France Itenerary
 

I want to go to to Paris, Normandy (and the Bayeau Tapestry), and the Riviera and possibly Loire. How should I plan that? How many days in the cities and what is the best order to go to all the places?

That sounds like a 3 week trip to me.

to help:

How much time do you have?

What time of year?

Who/how many in the group?

Interests?

Then peope can advise you.

I am looking around perhaps two weeks, with two of us. I am looking for historical places, or basically just general interest things. I am thinking maybe April/May

I'd work backwards, starting with how many days you have to start with.

If you had unlimited time, week in each location.

You really need to give us more info, A plan is only as good as its input.

3 Days in Paris
1 Versailles
3 Days Normandy
2 Days Loire (possibly)
3 Days Riviera
Then add whatever travel time needed

Ok, 14 days.
That is a lot of ground to cover.

Logistically, you probably do not want to drive to south and back, so I would land in Paris, and leave from somewher in South, like Nice. To get to south, use TGV (high speed train).

Could land in Paris, spend 3-4 days there,no car.

Train to Caen, rent car. See D-DAY beaches, Bayeux, Mont St Michel. 2-3 days.

That is too much ground for a 2 week trip. You could easily do Paris with a day trip and the Riviera. You could stretch and do Paris, less of the Riviera and either some time in Normandy or some in the Loire. Doing all of them will mean really seeinng none of them - and spending a good part of your time (as in 5 days) in transit insted of sightseeing.

you could do 3 areas in 2 weeks [at a stretch] but not really 4.

eg:

fly into Nice, spend 4 nights.
TGV to Paris - spend a week [include day trip to Versailles]
train to Rouen, [or Caen] rent car, tour Normandy for 3 days, return car to CDG, fly home.

you could of course spend longer in Normandy and less time in Paris. you could substitute the Loire for Normandy. [in which case, pick up the car in Tours].

or do it the other way round as Michel suggests.

but to try to do all 4 will, I agree, be too much.

I would second the other opinions re: time for 3 locations, not 4. I would also add, that if you keep the south on your itinerary, it's worth looking at flights between Paris & the south. They are often cheaper and potentially shorter as well.

I would also ask what time of year you're intending to go. The Riviera during the summer may be more crowded than you're looking for. Intuitively, the south of France seems to be the odd one out. Doing Normandy, Loire, Versailles & Paris is much more do-able from a time & travel perspective.

Yeah, that is what I am thinking now, dunia. The Riviera would make it a lot of travel since everything else is close.

wow, glad you asked this question, my wife and I are planning our first trip also. So much to see, and not enough time to do it in.