bappy15

Hi all... I need your expert opinions. My hubby and I are travelling to France for 10 days in September. We're flying in to Paris, spending 3 nights there, and then we need to make our way down to Nice, where we will fly home from.

But we can't decide what to do in between... everything looks so fabulous. I was thinking of spending time in Beaune, Avignon, and Eze... or Monacco and St. Tropez.

I'm also trying to figure out the car/train situation.

Any advice would be wonderful...

Thanks so much!

bappy15

bump. please???

rex

With seven days to make the drive, I would do it all by car, personally.

You're so right, there is SO much to choose from, and I figure I haven't seen a fourth of what I would like to see along the Autoroute du Soleil. You can search here through the hundreds, maybe even thousands of reports of places that Fodorites like. Some of my posts have referenced Nitry, Chateau de Longsard, Arles and Orange, the Corniche de l'Esterel, Antibes, Montauroux and the "uplands" around Grasse. And this is just such a random and incomplete list.

You really do need comprehensive guide books of the two/three/four areas that span this distance; read them cover to cover, just like you would a novel and develop a feel for what "speaks" to you most. I'm inclined to say that you might do best to concntrate along the Rhone valley "axis" - - Nice itself isn't a place I found as interesting as some of the others I have mentioned. On the other hand, I would not be dismissive of Monte Carlo. It's unique; there just isn't other word for it.

But it's surely a case of the more you know about Burgundy, Provence and the Riviera - - the more you find to like in all of them.

Best wishes,

Rex

RonZ

When flying out of Nice, we have spent the previous night in St Paul de Vence. The town itself has lots of charm [especially after the daytrippers leave], and the airport is about 20 minutes away.

With only about 6 days of traveling, you might be better off taking a train down south [Avignon?] and renting a car. Spend a night there and then maybe base yourself in a couple of different places depending upon where you wish to visit.

StuDudley

RonZ has the right idea. For only 6 days, just take the 3 hr TGV from Paris to Avignon, and explore Provence. If you "check out" places between Paris & Provence, you'll only have time for a sniff or two - without really enjoying them a lot. I did the sniffing 30 years ago, and I wish someone would have given me some advice to slow down, concentrate on just one region, and then plan a return trip the next year to see a different areas.

Stu Dudley

rex

It (train to Avignon) is only the best idea, if <i>someone else's</i> idea of what they should see coincides with their own. Advice given here is almost always slanted towards what a poster <u>says</u> are their interests. By mentioning Beaune, we can't really tell... do bappy and hubby really want to explore Beaune, Dijon, Burgundy and Lyon in detail? and then touch down briefly at Avignon before traveling onward to the Riviera? In that case, train to Avignon is the wrong solution.

Generally, and specifically in this case, &quot;we&quot; cannot do the reading, and immersing and &quot;envisioning/imagineering&quot; that they need to do, to find out what they <i>think</i> they want to see/do.