My wife and I are having our 15th anniversary and she wants to go to France. She has been before, but I have not. Our 15th will be in July of 2009. So, I would like some feedback so I can start planning our trip, thanks in advance:
-best time to go to France
-Do not miss areas
Thanks,
Mark

You might tell us what your interests are. I've spent almost 100 weeks vacationing in France - and there's LOTS to cover.

- Provence in late June & early July to catch the Lavender blooming.

- Dordogne in Sept to minimize rain & welcome fall

- Cote d'Azur in June to avoid July crowds & welcome summer

- Brittany in Sept to get better weather & explore the beautiful coast & small villages there - plus Rennes

- Alsace in Sept to see some of the cutest villages in France, with geramiums in full bloom everywhere & pretty vineyards

- Loire any time to see the Chateaux

- Pays Basque in Sept to hit the Pyrenees and Atlantic Coast (Brittany is prettier, IMO)

- Languedoc in June or Sept to see lots of stalactite & mite caves, breathtaking gorges, unusual rock formations, rugged terrain, cute villages

- Drive through the Alps in late June or Sept.

- Paris

- Burgundy in Sept to see some wine estates, wine harvest, Dijon, Beaune, Auxerre, lots of chateaux

Lots of others - but this will do as a starter.

Stu Dudley

For how long? Budget for hotels? City only/mostly/combo with countryside?
If countryside...car/no car?
Interests? Dislikes?
Special needs (balloon ride, champagne tasting,etc..)?

France is huge and varied, you will need to narrow it down a bit.

As a potential, could split into Patis and another area. Half time in Paris, take train to other area, rent car, at end train back to Paris and leave.

The lavender fields of Provence are in full bloom around early July. Just beautiful!

So - start your planning...

I take it you aren't requiring that you do this trip to include the actual date of the anniversary since you ask best time to go. If that's the case,probably make it late Sept./early October to still have pretty nice weather but way less crowds. You might do Normandy, Brittany and the Loire in the Spring, however, say early May. And if you go to the South of France/the Riviera, you can extend the stay later into October and still have nice weather. Provence would probably be nice either time and Paris is fine any time, with prices being cheapest in August if you can stand the heat and be sure to get an air conditioned hotel.

August would be a trickier time with so many French taking holidays.

I like the idea of going off-season (though Sep-Oct can be busy in Paris). May/June might be nice if you indeed want to see some of countryside.

Hi M.

>Our 15th will be in July of 2009

Either go early - May - or late - Sept.

Our intrests:
1. We will like to see a few museums
2. We don't like big crowds, so we will try to limit ourselves to 1 0r 2 days of big crowd activities.
3. We would like to do a bit of outside of Paris site seeing, countryside, wine tasking for a day or 2, maybe a spa day. We are not huge champaign fans, but are big wine fans.
4. We would like to catch a day of the tour de france, if we decide to go at the right time of the year.
5. My wife wants to visit Versailles.
Other than that, not sure what else we want to do. We would like to spend about 10 days in the French area.
6. We both like history so seeing some good history sites would be good.
7. We are pretty good at finding things to do and just relaxing, so we want to allow time for that too. Not a fire drill vacation.

Budget, I am planning longer ahead than I normally do. As far as hotels, I want to stay at clean places for sure with nice staff. All the gold and glitter is not our priority, although we might want to go crazy on a hotel for a night or 2. We will see what the rates are for the dollar exchange in the next few months and start narroring down hotels, once we have our route and activites planned.

Travel. I can rent a car, or we could take trains, whatever makes the most sense in this area. Baloon ride, we would consider that.

Thanks for all the questions and feedback so far, I hope my answers help you offer more details. If you have specific reccomendations on hotels, wineries, countryside towns, etc. please note them. Want I am after here in the end goal to to put toghether the 10 best days in France that I can put together based on the feedback I get from you fellow travelers. So, if you have a perfect day or 2 to suggest please do.
Thanks again,
Mark

With a year or so of time, use the library or book store to learn about France. Learn the history of France. Fodor posters favor their own interests. An i8 year old lady will offer different advice than a 40 year old man. I just looked at my AAA France Road Atlas...<www.aaa.com>. It may be good book to help with your planning.

suggest

go to paris for 4 days, one to get over jet lag, one to do d'orsai and louvre with a side order notre dames, one to Versailles and one free day to have fun

then choose a wine region. I suggest Bordeau or alsace but as you know there are lots.

in alsace either book into a wine tour or rent a car and taste along the wine road with a day in Strasbourg, Bescancon. Food will not be a problem

in bordeaux goole "information touristique bordeau" and take a bike tour from vinyard to vinyard.

of course there are lots more you could do but this gives you a few ideas on your objectives

I agree with the four days in Paris, but I always like to do countryside/smaller cities first and then wind up in the bigger intimidating ones. That way you have time to brush up on your French, too, in a more tolerant environment. It would be easy to fly into a city in the region you choose(Provence, Dordogne, etc.), rent a car for exploring, and then dump the car and take the train into Paris (don't try to drive!!) for your last four days.

Hi M,

With nine nights, I would
Fly into Paris - 3 nights
Train to Strasbourg or Dijon.
Rent car for 3 nights in Alsace or Burgundy.
Train back to Paris - 3 nights.