Ideas for S and W France?

Old Jan 26th, 2001, 08:42 PM
  #1  
jane
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Ideas for S and W France?

I'm offering a carrot:

This was part of our itinery and comments re: our recent Europe trip. I hope this will be of use to some of you. I have learned so much, and garnered so much from the Fodors board. Happy travels!

Wonderful place we found in S. France- near Nice. La Rivolte. http://www.larivolte.com/house.html. Best room: Jasmine. The bathroom alone is bigger than my home office. A friend years ago recommended staying in Best Westerns in Europe. What a find. We’ve now stayed in about 10 BWs (in Europe) in the past 3 years. Particularly wonderful is La Magnaneriae in Villenueve Le Avignon (see Best Western site). You won’t go elsewhere for dinners. We were there last year, and will be there again in June this year. Lovely grounds, food to die for.

Lake Como- also wonderful. Best Western Grand Hotel Imperial. Loved the lake; glad we went there instead of Milan for 2 days. Cinque Terre- stay at Villa Margherita by the Sea in Levanto. Very nice, inexpensive; I found it in a column in the LA Times. Great views from the top floor. Wonderful patio off the room to sit and read.

Now that I’ve listed our favorites; does anyone have favorites in or near Lyon, Barcelona, Biarritz area and Brittany/Normandy. We’ll be in France and Spain during June (29 days) and are looking forward to visiting places for 2-3 days which can be a “base.” We’ll have a car, and love just poking around the countryside. Looking for unique relaxing places- particularly those that have a kitchen that can be used by guests are particurly desirable. The rest of our trip is planned, but recommendations re: these spots would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Jane
 
Old Jan 27th, 2001, 04:21 AM
  #2  
Ann
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
If you are going to Brittany, try the Crozon peninsula and the Pointe du Raz for spectacular scenery and interesting fishing villages/towns. Plenty of places for you to go poking around. We stayed at the Hotel le Goyen in Audierne.
 
Old Jan 27th, 2001, 01:07 PM
  #3  
lorne
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Hello Jane-my wife and i stayed at the magnaerie in villeneuve for 5 days two years ago.IT is very beautiful as well as relaxing.it has a lovely pool and is very quiet.the food is too die for.i can still see and smell the wonderful cheese trolley.we ate in the hotel twice and they were the best meals i have ever had. the hotel balooned our budget but it was very memorable. we ate in villeneuve one evening which was very nice.the only drawback was the cab rides from avignon. we have used best western hotels everywhere we have gone in europe and have found them interesting and of good value. most have a lot of character. we loved avignon and got to see a lot of the area except the luberon(next time)the magnanerie was atreat. i would definitely return for a meal if our hotel was in central avignon.-lorne
 
Old Jan 27th, 2001, 01:36 PM
  #4  
clairobscur
Guest
 
Posts: n/a

Not sure about the bases, but here's some interesting places to visit :

Normandy : I don't really know this region, but I never saw mentionned here Lyons-la-Foret, which is a lovely old village (close to the forest, as its name imply).There's also a good restaurant, there, though I can't remember its name.

Brittany (noth-eastern part): Mont St-Michel and St-Malo, of course, but also the medieval towns of Dinan,Vitre, Fougeres. The forest of Paimpont (also called "Broceliande"). The cliffs of the cape Frehel and the close castle of Fort la Latte, above the sea. Saint Malo could be a pleasant base in this area, but not convenient if you intend to visit places scattered all around Brittany...
 
Old Jan 27th, 2001, 02:08 PM
  #5  
Rex
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Near Lyon (about 30 km north, near Villefranche s/Saone) - - www.chateauxandcountry.com/chateaux/longsard - - I have mentioned this on more than one post before, so I won't repeat myself. No kickbacks to me, I swear.
 
Old Jan 28th, 2001, 04:12 PM
  #6  
lynn
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Hi Jane:
We have found the same thing to be true on our travels around Europe, Best Western hotels provide good value. We were told by some people that it would be just like staying in a north american hotel to stay in these around Europe. (this we would hate) but we have found them to be very local in flavour and mostly charming.
We stayed at the Best Western Hotel Regina in Barcelona last year and while it doesn;t have a kitchen it is in a wonderful location at the top of The Ramblas and right near an entrance to the underground and train stations. If you're looking for a neat place to stay on the beach for a few days try the Best Western Mar menuda Hotel in Tossa de mar. This is a neat little town that we have visited quite a few times and always stay in this hotel which is right on the smaller of the two beaches in the town. I have written about it before on this site and sound like their rep but believe me I'm just a very satisfied client.
In Normandy we found a hotel which we have booked for our trip this July. While it's not a Best Western it comes highly recommended from several people on this website. The Clos Normand in St Aubin. I'm not sure where you're from or if you are looking at visiting any of the WW2 sites, but this town is close to the Canadian landing beaches.
Have a great trip. Maybe we will pass each other somewhere there this summer.
regards,
Lynn
 

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are On


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -