kimerley

Hope one of you wise people can help me.
My 2 friends and I are travelling to Europe for 6 weeks.Below is the plan......(nothing booked yet)
Arrive London 17/8 stay 5 nights
Eurostar to Paris stay 5 nights
pick up Leased car (either Renault/Peugot, comprehensive insurance included is why we are leasing the car and not renting)from CDG on Saturday 27/8.
Drive to Beaune. We will stay here a week and visit surrounding areas.(Saturday to Saturday)
My problem is where to next for the next 2 weeks?
Saturday 3/9 to 10/9 and then 10/9 to 17/9.
We will leave from ? on the 17/9 and drive to Lajatico (46km from Pisa).
I'm keen to stay in Provence, Vaucluse area and not so keen to stay in Nice. The drive from Nice to Lajatico is around 2 hours and thus it would make sense to base ourselves near there for our last week in France.
But I am open for suggestions on how to best utilise our 3 weeks in France.
This is a holiday, so the plan is to eat (a lot) and soak up the ambience of each place and thus why we will stay a week in each place. For Italy we are staying in a villa for 2 weeks.
We'll then return the car at FCO Rome and fly home to Sydney ?3 October 05.
Any 3 bedroom villa recommendations would also be appreciated.

RonZ

I can appreciate your preferring 5 nights in one place, but if Provence attracts you, spend the time there, and then a single night on the Cote d'Azur the way to Italy.

Orly would be better than CDG for your car rental.

kimerley

thanks, why Orly instead of CDG?

Travelnut

One reason would be that Orly is south of Paris and CDG is north, so you could avoid backtracking and having to drive around the city to finally get on your route.

RJD

You may wish to consider taking the TGV to Dijon and renting a car there for your trip to Burgundy. Avoids the difficulties of driving in Paris.

RonZ

For driving in France I suggest using www.mappy.com for route planning along with some decent maps.

You could TGV to Dijon, but given that you are in the Gare de Lyon, it is simpler to just rent a car there, where it is very easy to get on the autoroute. Mappy shows you what road signs to look for. Also you have the advantage of stopping by the day before to scope things out and making sure they have the car you want.

kimerley

thanks for your replies.
Just need some suggestions on where to spend the 2 weeks after Beaune and before Italy.

RonZ

Where exactly are you before Beaune?

SuzieC

Provence in August, eh? mmmmm....
I haven't been there yet and probably have read too many Peter Mayle books.
What a lovely chunk of time you've got.
How about a week in the Loire? Then meander east...

Lexma90

Seems like you're on a leisurely schedule. An entire week in Beaune seems like a lot of time, unless you're REALLY into wine. Have you looked into the sites and sights of that area, to make sure that's how you want to spend your time?

Consider time in the Loire (either taking some time from your time in Burgundy, or some time from your "extra" two weeks).

You could definitely spend your two weeks in Provence. I'm not terribly familiar with the area, but for example, you could spend one week in the Arles/Avignon area, then one week a bit further east, in the Luberon (which you could also visit from Arles) or the Vauclose (that's east, right?).

Another idea, that would involve a bit more driving, is to spend one of your France weeks in the Dordogne, and another in Provence. It kind of depends on what you want to do and see on your vacation. There's a lot of medieval history, castles, etc., in Dordogne (plus great food); there's quite a bit of ancient Roman history in Provence (plus great food).

Lucky you, with 6 weeks to plan...

kimerley

RonZ: we are in Paris for 5 nights prior to arriving in Beaune.
Suziec: We'll be doing Provence etc in September......
This is a holiday, so we want to spend a week in each place. Last July I was in Umbria and spent a lot of time by the pool resting/eating... I can't stand packing up every 3 days....and besides what we miss this trip we can see next one!
thanks for your help. Beaune is a "must" with one of my friends.

susanna

Provence is so large that you could easily spend two week there, maybe in two seperate places. We spent weeks there last year and didn't even scratch the surface. I would spend one week a town, visiting the area, we loved Isle sur Sorgue, and then the second week down at the coast, which should still be very warm in Sept. That will also put you in good striking distance to Italy. What a great vacation, have a ball.