Kykyshka

Hello wise travelers,
I have preliminary itinerary of our 23 day trip to France. Please take a look and chime in. I appreciate your advice!

Day 1-5 - Paris
Day 6 - rent car and drive to omaha/dday beach - 3 hours drive. Leave by 8 am. Spend day touring memorials. Drive to Mont st Michel in the evening - 2 hours
Day 6 -7th night - Stay in Mont St Michel
Day 7 - tour Mont St Michel. Drive to Loire Valley in the evening - 3 hours
Day 7 - 8th - stay in Loire Valley
Day 8 - tour Loire Valley. Drive to Dijorn - 4.5 hours
Day 8 - Day 9 th - stay in Dijorn
Day 9 - explore Dijorn. Drive to Chamonix (Mont Blanc) - 3.5 hours
Day 10 - day 12 - stay in Chamonix
- day 10, 11 - explore Mont Blanc
- day 12 - AM : expore Chamonix. PM: drive to Annecy - 1.5 hours
day 12 - day 13 - stay in Annecy
day 13th - drive to Grenoble with stop in Chambery - 1.5 hours
day 13 - day 14 - stay in Grenoble
day 14 - explore Grenoble. Drive to Verdon Gorge in PM - 4 hours
day 14 - day 16 : stay in Verdon Gorge and explore
day 16 - drive to Aix-en-Provence - 2 hours
day 16-18 - stay in Aix-en-Province and explore. Drive to Nice in PM - 4 hours
day 18 - day 24 - stay in French Riviera and explore other close by places

Sassafrass

It would be less confusing if you list each day only once. It makes it seem as if you are staying longer when you list two dates for the same place.

Day 1, arrive Paris
Day 2, 3, 4, 5, Paris
Day 6, pick up car, visit DD beaches, drive to Mont St Michel (aprox 5 hrs drive?)
Day 7, Mont St Michel in morning, drive to Loire Valley
Day 8, Loire Valley and drive to Dijorn
Day 9, Dijorn and drive to Chamonix
Day 10 & 11, Mont Blanc
Day 12, Chamonix in morning, drive to Annecy
Day 13, Annecy in the morning, drive to Grenoble
Day 14, drive to Verdon Gorge
Day 15, Verdon Gorge
Day 16, drive to Aix
Day 17, Aix
Day 18, drive to Nice

Or nights
Nts. 1-5, Paris (4 whole days)
Nt. 6, Mont St Michel
Nt. 7, Loire Valley
Nt. 8, Dijorn
Nts. 9, 10, 11, Chamonix (2 whole days)
Nt 12, Annecy
Nt 13, Grenoble
Nts 14 & 15, Verdon Gorge (1 whole day)
Nt 16, Aix
Nt 17, Aix (1 whole day)
Nt 18, Nice or area

Sassafrass

Sorry, tapped before finished. Anyway, that is the idea for a less confusing layout.

thursdaysd

That is a lot of driving and not much time to see anything.

Tulips

My thought too - a lot of driving.
You are spending half a day in the Loire Valley.
I assume you mean Dijon?

Lay this out again adding drive times

Nt 6 Mont St Michel - morning to sightsee - drive to (say) Amboise 4 hours - arrive in Amboise in late afternoon
Nt 7 Amboise - see one castle - drive to Dijon 4 hours - arrive in Dijon in the evening
Nt 7 Dijon - drive to Chamonix 4 hours

You want to see most of the country in 23 days; you'll see mostly highways.

Drive times given on google maps etc are usually optimistic; add 20%. And for what time of year is this?

fuzzbucket

I'd take the train to Caen, instead of driving. Then you can pick up a car at the station. Purchase tickets 90 days ahead of time, if possible, for good fares.

That's a lot of driving...
Why do you want to go to Dijon twice?

Sarastro

Regardless of the format, this is not a workable itinerary. Drive times are unrealistically fast and you have not allowed time to see much of anything when you finally do arrive somewhere.

For example, Normandy and the Loire are typically a 7 to 10 itinerary. You have scheduled 2½ days.

You cannot plan Normandy, the Loire Valley, Burgundy, French Alps, Provence, and the Côte d´Azur for just 2 weeks time and ultimately see much of anything other than highway.

rhon

I have to agree with what the others have said. This would be a six week trip for us and then we would probably have to drop something. You have to remember that the times on sites such as google maps and Michelin are approximate with no allowance for stops or delays.
I just do not see the point in spending heaps of time driving between places to spend a couple of hours there before spending heaps of time in the car to spend a couple of hours at the next stop , to spend heaps of time.... Well you get my drift. You say " tour the Loire valley " and allow an afternoon and maybe a short morning. This is one chateau out of many, no pretty villages, no interesting towns. Well really nothing. We have spent two weeks in the Loire valley and could easily go back.
Twenty three days is more than a lot of people have. Make it count - and that does not mean ' he who has visited most places wins '. You have started out ok with allowing time at beginning and end in Paris and Nice. However, in the middle, you are trying to see too many places for the time you have - eight places in twelve nights. You need to rethink this part of your trip.
And it is Dijon.

StCirq

This is a recipe for getting intimately familiar with tarmac and the inside of a rental car...and not much else.

Kykyshka

Thank you all for great comments and suggestions. It is clear to me that we need to do major adjustments. This is our first time in France and we want this experience to be great. If you have suggestions on which destination to eliminate or add from our itinerary I would greatly appreciate your input!

neckervd

"If you have suggestions on which destination to eliminate or add from our itinerary I would greatly appreciate your input!"

All depends on your personal interest and ON THE SEASON!

thursdaysd

Why did you decide to go to France - what attracted you?

Why did you pick these places and not, say, the Basque country or Alsace-Lorraine?

What have you enjoyed seeing in other countries?

History? Architecture? Scenery? Food and wine? Museums? Art? People watching? Etc....

We cannot tell you what you want to see, you need to establish your priorities.

Kykyshka

Why did you decide to go to France - what attracted you?
Never been there before

Why did you pick these places and not, say, the Basque country or Alsace-Lorraine? Read guides like Rick Steves

What have you enjoyed seeing in other countries?
History? Architecture? Scenery? Food and wine? Museums? Art? People watching? Etc....
All of the above with exception of people watching. Our goal was to experience culture, food, history, get off the beatten path some, spend few days at the beach, explore some outdoor activities.

pariswat

Read the green Michelin guide. Made by french fir french not by one US guy fir to be handheld US tourists who will flock to rue Cler - a street Parisians never heard of.

Kill half the destinations and it may start to look ok

Use trains to go from one region to another.

Visit one vineyard and sleep close to it !

thursdaysd

"Why did you decide to go to France - what attracted you?
Never been there before"

Unhelpful. The UN recognizes over 200 countries most of which you have probably not visited.

"Why did you pick these places and not, say, the Basque country or Alsace-Lorraine? Read guides like Rick Steves"

Unlike a lot of posters here I have nothing against RS, and have actually taken a few of his tours. However, if you go somewhere he recommends you will share it with a lot of other Americans also carrying RS guidebooks.

"get off the beatten path some, "
The only place on your list that qualifies is Grenoble (which I found disappointing) and possibly Les Gorges du Verdon.

"explore some outdoor activities"
Chamonix, but what time of year?

"spend few days at the beach,"
Riviera, but not Nice, which is all pebbles. Don't know about the other beaches, not my thing.

"culture, food"
All of France is French. All of France has good and sometimes bad or indifferent food. But there are regional specialties.

"history"
You might read "The Road From the Past" by Ina Caro.

Pick the north or the south, and train between Paris and Nice.

Sassafrass

I am not familiar with all the places on your list, so can't recommend or not.

I did a simple layout so you could get a clear idea of times given to different places and how much you are breaking it up into little bits of time. You have a lot of one night stays, which may work so you do not backtrack or have day trips that are too long. A few of them are fine. However, on a long trip, it may be better to arrange things with more two night stays and do day trips. You are also planning sight seeing in the morning, then driving, then more sightseeing, using the middle of the day for driving when it might be best for sightseeing.

Two nights in a place gives you one whole day. It is easier and more relaxing to plan while days than lots of part days, especially those where you are checking out of one hotel and into another every single day. That uses up time. I did not look at a map to see how you might arrange things to eliminate more one night stays and increase the number of whole days, but it would be good to do that.

When are you gong? Time of year matters.

isabel

Look at the over all areas you are going: Paris, Normandy/Mt St Michele/Loire, Chamonix/Dijon/Grenoble, Aix/Nice. Pick which one of those you least want to see and drop it and split the days among the others. For example, for the Normandy/Mt. St Michele/Loire you have 3 days. You need at least 6, preferably 9 and that's not seeing 'everything', just a decent tour of the highlights.


Looking at a map you'll see that the Normandy/Mt St Michele/Loire region is the opposite direction from Paris from the rest so it makes the most sense to drop that. Also you only have 3 days for all that which is nowhere near enough to see anything. Makes more sense to go from Paris to Dijon (by train, then rent the car), see Anncey, Grenoble, etc. for 4 or 5 days, then go down to Provence/Cote d'Azure.

Or - do a week or so in the Loire/etc with a car after Paris. Drop the car and take high speed train to Provence/Cote d'Azure and spend the rest of the time there.

Nikki

I have found that the Michelin green guides in English are not the always the same as the ones in French. Not to say that one version is consistently better, but they are not necessarily written by the French for the French.

Since you want to spend a few days at the beach, you should research which beaches are best for this. Nice has, as noted above, stony beaches.

If it were my trip, I would concentrate on two regions or three at the most. This would give me the opportunity to see some of the more well known sites in the region as well as to get off the beaten path. But I have taken more fast-paced trips and enjoyed them as well. Depends on your individual style.

StuDudley

Fodors finally has the REPLY function working - so I'll add in my two-cents here.

My wife & I spend 2 months vacationing in France every year. We stay in Gites, and normally for 2 weeks at a time. We've been doing this since 1999 when we retired early so we could travel more.

Of the places you've mentioned, we have spent:
- Normandy & Brittany around MSM - 4 weeks.
- Loire - 9 weeks. We love chateaux
- Dijon/Burgundy/Beaujolais - 4 weeks
- Chamonix/Mt Blanc - 1 week
- Annecy - 3 weeks
- Provence - 22 weeks
- Cote d'Azur 21 weeks
- Paris - I have no ideas as to how many months we've spent in Paris since 1978 when we started to visit Europe on a regular basis.

Our two favorite regions in France are Provence & the Dordogne

Runners-up to that are Brittany, Cote d'Azur, and the Languedoc.

As most everyone else has noted - you need to eliminate about half your destinations. Here are a few recommendations

As St Cirq noted, you need to plan visits to large cities around the Sunday & Monday morning closings. You won't enjoy Aix, or Dijon on a Sunday as much as you would another day. Even Annecy is a little slow on a Sunday - except for their farmer's market. Exceptions are Paris & Nice.

We spent a weeks near Chamonix in early July last year, and we could only see Mt Blanc for one day and about 3 half days. So don't stay in Chamonix - stay in Annecy instead and if the weather is clear, drive to Mt Blanc for a visit.

As stated above - we love Chateaux. But that's pretty much all you do in the Loire Valley - visit Chateaux. Chinon is a nice small village - but you'll see plenty of nice small villages in the Dordogne, Provence, and around Nice. Tours is one of my least favorite cities in France, and Blois & Amboise are about C+ cities, IMO, Angers has a nice tapestry - but I think you'll find Aix & Avignon to be more interesting. Dijon is one of my top 2 cities in France - after Paris.

I'm not a big fan of the Verdon Gorge. We've visited it several times - as recently as this past June. It takes a bit of driving - with too few vista points that you can stop at to observe the Gorge. The many gorges in the Gorges du Tarn region are much more scenic & interesting - with chateaux you can observe & villages to explore, and about a dozes caves with stalactites & mites. Likewise the beautiful red brick-colored gorges 1 1/4 hrs north of Nice.

Visit Versailles on your last day in Paris. I bet you won't want to leave Paris.

Consider:

- Paris 5 nights

- Take an early train to Caen, rent a car, visit the Caen Muesum, stay in Bayeux, and visit the beaches for 2 nights & 2 1/4 days

- Late in the day, drive to Mt St Michel & stay for 1 night.

- Drive to the Loire & stay for 3 nights near Amboise.

- Drive to Sarlat/Dordogne and stay for 5 nights.

- Drive to Provence - stopping along the way in Carcassonne for a 2 1/2 hr visit. Spend 4-5 nights in Provence.

- Drive to Nice. Keep the car for 2 days to explore the fabulous Nice Hinterland. Spend your remaining days in Nice.

I've have developed a 35 page itinerary for Provence & the Cote d'Azur, about a 20 page itinerary for the Dordogne, and about 15 pages for Normandy & Brittany. I've sent my various itineraries (I have others too) to over 6,000 people on Fodors. If you would like a copy of any of these - e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach one/them to the reply e-mail.

Stu Dudley

Christina

I'd drop a couple places but don't think it's a disaster. I'd drop the one day in Dijon. I like Dijon, but it isn't on the most direct route from the Loire to Chamonix, and you have so much else to see, I wouldn't think it worth the trouble.