jamikins

Here are our photos of burgundy

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gir...7607493717331/

FrenchMystiqueTours

Although it's not a wine region if you really want a beach I think the most beautiful ones are on the Atlantic coast and not all of them will be mobbed in August so I'll suggest Brittany. Certainly the beaches in the most popular towns in Brittany will have lots of people but IME experience they are not packed like some places on the Med Coast. And there are several places I have personally visited in tourist high season that have long sandy stretches that are nearly deserted (I'm thinking specifically of the Gulf of Morbihan). If you want to see what awaits you in Brittany you can have a look at two photo reports I wrote about exploring two of the coastal areas in Brittany and there are lots of photos and descriptions of the places I visited.

Near Dinan and Saint-Malo: http://tinyurl.com/86s4v8f

Gulf of Morbihan: http://tinyurl.com/2555vaf

For more info about Brittany you can have a look at this thread which will cover some of the highlight places to visit in coastal Brittany:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic....html#37748007

If you prefer wine over beaches then the Loire and Burgundy are certainly good choices. You can have a look at this thread to learn about some of the highlight places to visit in Burgundy:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...-Burgundy.html

And this thread is similar about the Loire:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-de-france.cfm

Pvoyageuse

Beaches in Southern France won't be mobbed at the end of August. School starts on Sept. 1 this year and most people will have gone by then.

StuDudley

>>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)<<

I just didn't go into "full detail" on my original suggestion to spend 4-5 days in Nice as a "base". As justinparis suggested, Nice is a great base for exploring stuff along the Cote and in the Hinterland. After the Cote d'Azur/Nice - off to Provence.

As Pvoyageuse stated (who is French, lives in southern France, and actually has a house at the beach) the crowds start to die-down at the start of the last week in August - which will be Aug 24 in 2014.

Stu Dudley

StCirq

<< I don't recall much wine stuff near La Rochelle>>

Well, there's all of Cognac, with infinite square miles of vineyards as far as the eye can see. You can drive for hours through the region and never see anything but rows of wine punctuated with a village here and there.

StuDudley

Is Cognac all they produce in the area, or do they make wine also??

Stu Dudley

StCirq

Loads and loads of wine - pineau.

StuDudley

Not sure I would consider Pineau to be "typical" wine.

"It is a fortified wine (mistelle or vin de liqueur), made from a blend of lightly fermented grape must and Cognac eau-de-vie."

"The resulting drink is between 16 and 22% ABV ..... The taste is predominantly sweet, but is balanced by both acidity and the increased level of alcohol.""

I'll have to try some when we're there this summer.

Stu Dudley

StCirq

There's plenty of vin de pays charentais as well, not all of it sweet: http://www.vindepayscharentais.fr/

annhig

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>>

a huge advantage of not doing Paris until the end of the trip is that it puts the OP in the right place for flying home and doesn't split up the time there, which with only 2-3 nights, is very wasteful.

one option might be to go straight from CDG to Dijon, then to Provence/Nice and finally back to Paris.

However, as FMT says, a completely different but just as satisfying trip is to be had to the north-west or west of France; though not so wine oriented, there are plenty of beaches, lovely cities, and historical sights to be explored. One could, for example, get the train to medieval Vannes [ in southern Brittany] pick up a car, and then work ones way round to La Rochelle and return to Paris via the Loire [wine there too].

Underhill

And also Côte de Bleye, a very nice red.

About the itinerary: skip the Loire, and add the time to Paris.

Hez

That's a good point annhig re Paris. I rarely fly in and out of the same airport these days so I kind of glossed over that.

Gretchen

But really the beaches in the US are real beaches--not rocks and stones. I'd do Provence and leave the beach going for the US.
Why not head directly to Provence from CDG. Time there, then perhaps drive to Burgundy.
Maybe train to Paris, stay a bit, and go to the Loire.
Or continue the driving to the Loire, drop the car in Tours, and train to Paris for X days to leave from CDG.
I do think ending in Paris has a certain panache, even though you "say" Paris isn't high on the list--particularly basing your decision on never having been there!! ;o)

jpie

In terms of wine-if you start in La Rochelle we are only talking 2 hours to Bordeaux with all the beaches in between so with 4-6 days you could see a lot of both wine areas and beach....

I agree the last week in August may not be mobbed-but in my experience many people stay til the last minute to go home for school-so how busy a beach locale will be may likely depend on your exact dates in August. If you look at the "bison fute" traffic predictions it shows the red days for people returning from the med (the most difficult days for traffic) predicted to be on the 29th and 30th of August-indicated the med will probably be busy that week:

http://www.bison-fute.gouv.fr/IMG/pd...rierBF2014.pdf
on

StuDudley

>>But really the beaches in the US are real beaches--not rocks and stones.<<

The St Tropez beach (Pampalonne) is a beautiful, sandy beach. My wife & I lived in Laguna Beach in So Calif.

I actually like the flat rocks in Nice - less dusty than sand if there is any wind. You really don't need to walk or lay on the rocks if you "sun" at a private beach (unless you go into the water).

I think the beaches on the Cote d'Azur are much more "decadent" than beaches here in Calif if your objective is laying in the sun.

Stu Dudley

Gretchen

No doubt there is a an allure--it's in every book! But if I have 10 days in France (not your 2 months!! lucky dog) I'll take it away from a beach. Don't mind if others do--but sometimes people who have never been do not know what the beaches are--as I didn't St. Tropez.
However our 4 weeks at our beach is sufficient!!

kerouac

If skipping an area, I would skip Burgundy.

AJPeabody

May I suggest staying nearer Paris? The Loire area, which has wine, of course, and Brittany and Normandy are all quite accessible by car. Then the loop back to Paris makes sense, the driving is a shorter distance each day, and there is plenty to see.