France Itinerary
 

What do posters think of the following intinerary:

July 3th fly to Paris then Avignon
July 4th Avignon
July 5th Avignon
July 6th Avignon
July 7th Avignon
*
July 8th Nice
July 9th Nice
July 10th Nice
July 11th Nice
July 12th Nice
*
July 13th Paris
July 14th Paris
July 15th Paris
July 16th Paris
July 17th Paris
July 18th Paris
July 19th Paris
*
July 20th Amboise
July 21st Amboise
July 22nd Amboise
July 23rd Amboise

July 24th HOME flight back to America

Comments? Suggestions? I've never been to France before. I am traveling with my husband and our six year old daughter.

Sounds good to me - not hurried at all and plenty to see and do in each area for small kids (and big ones too). Only thought is you might want to change Nice for another location on the Cote d'Azur with a better beach if that's something you plan on taking advantage of. I love the Old Town of Nice, but the beach there is the rocky type...

-Kevin

How are the hotels in other parts of the Cote D'azure? I'm hoping to get away with about $100 or so per night. Fleabag motels don't daunt me. lol All we want is a safe place to sleep.

My little daughter adores beaches. Are there better ones elsewhere? I like Nice because it seems centrally located and easy to get to. We would prefer not to drive if possible.

Thanks!

Is there any reason for the sequence of places?

I would do:

Fly into Nice, stay in Nice.
Avignon
Amboise
Paris (more convenient for fly out)

If you land in Paris, I would take the TGV to Avignon. It's a really fast train and only takes a few hours to get to Avignon. You can actually take the train right from the airport. Better to reserve your seats before you go.
What my hubby and I did was to take the train to Av. rent a car at the train station (went very smoothly). We walked around Avignon and then drove to the darling town of Lourmarin. We stayed in a beautiful place called Le Moulin de Lourmarin. The room was so cute and the restaurant was fantastic.They have a great open air market. From our base in Lourmarin, we did day trips, Aix-en-Provence ( a MUST SEE, I lived there many years ago)Les Beaux de Provence, to state two. You can drive all the way to Nice, settle in there and do day trips from Nice. Cannes is a lovely city as well....so, that's my 2 cents...I've been to So. France so many times and never tire of it.
Oh, from Lourmarin, you can go to Ile sur la Sorgue. They have THE best market on Sundays....

I don't understand why you'd go back to Paris, then to Amboise. Why not Amboise on the way back to Paris, since it's on the way, to avoid the backtracking?

It depends on whether you have a car. If you will have a car in Provence (and it's recommended), I would stay somewhere else instead of Avignon, not my favorite place.

Whereas Nice is great without a car, lots of train and bus daytrips.

It's good to see somebody planning a nice slow trip.

We're doing it this way because Avignon to Amboise is a very long trip. Our plan is to take the TGV to Avignon from Paris.

How about some place else instead of Avignon? Aix en Provence? The Burgundy region instead?

Suggestions are most welcome. The places I want most for this trip are Paris and Nice. Anything else is negotiable.

I agree with Kevin, you might be bored with such a long stay in Nice. The sea side is not (no more!!) so nice. You could spend some time in Aix en Provence (very nice town) and in Camargue (Arles). Four days in Amboise might be long, depends on what you want to visit there (see Clos Lucé, where leonardo da Vinci spent his last days) . Close to Amboise, there is Azay le Rideau: so nice!!

On the way Paris-Amboise, you could have a stop at Chartres (Cathedral!!) and eventually spend a few days in a very romantic region (Le Perche) still unknown but very beautiful. You could even stay in this area and make your visits from there.

You really nead a car to appreciate Provence & the Loire, IMO.

If you take the Chateaux out of the Loire, I don't think it is nearly as interesting as other regions in France. If you really love Chateaux (we do) & don't mind visiting 3 chateaux in a day - that's different.

Like Kevin mentioned, the beach in Nice has flat polished rocks (one is sitting mext to my PC as I write this). If your 8 YO wants to build sand castles, run & dig in the sand, etc - Nice is not the place. Try Cannes instead.

My favorite regions in France are Provence/Cote d'Azur and the Dordogne. The Dordogne, like Provence & the Loire, requires a car to appreciate. If you ever plan to return to Europe in the future, you might as well break the ice now and get use to driving a car. It will open up a lot of opportunities for you.

We rent Gites (huses) while in France. They are great for families. The one we rent in Provence has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, large living room, dining room, large grounds, private pool, washing machine/dishwasher, and a 10 min walk to town where there are several restaurants, a grocery, and a great weekly market. It rents for about 750E per week in June & Sept (higher in July & Aug). Our Gite in the Dordogne rents for 475E per week, and has 2 bedroons & 1 bath. You can really cut down on your food costs by preparing your own dinners (roasted chickens from the farmers market), and having meals at "home" if you like.

A great itinerary would be taking the TGV or flying to Nice. Stay there & take trains/buses to some of the coastal towns & villages. Then rent a car & visit St Paul, Vence, Gourdon, & take a drive into the Alps. Then leave the Cote d'Azur & drive to Provence & stay in a B&B with a pool in the countryside (you may want some quiet countryside after Nice). Consider Kevin's B&B (http://www.masperreal.com/index.html). Then drive to the Dordogne visiting Carcassonne on the way. After the Dordogne, take the TGV from Brive la Gaillard to Paris.

You had better act fast - the better B&Bs & hotels get reserved pretty early for July.

Stu Dudley

I'm assuming that you're using each of these cities (except Paris) as central bases from which you will do days trips. Agree it makes more sense to fly into NIce, spend a couple of days relaxing and seeing the sights and then renting a car so you can see many of the other sights of the Riviera, and then drive on to Avignon and Amboise. I know you can do some of this by train - but really to see the Riviera or the Loire you need a car to get to all the small villages.

And I know with a 6 year old you'll need to set aside from sights and traveling for her to play -but that's going to be at least as easy by car as by train.

Also - you need to understand that beaches on the Riviera are nothing like FL or the Carib. they are narrow, many are pebbles rather than sand, and while children are certainly welcome, it will be mostly adults using them.

It looks like a good trip and I think you will enjoy it. I would do some research however on the actual localities you will be staying in, firstly to make sure they are nice/safe but also that there is plenty to do, mostly for your daughter. You could just google search it, or try some of the provincial tourist boards for childrens actvities. I think if you know of some theme parks etc (of which France has many) in your schedules, your family will be contented!
http://www.qualityvillas.com

I really like Nice and could spend lots of time there traveling up and down the Cote d'Azur and back into the mountains. There are many destinations available by bus and train.

I think traveling in a train is better for a child than riding in a car. There's more room, they don't have to be strapped in, can play on the floor, and the toilet's just at the end of the car. (I like that last feature too.) And then there might be the special treat of having a meal on the train.

You wrote that you prefer not to drive, if possible. However, the most charming/interesting/serendipidous places are inaccessible without driving. If any in your group speaks even a few words of French, I strongly urge you to try driving. It's an adventure in itself and you will get the hang of European signs and roads very quickly. Use the N and D roads when possible and stay OFF the autoroute(freeway). The towns above Nice are wonderful, and you can explore the Cote d'Azur faster and more conveniently with a car. It can be done by train/bus, but at a price in time wasted. Secondly, we like every part of France except the Loire Valley. My recommendation (without knowing anything about your likes, etc.) would be Nice (4-5 days), St. Remy (3-4 days - try to make one of those days a Sunday for the "marche aux puces" aka flea market at Ile-Sur-La-Sorge), Dijon (4 days), Paris (6-7 days).
You have three full weeks and only 4 stops, very doable. Leave the car in Dijon and train to Paris.

I think it looks fine. If you want to go to Burgundy instead of Provence, that's your choice, I don't think one can say one is the correct choice and not the other. I personally prefer Provence and wouldn't say you had to go to Burgundy instead. It doesn't even seem on the route very well. I stayed at least four days in Nice and I didn't get bored, there are lots of places you can see from there as day trips, if you want.

I can see why you put Amboise at the end, but don't understand the comment that Amboise is on the way from Nice to Paris, anyway. It's over between Blois and Tours, I don't see how Amboise could be on the way from Nice to Paris by train or by car. The only issue is that it is easiest to leave from Paris, as I see it. I always do like to be in the city I intend to fly out of, makes it a lot easier, as otherwise you are maybe moving to Paris for one night before leavingt? I think if you did go to Amboise before Paris, you'd have to go through Paris anyway, wouldn't you, to get there (by train?). Not sure, but I would think so.

Maybe you could substitute Burgundy for Amboise, that might make sense to me.

I have to agree with several of the above posters. I'd fly to Nice. It won't cost any more(and probably less) than the TGV. If I flew to Nice, I'd stay first in Nice or Antibes(our personal preferrence) for a few days. Then move on to the Aix or Avignon area for a few days. But you do need a car. Another advantage to a car is that you can stay in a gite or apt. or small property at less cost than a hotel.

Driving in the south is really very easy(while we never drive in Paris), and it enables you to stop at all the cute little towns as you wish, not on a schedule.

IMO, Avignon is really only good for a day, so if you stay there you will need a car to explore the rest of the region and all the wonderful towns close by.

As far as beaches, we like Garuope Beach in Antibes. It's right next to the walk on the path on the rocks around Cap'd Antibes(which your 6 yr, old would enjoy). There are also some other sandy beaches in Antibes(not like the rocks in Nice).

After 9-10 days in the South, I like your idea of the TGV to Paris for some city life. You can get it in Avignon or Aix and drop the car off there. It would be a too long a drive for us to Paris. Then the train to Amboise works well, but again, I feel you would need a car in the Loire. Again, easy driving.

That said, if you do stay in Nice you could get to some towns by rail or bus, but to me that is more complicated and scheduled.

If you do get a car in the south, ask Stu for his itinerary of the small towns. You don't have to follow it to the letter, but it will set you on the right track.

Have a great trip!