France in Late August
 

Hi! I am taking my girlfriend to France at the end of August. We are flying into Paris and then our plan is to travel south. Here is our initial plan:
2 days in Paris
3 days in burgundy
4 days in south of France
2 days in Loire valley
Back to Paris to fly home

I love wine and am really interested in the wine regions. She wants to see the countryside and beaches of France. Does this plan look doable? Too much in 12 days?

This will be our first time in France. Any suggestions on where else to look for help?

Thanks very much!!

I think it depends on how you are traveling. Will you be going by car? That would be the only way to go to so many places in such a short time. But it looks to me like you are trying to cover too many areas.

Do you have to cross France twice? If you have not purchased plane tickets, one way to avoid this is to multi-city flight into NCE and back from CDG or the other way.

If you are driving, you will be on the road with a large number of locals moving around the country at the same time. You can get stuck in seriously bad traffic jam in this period. english.controleradar.org/traffic-jam.php. It would be an "exciting" drive back to Paris to catch your flight.

Agree that your trip is too short to be backtracking all the way back to Paris. Reorganize so that you travel north to south and fly back home from Nice or Marseilles. I'd drop the Loire; it doesn't really fit logically into a good geographical grouping, you're short on time, and two days in Paris, one of them jetlagged, is far too few. Do realize that the beaches in the south of France will be absolutely mobbed at that time of year.

Looks like I jumped the gun on plane tickets. We are all booked for the trip flying into and out of Paris. We would prefer to drive and take our time. Should we forget the Loire valley and just do Paris, burgundy, and south of France, or skip wine country altogether and just stick with Paris and south of France? Looks like it's about a 9 hr drive?

I should mention that Paris is not tops on the priority list.

Not only is it a 9-hour drive, it's a godawful boring one with the sun in your face the whole way and a million oversized trucks. Would you rather do that or take a relaxing ride on the TGV and be all the way to Nice or Marseilles in 4-5 hours, or Avignon in 3..

"Wine country" is everywhere. There is nothing to preclude you from enjoying a bit of wine country in the south of France, or even in Montmartre in Paris.

If this a first trip for both of you then I would limit it to 2 places, Paris for a bit and then maybe Provence or Burgundy if you are willing to sacrifice beach. The nicest beaches are really down closer to Spain IMO versus the rocky beaches near Nice.

As others have mentioned-it is going to be super busy at the end of August at all the beaches and driving back into Paris needs to be timed carefully so as not to get caught up in the hoards returning for school.

I think it might be nice to split the Paris time for a night on arrival and then 2 nights on the way out and then take a TGV to someplace like Avignon, rent the car there to explore and return it to Avignon and take the train back.

Another really nice trip would be to skip the Med this time in August and go to Bordeaux by TGV rent a car and explore the vineyards there and also Atlantic coast up to the La Rochelle area-you could even sneak into the Loire area if you wanted or explore Cognac.

We have a home in that area of the coast in St. Palais sur Mer, and compared to Mediterranean, this area is still relatively undiscovered-busy in August yes absolutely, but nothing like the med coast. Beautiful golden sand beaches-really nice.

In any case, given that you are flying in and out of Paris-I would take train part of the way and you won't have to deal with driving in Paris as a first timer either.

Have fun

If you're not interested in Paris I see nothing wrong with your plan to spend 2 days there and then on the third day head south. As for heading south I think you should do as others have suggested and take the TGV to Provence, either Avignon or Marseilles, and get a rental car. Spend your time in the south and the day before your flight take the TGV back to Paris and spend your last night there before flying home from CDG the next day. If you like long stretches of sandy beach you could consider visiting the beaches of the Camargues, south of Arles.

I agree with FMT that these are lovely stretches of beaches-also be aware that August in that area can be super hot-so definitely get places with A/C both for comfort. Lots of people also want A/C in Paris for the noise and Paris can be hot and somewhat sticky that time of year too.

>>Looks like I jumped the gun on plane tickets. We are all booked for the trip flying into and out of Paris.<<

Consider flying into CDG and then immediately fly to Nice (TGV consumes too much time, IMO). Spend 4-5 days in Nice. On the next to last day in Nice, rent a car & explore the hill towns inland from Nice & also farther into the Nice Hinterland. Then drive to Provence and spend 4-5 days there (plenty of wineries/vineyards in the Cote du Rhone). Return the car at the Avignon TGV station and take the 2 3/4 hr TGV back to Paris for 2-3 day.

Stu Dudley

There are 6 daily flights on Air France from CDG to Nice. $193. I checked Aug 28.

Stu Dudley

Wow, thanks very much for your responses! We were getting a little bummed but after reading through these responses I am confident we will make it work. I think we have decided to skip the med coast and focus on areas closer to Paris. Any advice on making a trip out of paris Loire burgundy or Lyon?

If you want beaches, why not head to lovely La Rochelle and the Ile de Ré?

Burgundy is an easily accessible wine region, and Lyon is a great city, renowned for food - those are both great destinations.

StuDudley - Why would you recommend 4-5 days in Nice? I spent 2 days there last summer and was bored stiff.

I liked StuDudleys plan.. and Hez perhaps you were bored because you didnt do your homework and didn't know what a great hub city Nice is to use for sightseeing in the south..
For ONE whole euro we took an incredibly scenic bus ride to Monaco.. another Euro took us for lunch and beach time at Eze sur Mer.. and on another day a few euros ( think its 3-4) takes you to Cannes.. all of these journeys are less then an hour away.. Cannes was less then 30 minutes I think..

We only stayed 4 days in Nice last time and wish we had a few more days to do more daytrips.. there are tons of towns to visit in the area.. and we enjoyed Nices open air market..

justineparis - Stu said 4-5 days in Nice and then leave the day before the last to venture out - that's 3-4 full days IN Nice. Maybe that's not what he meant, but it's how it read to me.

>>I love wine and am really interested in the wine regions. She wants to see the countryside and beaches of France<<

Then spend your time on the Cote d'Azur & in Provence!!!!! There are no beached near Burgundy, the Loire, and I don't recall much wine stuff near La Rochelle. The "famous" beaches (Pampelonne) near St Tropez are fabulous. I love the decadence of the private beach concessions in Nice. Laying in the sun on a chaise lounge at Blue Beach, waking up in time for lunch at the restaurant there (mussels, Dourade, lots of pink wine), and then returning for more dozing after lunch. Then walking down the Promanade after dinner, watching all the people, listening to bands playing their music in the many hotels along the promenade, then slipping into bed about midnight.

My wife & I spend 2 months in France almost every year - and we like to spend time in different areas. We've returned most often to Provence, the Dordogne, and Cote d'Azur.

Stu Dudley

We've spent about 5-6 weeks staying IN Nice, and 4 weeks in St Jeanette (just a tad inland from Nice), and 8 days in St Paul, and 1 week about 1 hr inland from Nice, plus 6 weeks in St Tropez. We're returning for 2 more weeks IN Nice this June, plus 2 weeks in Provence, and 2 weeks on the Isle de Re/La Rochelle, and 2 weeks in the Loire. Totally, we've spent 16 weeks on the Cote d'Azur & 18 weeks in Provence.

There is plenty of stuff to do in Nice & surrounds. I recommended 4-5 nights sleeping in Nice with 1 1/2days visiting St Paul, Vence, Tourrettes, and the many "cute little villages" in the Nice Hinterland and all the gorges, rivers, & scenic mountain roads in the region. You could easily spend these entire 4-5 days not leaving Nice at all, if you want to lay in the sun for 1-2 days. If anyone wants specifics - e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach a copy of my Cote d'Azur & Provence itinerary to the reply e-mail. I've sent over 3,500 copies to Fodors people.

Stu Dudley

StuDudley - It just seemed like you were recommending to spend 4-5 days seeing Nice (you didn't mention day trips in your original post) which didn't seem like a good use of time for someone with the amount of time FranceinAugust has.

Also - I personally disagree with hitting the beach/relaxing destination first and the city location last. At the beginning of a holiday I'm psyched and have loads of energy but nearer the end want a bit of wind down/reflection time before heading home.

I would pick burgundy...short ride on the train to Dijon which is a great small city and then base in Beaune with a car. Loads of picturesque wine villages, castles etc and great wine. I would head there right away then return to Paris for the last few days and fly home.