France
Aug 23rd, 2012, 09:26 AM
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France
Hello,
My family of four wishes to travel France for a week or so July 2013. We would love to rent an apartment centrally located and take day trips from there so we could come back to the same apartment each night.
Do you have suggestions as to which city or village we should rent the apartment so we can see several of the main highlights in France? We wish to see the Beaches of Normandy, Omaha Beach, some world war battlefields, Dieppe, Lourds and the south of France. We don't need to see Paris.
Thank you,
Diane from Canada
My family of four wishes to travel France for a week or so July 2013. We would love to rent an apartment centrally located and take day trips from there so we could come back to the same apartment each night.
Do you have suggestions as to which city or village we should rent the apartment so we can see several of the main highlights in France? We wish to see the Beaches of Normandy, Omaha Beach, some world war battlefields, Dieppe, Lourds and the south of France. We don't need to see Paris.
Thank you,
Diane from Canada
Aug 23rd, 2012, 09:34 AM
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For rentals rathr than B&Bs, try http://en.gites-de-france.com/liste?liste=carte#page
Dieppe is a little far if you stay in the area close to the D-Day landings, and Lourdes is in a completely different location.
Dieppe is a little far if you stay in the area close to the D-Day landings, and Lourdes is in a completely different location.
Aug 23rd, 2012, 09:41 AM
#3
Diane
For historical and political reasons Paris is sort of central with all the good train routes coming in there. But assuming you don't want to be there, you want to do day trips to the other ends of the country eg, you want to get to Lourdes and Dieppe each there and back in one day, then you either don't understand the size of France or have exceptional traveling skills (think Clark Kent). It is worth checking out google maps and looking at the times they offer (assume that google is 25% optimistic.
So what could you do? You could look at the place in Sections, so have a few days in Normandy or Britanny and a few days in the Languedoc or other South Western regions. This is easy to do and each area will give you lots of tour opportunities. gites-de-france is a good first shot, but as you get to understand what you want to do I suggest you also look at village websites as they often offer cheaper gites but with similar levels of security and can often be booked via the village.
For historical and political reasons Paris is sort of central with all the good train routes coming in there. But assuming you don't want to be there, you want to do day trips to the other ends of the country eg, you want to get to Lourdes and Dieppe each there and back in one day, then you either don't understand the size of France or have exceptional traveling skills (think Clark Kent). It is worth checking out google maps and looking at the times they offer (assume that google is 25% optimistic.
So what could you do? You could look at the place in Sections, so have a few days in Normandy or Britanny and a few days in the Languedoc or other South Western regions. This is easy to do and each area will give you lots of tour opportunities. gites-de-france is a good first shot, but as you get to understand what you want to do I suggest you also look at village websites as they often offer cheaper gites but with similar levels of security and can often be booked via the village.
Aug 23rd, 2012, 09:57 AM
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<<We wish to see the Beaches of Normandy, Omaha Beach, some world war battlefields, Dieppe, Lourds and the south of France.>>
Well, you'll likely need a helicopter to make that happen in "a week or so." And even if you could beam yourself all over the country, there isn't a single apartment anywhere that would give you access to all those places.
You could pick a gîte or apartment in the north and another in the south and fly through two areas in a week's time, though I don't see how Lourdes is going to fit into any such plan.
I think the first thing you need to do is get hold of a good map of France. Be sure you understand the scale, so you have some idea of distances between places.
Well, you'll likely need a helicopter to make that happen in "a week or so." And even if you could beam yourself all over the country, there isn't a single apartment anywhere that would give you access to all those places.
You could pick a gîte or apartment in the north and another in the south and fly through two areas in a week's time, though I don't see how Lourdes is going to fit into any such plan.
I think the first thing you need to do is get hold of a good map of France. Be sure you understand the scale, so you have some idea of distances between places.
Aug 23rd, 2012, 11:46 AM
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OMG. You folks are hillarius!
Okay ... I'll go back to square one with your thoughts in mind.
Planning a European vacation is so overwhelming but I have 10 months left to plan. Please bear with me while I educate myself
Thank you,
Diane
Okay ... I'll go back to square one with your thoughts in mind.
Planning a European vacation is so overwhelming but I have 10 months left to plan. Please bear with me while I educate myself
Thank you,
Diane
Aug 23rd, 2012, 12:37 PM
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>>but I have 10 months left to plan. <<
Not really, if you want to rent a gite/house. My wife & I have rented 52 gites in various areas in France. We usually have them reserved about 1 year in advance. We've rented all our gites through Gites de France, and they are all Sat to Sat rentals - minimum 1 week.
Our two favorite areas in France are Provence & the Dordogne. Followed by the Cote d'Azur & Brittany. This year we spent 5 weeks (3 different gites) in the Pays Basque/Pyrenees area - one gite near Lourdes. Last year we stayed in Normandy for 2 weeks (2 different gites) and 1 week in the Pas de Calais. One of our gites in Normandy has excellent access (within 45 mins) to the Normandy landing beaches.
Like everyone else stated, pick 1 area if you only have a week and want to stay in a gite. France is a lot bigger than you think, and you want to spend minimal time getting from A to B.
I have an itinerary for Normandy & Brittany that I've sent to many people on Fodors. In it, there is info about the gite we rented in Normandy. If you would like a copy, e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach a copy to the reply e-mail. I also have itineraries for Provence/Cote d'Azur and another on the Dordogne. I've sent these to over 4,000 people on Fodors.
Stu Dudley
Not really, if you want to rent a gite/house. My wife & I have rented 52 gites in various areas in France. We usually have them reserved about 1 year in advance. We've rented all our gites through Gites de France, and they are all Sat to Sat rentals - minimum 1 week.
Our two favorite areas in France are Provence & the Dordogne. Followed by the Cote d'Azur & Brittany. This year we spent 5 weeks (3 different gites) in the Pays Basque/Pyrenees area - one gite near Lourdes. Last year we stayed in Normandy for 2 weeks (2 different gites) and 1 week in the Pas de Calais. One of our gites in Normandy has excellent access (within 45 mins) to the Normandy landing beaches.
Like everyone else stated, pick 1 area if you only have a week and want to stay in a gite. France is a lot bigger than you think, and you want to spend minimal time getting from A to B.
I have an itinerary for Normandy & Brittany that I've sent to many people on Fodors. In it, there is info about the gite we rented in Normandy. If you would like a copy, e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach a copy to the reply e-mail. I also have itineraries for Provence/Cote d'Azur and another on the Dordogne. I've sent these to over 4,000 people on Fodors.
Stu Dudley
Aug 23rd, 2012, 12:46 PM
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If you read Diane's Germany thread, you will see she's planning a 6-week trip to several countries.
<<We'll have Global Eurail Passes for the entire 6 weeks.>>
And that's going to limit your accommodation choices considerably.
<<We'll have Global Eurail Passes for the entire 6 weeks.>>
And that's going to limit your accommodation choices considerably.
Aug 23rd, 2012, 01:06 PM
#15
Well, if transportation is by rail pass, start eliminating places like battlefields and Normandy beaches unless you want to spend more on local transportation (taxis or tours) than you are spending on the rail pass.
Aug 23rd, 2012, 04:45 PM
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Thank you so much for your interest!
I thought I would separate the countries my family of four will be travelling to into different discussion threads to make things easier ... but I see I am confusing the issue instead.
So ... here goes ... We will be travelling in Europe the whole month of July and the first two weeks of August 2013. We have not purchased airfare from Canada yet as it is too early. I will do this next month in September. We have not purchased our Global Eurail passes yet either. I am trying to break up our trip into details so that I know where we will be when and at that point I will start booking gites/apartments/hostels/hotels etc. whichever of these works for my family depending on where we will stay and for how long.
This is our first trip to Europe so we don't need to get into details ... kind of a whirlwind tour of some of the highlights would be o.k. with us.
Countries we wish to visit:
Czech Republic (Prague only)
Austria (no plans here yet ... a couple of days)
a one week Mediterranean cruise departing and ending in Venice (leaves every week in July)
Switzerland (a few days here seeing one city ... not sure which one ... and the chocolate train out of Montreux ... a 10 hour journey)
Luxembourg (a few days visiting friends)
Germany (Using Munich as a base for 4 nights, we would like to see Neuschwanstein Castle (Bavarian Alps), Eagles Nest, and Dachau Concentration Camp.
Using Heidelberg as a base for 3 nights, we would like to visit a few castles on the castle road.)
France (I think we will omit Lourds and Dieppe and concentrate on the Normandy D-Day sites perhaps taking a tour out of Paris or staying in a gite right in Normandy. As for the south of France we would like to stay for a week in a villa or apartment near Cannes or Marseille or Monaco???)
I think I'm at least getting more detailed now.
Any further suggestions would be appreciated.
Diane
I thought I would separate the countries my family of four will be travelling to into different discussion threads to make things easier ... but I see I am confusing the issue instead.
So ... here goes ... We will be travelling in Europe the whole month of July and the first two weeks of August 2013. We have not purchased airfare from Canada yet as it is too early. I will do this next month in September. We have not purchased our Global Eurail passes yet either. I am trying to break up our trip into details so that I know where we will be when and at that point I will start booking gites/apartments/hostels/hotels etc. whichever of these works for my family depending on where we will stay and for how long.
This is our first trip to Europe so we don't need to get into details ... kind of a whirlwind tour of some of the highlights would be o.k. with us.
Countries we wish to visit:
Czech Republic (Prague only)
Austria (no plans here yet ... a couple of days)
a one week Mediterranean cruise departing and ending in Venice (leaves every week in July)
Switzerland (a few days here seeing one city ... not sure which one ... and the chocolate train out of Montreux ... a 10 hour journey)
Luxembourg (a few days visiting friends)
Germany (Using Munich as a base for 4 nights, we would like to see Neuschwanstein Castle (Bavarian Alps), Eagles Nest, and Dachau Concentration Camp.
Using Heidelberg as a base for 3 nights, we would like to visit a few castles on the castle road.)
France (I think we will omit Lourds and Dieppe and concentrate on the Normandy D-Day sites perhaps taking a tour out of Paris or staying in a gite right in Normandy. As for the south of France we would like to stay for a week in a villa or apartment near Cannes or Marseille or Monaco???)
I think I'm at least getting more detailed now.
Any further suggestions would be appreciated.
Diane
Aug 23rd, 2012, 05:33 PM
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“France (I think we will omit Lourds and Dieppe and concentrate on the Normandy D-Day sites perhaps taking a tour out of Paris or staying in a gite right in Normandy”
Hi Dgarvin,
I thought you said that you did not want to go to Paris? So how could you take a tour from there?
Since this is your first trip to Europe, may I ask why you do not want to visit Paris – the most beautiful city in the world by most people’s standards?
Also, I have never stayed in a gite, but as explained above, they rent by the week.
In any case, enjoy…
Hi Dgarvin,
I thought you said that you did not want to go to Paris? So how could you take a tour from there?
Since this is your first trip to Europe, may I ask why you do not want to visit Paris – the most beautiful city in the world by most people’s standards?
Also, I have never stayed in a gite, but as explained above, they rent by the week.
In any case, enjoy…
Aug 23rd, 2012, 05:58 PM
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Hi latedaytraveler,
You are very perceptive.
Actually, I have been to Europe, briefly, many years ago and have seen much of Paris already. My husband has never been to Europe nor the children. He would enjoy Paris if we had the time for it. There is so much to see that I don't want to repeat anything I have already done ... that's all.
Thank you for your response,
Diane
You are very perceptive.
Actually, I have been to Europe, briefly, many years ago and have seen much of Paris already. My husband has never been to Europe nor the children. He would enjoy Paris if we had the time for it. There is so much to see that I don't want to repeat anything I have already done ... that's all.
Thank you for your response,
Diane
Aug 23rd, 2012, 08:42 PM
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>>we would like to stay for a week in a villa or apartment near Cannes or Marseille or Monaco???<<
Cannes is fine (we actually prefer Nice, however), but I would recommend that you not consider staying in Marseille or Monaco.
We've spent 16 weeks vacationing on the Cote d'Azur.
Stu Dudley
Cannes is fine (we actually prefer Nice, however), but I would recommend that you not consider staying in Marseille or Monaco.
We've spent 16 weeks vacationing on the Cote d'Azur.
Stu Dudley
