London-Provence-Paris or London-Paris-Provence? Can't decide itinerary
 

I am going to England and France on my honeymoon in October. We have 3 1/2 weeks. We are only doing London and Stonehenge in England with the rest of the time in France. We can't decide if we should do London first, then fly to Nice and do the south of France, and make our way to Paris, or if we should go from London to Paris and start our France tour there.

We have never been to England or France. We speak minimal French so we are wondering if it would be better to get acclimated to the country in Paris before heading south. On the other hand, 2 weeks in London/Paris seems like a very hectic city schedule and we thought we would break it up by going to Provence before Paris. We really enjoy the countryside.

Any advice?

If you can get an open jaw ticket then London, Provence, Paris is the sensible choice

You can get cheap flights to Nice or Marseille from the UK then take the TGV back to Paris

www.whichbudget.com
www.seat61.com

ditto AR

I wouldn't worry too much about not speaking French. We don't either and have visited France quite a few times without any major problems! If you take a phrasebook and try and learn a few words or phrases before you go, that will help a bit. Provence sounds like a nice place to end your trip, as it should be more relaxed than Paris or London but you don't want to travel from Paris to Provence then have to backtrack to Paris to catch a flight home, so I would check out flights first then make your plans.

From London, you could catch the Eurostar to Paris then a TGV down to Provence, then fly home out of Provence (if possible). Check www.seat61.com for excellent train advice. Or you could fly from London to somewhere in Provence then train back to Paris for your flight home.

Kay

I like the London-Provence-Paris order for the same reasons as alanRow. Also, I would think that the Provence weather would be better earlier rather than later in October. Although you never know about the weather.

I think the London-Provence-Paris schedules sounds the best, also. It does give you a break of something different between the two big cities, and it makes sense to fly out of a major airport. It will be a lot more trouble to get to the airport in Provence from wherever you are (most likely,unless you stay in a big city like Nice or Marseille), and then you'll have to go through Paris, anyway, which will take time on your flight. Of course that depends where you are going to, of course, but I'm just supposing it won't be a city with a nonstop flight from Marseille.