French cities to visit
 

We will be leaving Zurich by train and want to get out of Switzerland into France. What cities would you say are worth visiting? We need to end up in a city where we can fly to southern Spain. Thinking cities/towns in Languedoc-Roussillon or Midi-Pyrenees or Rhone-Alpes region. Please chime in. Plan to rent a gite. We have 5-7 days.
Thanks.

>>We will be leaving Zurich by train and want to get out of Switzerland into France. What cities would you say are worth visiting? We need to end up in a city where we can fly to southern Spain. Thinking cities/towns in Languedoc-Roussillon or Midi-Pyrenees or Rhone-Alpes region. Please chime in. Plan to rent a gite. We have 5-7 days.<<
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This makes no sense at all. You start in Zurich and end in Spain and you want to rent a gite for 5-7 days somewhere in between. Gites normally rent for a week from Sat to Sat. We've rented 70 gites in France. You need to be more specific.

Here are our favorite cities & villages in France - after Paris. This list is several years old.

What we like:
We are building architecture buffs – old architecture – not new. We also like to see lots of pedestrian-only streets, outdoor markets, non-touristy shops, & outdoor cafes. We typically don’t go to many museums, so cities get “no points” for having museums. Also, churches don’t give a city extra points. When ordering these cities, we did not consider the “setting” of a city, like the beach at Nice or the lake at Annecy.

Cities with a population greater than 85,000. In order of preference (roughly)

1. Paris
2. Toulouse
3. Dijon
4. Rennes
5. Strasbourg
6. Avignon
7. Aix-en-Provence
8. Rouen
9. Montpellier
10. Lyon
11. Nice
12. Nancy
13. Poitiers
14. Bescancon
15. Bordeaux
16. Reims
17. Nantes
18. Marseille
19. Narbonne
20. Perpignan
21. Lille
22. Tours

Cities with a population greater than 10,000 but less than 85,000
1. Sarlat
2. Colmar
3. Beaune
4. Figeac
5. Auxerre
6. Chambery
7. Vannes
8. Annecy
9. Troyes
10. Albi
11. La Rochelle
12. Perigueux
13. Arles
14. Bourges
15. Dinan
16. St Malo
17. Quimper


Stu Dudley

Sorry, OP, I can't help with the south of France but I want to comment to Stu.

Stu, thanks for your list. My memory was that Rennes was #5 on your list and now it's #4 so I guess I fell behind.

We usually don't go to cities (big towns are our maximum), but you've always made Rennes sound intriguing so it's on our list if we get close. Like you, old buildings are a draw for us. We use the Monumentum website to track down listed buildings in the area where we'll be going.

Book those trains to France ASAP at www.voyages-sncf.com for nice discounts - www.oui.sncf you can book your own tickets on - www.seat61.com has great info on that - general info where to go by train - BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

The closer you get to Spain, the more impossible it is to fly there. Go to Strasbourg -- which has flights to Spain -- and explore a bit of Alsace. If you want a gite, there are plenty in the villages of Alsace.

You can fly nonstop to Seville from Toulouse or Nice on Easyjet. You can fly to Malaga from Toulouse, also. Easy and cheap.

Christina- great info-- what airline? very interested in the toulouse to malaga.
kerouac- what are some places in alsace? explore what? what would you do in strasbourg? I used to have a colleague in strasbourg but I never visited while I lived in Germany.
PalenQ- thanks for this info about the trains. We will do it pronto.
StuDudley- great list. Tell me more about Toulouse and Dijon.