Itinerary suggestion for first time trip to France
 

We are a married couple in our early 30s visiting France for the first time. A total of 17 days. We would like a good mix of city and countryside.


Fly in from New York to Nice arrive at 2pm on June 27th.
June 27th Day 1: Nice (only half day)

28th Day 2: Nice

29th Day 3: Nice
Day trip to St. Paul or can I club it with something else?

30th Day 4: Nice
Day trip to Cannes

1st Day 5: Nice
Day trip to Monaco and Eze village

2nd Day 6:Nice to Provence, Luberon

3rd Day 7: Provence, Luberon

4th Day 8: Provence, (which other place)

5th Day 9: Provence, (which other place)

6th Day 10: Burgundy

7th Day 11: Burgundy

8th Day 12: Paris

9th Day 13: Paris
Versailles

10th Day 14: Paris

11th Day 15: Paris

12th Day 16: Paris

13th Day 17: Paris fly out to NYC at 4pm


Thank you.

Are you going by car? Or train? Or both?

Looks like a lovely well-thought out itinerary to me. For Burgundy I'd base in Beaune, a sweet regional town in the heart of the Burgundy wine district - the commercial capital of it with wine house in town to visit. If with car I'd ditch the car in say Dijon and take the bullet train to Paris sans car.

If taking trains check out these super informative web sites - www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Trains can take you anywhere you want to go on your itinerary with buses picking up the slack in Nice area and Provence. A nice base in Provence would be Arles or Avignon, both neat old cities with lots to see and do.

Sounds wonderful, my only suggestion would be to reconsider Eze. Yes, it's lovely, but so are so many other "villages perches", those wonderful little Provence towns clinging to the sides of mountains. We were just in Eze about 6 months ago, and it was filled with block-long limousines, bodyguards, and menus featuring 50 Euro burgers. Be prepared, it's very touristy, and rather snooty. I'd suggest maybe Gourdon, Bourmes les Mimosa, Tourettes, St. Paul de Vence - there are too many to choose from! Bon Voyage.

Your itinerary is very appealing. Just one comment: While you could possibly do the entire trip using only buses and trains, I would get a car when leaving Nice for Provence and turn it in before leaving Burgundy. You have much more flexibility with a car, especially in Provence.

Mamcalice - That's exactly what I had in mind. Thank you.

St. Paul de Vence is the closest village to the Fondation Maeght which is worth a visit for modern art.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...7624404539441/

Do you foresee visiting France in the future? If this is the case, you might think about gateway city considerations.

What is a gateway city? It is a city you would likely to fly in/out over and over through your entire traveling days. In this case, Paris and Nice are likely to be your gateway city especially you are from New York where both cities are accessible as direct flights.

You would go through gateway cities even when these cities are not explicit destinations but have to stay at least an over night to fly home, etc. Such cities automatically get included into your trip without being the destination.

The first time I realized this was on my first trip to UK. I followed so called London=so many days rule. By middle of the trip, I realized that was a dumb idea. I ended up staying in London in some way on my subsequent UK trips. I could have visited London to my satisfaction without allocating so many days on my very first trip. So, in case of Paris, I have never made Paris the reason for the trip. But if the flight or train connection required me to spend time in Paris, I included some days in Paris into my itineraries. The strategy leverages need to stay there and want to visit there into the same visit, get 2-in-1.

The gateway city strategy works for countries you would likely to visit often and where you want to travel widely outside the gateway cities and when it is acceptable for you to spread the visit to these cities over your entire travel life.

i won't be visiting France anytime soon after this trip

You can save yourself some days better spent if you leave out Monaco--and maybe even Cannes or at least cut down the Nice portion. More in Provence for me or even Burgundy.