Hi Fodorites.
I need some assistance, recommendations, comments on my intinerary as planned so far.
The trip will be taken mid May 08 and I will be travelling with my hubby, both in our early 40's, been to Europe many times, and we hope to make use of both rail and car rentals. We prefer smaller 'quaint' towns to large cities but realize sometime you have to go to the cities to take in some of the must see highlights. That being said, we also sometimes get more out of taking in scenery, sitting in a sidewalk cafe, soaking in the atmosphere, more than seeing 'the sites'.
As we've both been to Paris before, we are
planning on skipping it this time, I know "shudder". As we have a friend in Brussels that we would like to have a short visit with, Brussels is included, as well as Brugge, which neither of us has been to, but have heard alot about. We also prefer to do the whirlwind type tours, as being on the go to us is as much fun as 'getting there'.
Lastly we hope to take in a bit of WW2 sites as well.
So:
-Day one - Night flight from WestCoast to arrive Brussels following a.m.
-Day two - Arrive and visit with friend. Overnight Brussels.
-Day 3 - take mid afteroon train to Brugge (1 Hour approx). Walk around town, overnight Brugge.
-Day 4 - take afternoon train to Roeun. Wander town that evening.
-day 5 - Pick up car in early a.m.. Stop for lunch in Honfluer. Visit D Day sites in the afternoon and early evening (late days then!).Overnight Bayeaux.
-Day 6 - Walk around Bayeux. Early afternoon
drive to Mont St. Michel. Explore early evening (crowds have left?) Overnight there.
-Day 7 - explore during early am. (miss the crowds?). Then drive to Rennes. I hear it is nice place. Drop car. Overnight Rennes.
-Day 8 - train from Rennes to Strasbourg. (5 hrs?) Overnight Strasbourg. Explore town on foot.
-Day 9 - enjoy town in a.m. Late afternoon train to Colmar. (1hr). Overnight Colmar.
-Day 10 - wander Colmar during day. Night train Colmar to Arles.
-Day 11 - arrive Arles early (5 a.m-ish).
Store luggage (backpacks) and wander town.
See the sites.
-Day 12 to Day 17...pick up car...go where?
We'd like to fly home from Nice.


Suggestions?
Too rushed?
What should we Add?
Where to go in last days with car?

Thanks for any and all help!

You really need another whole day for the DDay sites. 1/2 day isn't enough.

hi, zunrise,

you've already pre-empted the obvious comments by saying that you like whirlwind tours.

However, you are not staying more than one night anywhere. you will spend much more time travelling than you will actually seeing things. no time to sit and stare, which is another of your likes.

personally I would cut out the Alsace part of the trip. or the provence bit. or both. you could have a lovely time exploring the rest of nnormandy & Brittany in May. or cut south from Rennes and do the loire, or even go down to the Dordogne.

but you'll do what you want to do anyway.

regards, ann

Hi
Think it over about the D-Day beachs, there is an awful lot to see and if you visit any of the museum or towns it takes more time. We spent 3 nights there about a month ago. Honfleur is a beautiful town, it should be seen at night also. In Honfluer there is a tiny restaurant stuck in with the large massive restaurants [can't remember name] but it is white with red borders and has only 6 table out fron and about the same inside. It has about the best Mussels ala Normandie we had during our trip. They close early and really will turn people away.

Thank you for the replies so far.
I do realize that the itinerary is tight. I will take your collection advice (so far) and extend the Normandy time frame and eliminate either the Alsace region or Provence.
That being said...which one to eliminate?
If I eliminate Provence...how would I spread out the time left?
Thoughts? Ideas?
Thanks again.

I would suggest (as have others) not dividing into so many regions. Since you are in Normandy and Brittany - why not stay? There are some beautiful cities and towns in these regions.

In Brittany I enjoyed: St. Malo, Fougeres, Dinan and Rennes in particular. People often give Rennes the pass, but there are some lovely gardens and there is a nice old center.

Just a few thoughts.

Enjoy!

I would just stay in Brittany after Normandy - I personally like it much more than Normandy too. I would certainly skip Alsace - especially if you don't plan to rent a car. They have plenty of quaint villages there - but you need a car to get to them.

You said that you prefer smaller quaint towns - but you don't have them in the itinerary??
Brussels, Brugge, Rouen, Honfleur (kinda small - but I would not call it "quaint&quot, Bayeux (somewhat small - if you call 15,000 small) MSM (it will seem huge with all the crowds), Rennes, Strasbourg, Colmar, Arles - all of these are large towns/cities. I have been to all of them (some of them many times).

Also agree that 1/2 days at the WWII sites is not a good use of time. If you just want to salute the sites as you drive by - that's OK, but the museums at Caen & Aramanches (2 museums there), walking around Point du Hoc, etc will consume a lot of time. We rushed through in 1 1/2 days a few years ago.

Also be careful of where you will be on a Sunday & Monday. I would not want to visit Rouen, Bayeaux, Rennes, Strasbourg, Colmar, or Arles then.

If you want to visit Provence (lots of quaint villages there), there is a TGV that runs from Rennes to Avignon with no train changes.

Stu Dudley

Zunrise,
Right now, I'm not even looking at your actual schedule, though I do think you're covering way too much territory. Normandy and Brittany would be a wonderful visit. However, there are many people here who can help you tinker with your itinerary.

But I wonder if you've actually looked at the train schedule from Brugge to Rouen. I did this trip 2 summers ago, and found that it wasn't direct by train. In Paris, the change means that you actually have to change trains stations. Perhaps there's a train I missed, but I remember spending a lot of time studying the schedules.

Ultimately, we took the train from Brugge to Lille, where we picked up a car and then drove to Rouen. It ended up being a fairly easy trip. I didn't want to go from train to car particularly, but the train schedule really seemed very inconvenient.

If there is a train I didn't see, that's great. But just wanted to let you know what I found when I made that trip.

Paule

Hello all.
Points well taken. Thanks for the input exactly what I was hoping for.
Okay..so with your comments in mind a new plan, keeping in mind some things are fixed, for various reasons, such as starting point Brussels/Brugge and end point being Nice. In between we have approx. 2 weeks which can be spent between Normandy/Brittany and then hightail it from Rennes via TGV to Avignon.
Eliminating Alsace, Alps, etc.
New questions then:
-Ccming by train from Brugge where would the first night stop be?
I did check the train from Brugge to Rouen and there is a connection via Paris St. Lazare that would work. But if any other ideas - please share.

-The following morning we would collect a rental car and have it for say 5 days dropping it in Rennes. In between we would like to visit D Day sites, Honfleur as well as Mont St. Michel.
We can base in one place or go place to place. Suggestions? Other towns to see?
Hotel advice under 100Euro/double?
Then - TGV - from Rennes-stop in Arles or Avignon? Any reason for one over the other?
-Pick up rental car for approx 1 week and drop in NCE. Do not have to spend more than one night in Nice. Again, base in one place or place to place? Suggestions please!
Thank you to everyone who has and will contribute.

Bookmarking. Hey, it sounds like you've done 'some' research, which is good here.

I would second the notion to sacrifice Provence and/or Alsace and stay in and thoroughly explore Brittany. What's in Rennes, after all, except somewhere to pass through (or bypass!) on the way to Fougeres, St Malo & Dinan (and on to Locranan, Josselyn, Vitre, Carnac...).

Your itinerary seems to be mainly city connections. Is that what you like? I get more enjoyment from the smaller places in between...but maybe that ain't everybody's thing...

Twoflower - you need to spend some time in Rennes. As you know, we spend 2 months in France most years, and I would place Rennes in my top 5 cities in France.

Stu Dudley

hi again, zunrise,

I second Stu's idea of spending time in Rennes. we stayed in a nice little hotel [name forgotten, sorry], just outside the centre which we found in the Michelin red guide. it was easy to walk into town, to the cathedral, and other sites, but easy to get out of town too. there were lots of nice restaurants in the centre too.

we only stayed one night but would have enjoyed more.

Honfleur, Trouville, Deauville are all lovely places, but I don't know how convenient they are for the WW2 sites.

I like the idea of the TGV to Arles/Avignon. If you alighted [lovely word don't you think?] in Avignon, you could drive down to St. Remy which gets very good reviews here as a base for Provence. then you could pootle over to Nice for your flight home.

regards, ann

Hi
If you're in Bayeau, visit the tapestry there which shows william the Conquerers invasion of England. We visited some of the twons around also such as Ste Mere Eglise. From Mt. Ste. Michel which we used as a base we visited Dinan in Britanny. Word of advice, there are many English tourists coming over on the ferries for weekend trips and shopping so make sure you book a hotel for a saturday night in advance. we had to sleep in our car on a Saturday night. We also used www.viamichelin.com to map our trip from point to point it worked great.

Thanks all for your opinions. We'll be sure to visit and/or stay Honfleur, Dinan and Bayeux. Possibily will skip Mont St. Michel (I've seen it) and will allow more time for D Day sites. At that point we'll have a car as well. I think we've got a rough plan in mind now. However one last change, so calling on all Dordogne specialists please! Ann had mentioned this option and if she could elaborate please.
We can change our return and leave from Marseille so that will give us a little more time at the end of the trip when we cut south from Rennes to Avignon as we won't be going any further East than Marseille. I will have to consult my maps and formulate a new plan. Then I will repost with requests for specific questions/areas.

The Dordogne and Provence are my two favorite regions in France. Brittany & Languedoc are tied for third. However, you need to trim down your itinerary - not add to it. The Rennes to Avignon TGV makes getting to Provence a cinch without consuming a lot of time. The Dordogne is a little more difficult to get to on trains from Rennes - I would probably drive there. Like Provence, the Dordogne needs at least 4 full days to even scratch the surface. You can only visit many of the sites on a guided tour, and scheduling your day around tour start times (plus the lunch closings) eats up a lot of time.

Stick with Provence & visit the Dordogne on the next trip.

If this was my vacation, however, I would skip Normandy & Brittany and fly into Toulouse or Bordeaux, visit the Dordogne, drive to Provence (stop at Carcassonne for a visit along the way), and fly home from Marseille.

I have a 20+ itinerary for Provence, a 20+ page one for the Dordogne, and a smaller one for Normandy & Brittany. I've sent them to well over 500 people on the Fodors & AOL travel boards. E-mail me at [email protected] if you want a copy.

Stu Dudley

On second thought!!

I forgot - there is a direct 4 hour TGV from Brussels to Avignon with no train changes. If you do Provence & the Dordogne, I would start in Provence & end in the Dordogne.

Don't skip Brugge - we were there 3 weeks ago & thought it was fabulous. We've collectively spent about 2 years traveling in Europe over the last 30 years - so we're not "first timers".

Stu Dudley

hi, zunrise,

on balance, I'm inclined to agree with Stu that you should skip the Dordogne this trip. it doesn't work with your desire to fly home from Nice. the Rennes -Arles/avignon TGV swings it for me.

if you were to decide to fly home from Toulouse, that would be a different matter. then the Dordogne would be the obvious choice.

but Provence in the spring is a pretty hard act to follow.

I couldn't possibly add anything to all of Stu's info about either area, which will be encyclopaedic. but if you've got any specific queries i can help with, then of course I will.

Were I you, I'd stick with the Brussels-Brugge-Honfleur-Rennes-Provence itinerary.

you can always come back!

regards, ann

Thanks to all. I am reworking our itinerary for either Brussels/Brugge/Normandy (4 days in Normandy with car)/ Rennes - then TVG - Avignon, pick up car for 1 week, fly home from Marseilles.
OR scratch Belguim, fly into Toulouse or Bordeaux and 'do' the Dordogne and Provence, return from Marseilles. Decisions to be made of either concentrating on Normandy/Provence or Dordogne/Provence...and do we really have to include Belgium on this go-round, as you say we will be back. I just want to have a bit of variety, as usually our Europe trips involve 3/4 countries, we like the different language, food, architecture etc. Last trip was all in Greece and apologies to Greek fans..it was a bit redundant after a while. That is why we would like some countryside, some history, some beaches, etc.
I will be back with more specific questions when I have decided and reworked the itinerary.

I agree with above posts regarding your itinerary. Fly into Brussels, train to Brugge, then on to Normandy. See Honfleur first, then go to Bayeux and do the D-Day tour, etc. Then to Brittany - we love Dinan - stay there - and then on to Rennes to catch train to Provence. Base in St. Remy to see many of the villages of Provence. Fly home from Marseille - very easy to turn in car - airport is user friendly!
You could spend 2 days in Belgium, 3 days in Normandy, 3 days in Brittany, and the rest in Provence. You could base in St. Remy to see the Pont du Gard, Arles, Isle sur la Sorgue, les Baux, etc). Then move on to the Luberon (I suggest staying Lourmarin because of the easy access). From here you could see all the perched villages - Gordes, Roussillion, Menerbes, etc. You could see Aix as well. The Marseille airport is not far from Lourmarin or Aix.