Planning a trip for 3/28-4/8/07 which has to begin in Paris,then to Beaune and depart on 4/9om London. We have a Discovery wine Tour in Beaune already booked for 3/29-3/30. What is best order to visit Florence,Rome,Venice and end up in Milan where we fly on to London. Would greatly appreciate any ideas for train,or rental car.Thanks.

Assuming you're going on from Beaune w/out returning to Paris, you can fly from Lyon to Rome on easyjet.

Are you flying Milan to London on the 8th or 9th? Will you need to spend the night in Milan? That doesn't leave much time for the "big 3" in Italy.

we have from 3/31 to 4/7 to tour cities between Beaune and Milan. Thought we could go from Beaune to Rome,but doesn't look possible--and we definitely want to go to Florence and Venice in between,,any suggestions?

If I'm understanding you correctly, Mar 31st will be a travel day from Beaune. You can either return to Paris and travel on from there or you could fly from Lyon to Rome. Train is another possibility, but probably complicated from Beaune.

That only leaves 7 days (8 nights) to do Rome, Florence, Venice. Is that right? If so, that's packing a lot into such a short time. I would limit it to just 2 cities--not counting Milan if you're staying there on the 8th.

I see from another thread that you've previously only been to Paris for one 24-hour visit. Why jump through so many hoops to get to Italy if you haven't seen (experienced)Paris or other parts of France?

Try going to the airports cities that you want to visit and check for arrivals. Last year I wanted to get from Bern to Venice, which is a long train trip. I found a small airline called "Babboo Airlines" (it's true!) that flew a turboprop over the Alps from Geneva to Venice. A lot of fun. I also flew Easyjet into Geneva from Amsterdam. Once again, check the airport site and look for arrivals. Next spring I'm flying Air Nostrum from Madrid to Marseille.