.

ditto to what Ackislander says and about Stu's comprehensive itineraries too (I have not seen one but from others comments like this) but IMO use as a general guide but do not try to follow every turn - part of the fun of driving in rural areas is just seeing what is down that road - get a 1:200000 Michelin yellow map - sold at gas stations, newsstands, cafes, everywhere and stick to the D (departmental) roads that except around big cities are IME basically well-paved untravelled roads that wind between villages - roads in yellow are busier and avoid roads in red - those are oft traffic-palgued with lorries, caravans and cars avoiding the steep tolls of the autoroutes.

I can't afford the luxury of revisiting Paris

Well, forgive me ALSO. With 3 weeks to visit France and "I've been to Paris" I DO believe I'd spare a couple of those days. BUT as everyone AND you have pointed out, that is just "me" and not you. In maybe a dozen trips over 60 years, I always work in a Paris "fix' but again, that is must "me" and not you. BUT I still say it is worth at least thinking about since you have an ample amount of time.

I also am not wealthy--don't know where you got that idea.

Again apologies for a differing opinion. I read a book once and enjoyed it. LOL

And yes, there are myriad ways to visit France in that time. Enjoy them.

Hi Gretchen- yes everyone is different. I appreciate your point of view. In this context, the term 'afford' has nothing to do with wealth and money, I refer to luxury of time.

"I would like any advice on where to begin planning an itinerary. "

You have an incredible wealth of options! You might start at your local library, looking at some guidebooks -- perhaps the Insight or Eyewitness or National Geographic, which are, IME, the best for inspiration. See what places grab at your heart. Then you can start looking at some of the guidebooks that are mor helpful for framing a trip, like Fodor's and Frommer's and the Michelin Green Guide. Finally, the Rough Guide or Lonely Planet for detailed planning.

Enjoy!

I think that you should work backwards - which places have the best connections to Malta, in terms of accessibility, reasonable departure times, etc. That gives you where you want to end up.

Most long-haul flights arrive at CDG, but you could of course fly from there to another city or get the train - depending on where you want to go. also it might be possible to fly into somewhere else - Toulouse and Nice have quite a lot of long-haul arrivals too.

With 3 weeks you could see quite a lot of France but there's a danger that you try to fit in too much and end up spreading yourselves too thin - I would consider having at least one full week's stay somewhere, perhaps in a gite, which ought to be reasonably easy to find during that time. There is also a growing trend for B&Bs in France; we stayed in a great one in Pampol once where they had a communal breakfast table and our french improved quite rapidly.

Both gites and B&Bs ["tables d'hote"] can be found here:

http://en.gites-de-france.com/?ges=R...k_redirect.php

Alternatively you should have no trouble just winging it that time of year - there are innumerable little hotels in France that you can just walk into and book a room and we have found some lovely places doing that.

This doesn't help much with the where, but perhaps it's a help with the how.

Last May in France was very rainy and a little cool where we went, but the gardens were gorgeous. We drove around upper and lower Normandy and as far south as Argenton-sur-Creuse, looking for gardens, Plus Beaux Villages, and Villes/villages fleuries. Stayed mostly in B&Bs.

nytraveler, OP's desire to get to Malta easily is what engendered the Sicily suggestions.