4carollee

Hello!
Could I please get some suggestions for a 7 night trip to France. We start in Cannes and want to make our way up to Paris. Shall we drive from Cannes to a town in Burgundy? Or should we catch the train and if so, which town should be our destination?
We want to stop in Lyon at some point. Should we then catch a train from Lyon up to Paris or is there another smaller town we can get the train from in the region?
I am going with my 22 year old daughter who speaks college level French.
Many thanks!
-Carol

FrenchMystiqueTours

You could have a really nice time with 7 nights to spend exploring the area between Cannes and Paris by car. Since you definitely want to stop in Lyon you'd have to figure out whether you were going to spend one or two nights there and then work out an itinerary with your remaining days. On your route from Cannes to Lyon you could spend a couple of days exploring the countryside of the Luberon area and villages before heading for Lyon. Or you could explore along the Mediterranean coast. There are actually loads of possibilities between Cannes and Lyon aside from the Luberon and Med coast. And then there is plenty to see in Burgundy between Lyon and Paris. If it were me, I'd drive and explore and forget the train but I suppose you could also take the train from Cannes to Lyon and then drive to Paris, or, drive between Cannes and Lyon and then take the train to Paris. None of your itinerary options are bad ones so just pick one and you can't go wrong.

4carollee

Thanks very much for the suggestions of areas. I will read up on them. Glad to know my idea of an itinerary is basically ok.

I have a question for you - what is the drive time from Cannes to Aix-en-Provence? Do you suggest we stay one night there or drive through it and get to Avignon??

Tulips

You can easily drive Cannes to Avignon in one go; it's only about 2,5 hours. Use www.mappy.com to check driving times.

FrenchMystiqueTours

To check drive times, distances and toll and fuel costs use www.viamichelin.com. It is more accurate than any other site based on my 12 years of using it will driving in France. The drive times are non-stop and don't consider bad weather or traffic but when these factors are considered I find the drive times very accurate. I've always arrived within 10 minutes +/- of the viamichelin.com drive times for any trip I've ever done in France (if no bad weather or traffic).

As far as where to stay overnight you'll need to do some research and figure out the places you want to do overnights. There are dozens and dozens of possibilities. Personally, if I had a car I would avoid larger towns and cities like Aix or Avignon and would instead stay in a town or village like Uzès or Vaison-la-Romaine or even one of the small Luberon villages like Bonnieux.

Look at the tourist office website for any place you want to visit/stay overnight and you'll learn what there is to see and do and where to find lodging. For example, you can see what kind of useful info is found on tourist office websites by using Uzès as an example:

http://uk.uzes-tourisme.com/

Or if you explored the Med coast you might look into Hyères, or Bormes-les-Mimosas or Cassis, among many other choices:

http://www.hyeres-tourism.co.uk/

http://www.bormeslesmimosas.com/

http://www.ot-cassis.com/en/

4carollee

Many thanks for all your suggestions! The more I investigate the more I think we should avoid the larger cities. I really appreciate the referral to the drive time site. That will be really useful.
Merci beaucoup!