Help please with 2-week train trip
 

Fellow adventurous and experienced travellers,

I'm hoping to get your help to plan a 2-week Europe itinerary by train with my husband. We like to walk and take in a city/place, people-watch, and maybe take in a museum or church/cathedral once in a while, like ruins/old medieval towns, take pictures, linger where we want to. We're hoping to mix big cities with 2-4 nights in smaller places/the countryside.

Tentative plan (begin travel end-June or early-July):
Fly into Paris 3 nights
Train to Nice 2 nights
Nice to Provence: which cities to visit - considering Avignon, Aix, Roussilon
do we need to rent a car? should we keep moving from city to city or use one city as a base? 4 nights
Bruges - which Provence city is the best to get a train to Bruges? 2 nights
Amsterdam 3 nights

I have read a ton of posts related to Provence and still need help. Will our timing match lavender bloom-times? Other edits to our itinerary are also welcome...

Thank you much!

I suggest you stay in France for this trip. The destinations you have chosen will easily consume 2 weeks. But, I would change sequence:

Arrive Paris---5 nites
Train to Avignon--get car---see Provence---4 nites
Drive to Nice area---4 nites
Fly home from Nice

Good luck !

I agree with Bob. YOu will need a car for provence and one will be usefull for Nice. You can use the car for the first 2 days in Nice & then turn it in

Lavender last year bloomed late - didn't start gettin real good till early July. Sometimes it gets going in late June.

Stu Dudley

Thank you both for the suggestions. I'm not that keen about Nice...what would make it a must-see? Provence is the draw really.

Please help me pick which villages to visit in Provence.

There are dozens & dozens of villages to visit in Provence. e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach my 27 page Cote d'Azur & Provence itinerary to the reply e-mail. I've sent it to over 2,500 people on Fodors (5 already this morning). The itinerary describes my favorite villages, scenic drives, markets, lavender fields, and has a section on Provence fabric.

Stu Dudley

Stu, The itinerary you sent me was so so helpful. We ended up doing one of the lavender drives you have in it - that touches on Gordes and Simiane le rotunde. It was exquisite; all your helpful details about where to stop and what to look out for gave us lots of good picture opps. Thank you so much! We also did part of the drive toward Cassis. Thank you!

Glad my itinerary helped you. Yesterday we returned from 4 weeks in France (north) & 1 in Belgium.

Stu Dudley

Stu, I'd love to hear your impressions of Belgium -- in another thread.