Lyon or ?
 

Hi everyone!

My girls and I are taking our 2nd trip to Europe from 4 years ago. We are very excited and hope to be able to cover as much ground as we did in the past (Paris, Black Forest, London, and Florence). This time we are thinking of Munich, Venice, Nice, and one other place in France. We would like to see a small village in France that isn't so small that there is nothing to do or see. Also, we were thinking of flying out of Geneva or Zurich and into Munich so we could save on an open jaw flight. We thought if we could stay somewhere close to Switzerland that maybe we could take advantage of a one nite stay in Interlaken in order to do the Jungfrau experience and then the next day head out of Geneva or Zurich for home. Can anyone recommend a village in France close to Switzerland. We would be coming from a two day stay in Nice. Also, does this sound like too much? Again, we would like to cover as many countries as possible as who knows when we will be able to afford to go back again! Thanks!

I'm not sure how Lyon, which is quite a large city, fits into your wish to see a small village. Do you want to stay in a small village and then spend timein Lyon, or what?
But your nice small town near Switzerland would surely be Annecy.

Have you considered spending less time travelling and more time being there?? How many days do you have???

Stu Dudley

Another vote for Annecy, which is a beautiful town with a historic center along a canal which leads to the lake. I think it's about an hour away from Geneva.

Lyon is not a small village, not even a big village. It's a big city. So I don't get where you're coming from. Seems like you're already trying to pack way too much into a short vacation, even if you're never going to get back there. Less is more.

You're all over the map with this itinerary. I'd totally re-think it and concentrate on two countries at most. Of course, you don't say how much time you have, so it's really hard to help with specifics.

I am for Lyon. Why Nice? In my opinion Lyon is much more worth a visit than Nice and even Annecy.
True Lyon is a big city but has fascinating areas to explore, on one side you have the Vieux Lyon, covering not a big area, it could be considered like a "small village", on the River Saone. Old Lyon contains
an amazing collection of medieval and Renaissance buildings.Many of the house were built five stories up by merchants . To-day it is a fascinating area to explore,do not miss rue du Boeuf. Of course the magnificent cathedral is the main attraction with its 12 th century romanesque
facade. Streets in this area are narrow,you will see
spiral stairs, hanging gardens,lovely courtyards,plus all kind of medieval expressions of architecture.
There are other areas to explore in Lyon also full of history and charm.Begin your tour on the other side of the
Saone in Place Bellecourt a huge place ,one of France's largest you can walk along pedestrian streets towards the beautiful Hotel de Ville from the 1700' s your are in Louis XIV times now.
There is a lot more to see in Lyon, and you can eat in many of the best restaurants and bistros in France.
You can eat too in a culinary school.
I am not such a fun of Nice vis a vis Lyon. But of course many other persons would feel the other way preferring Nice.
I agree, a lot, with StuDudley in the sense of spending less time traveling and more time being there. Well Lyon for me is worth being there....a lot.

Agree that Lyon - the seond-most important city after Paris in many respects - is not what you're looking for.

Annecy is a good idea. Slightly bigger but still cute is Dijon.

From Nice they all take a long time by train - 6 or 7 hours. Have you considered flying from Nice to Geneva with easyJet? There are some really cheap flights. As always, read the conditions and the luggage rules etc, but this could be a good way of getting to Annecy, from Geneva the bus takes ony a bit more than an hour.

OP wrote: >>Also, does this sound like too much?<< the itinerary is Munich, Venice, Nice, and one other place in France.

How long is the trip? Just the transport time between those cities would take 4-5 days off your time to do any decent sightseeing. So I hope you have at least 3 weeks. If you don't not, then yes, it is too much. While in Nice, venture to EZE, a small hilltop medieval French village (should meet your requirement to "see a small village in France").

Best of luck, it is nowhere near the route selection I would work with, but if you did the Paris-Bavaria-London-Florence thing on a first trip to Europe, then go at it.

The only problem with planning only one night to do the Jungfrau is that the weather might be bad that one day, which defeats the purpose of going there....

>>The only problem with planning only one night to do the Jungfrau is that the weather might be bad that one day, which defeats the purpose of going there....<<

Our last trip to the Jungfrau was for 4 nights in Murren. The weather was bad every day. This was mid Sept. It snowed one day. Never saw a glimpse of the Jungfrau peaks. Visit Bern, Interlaken, etc. instead.

ledhead

I don't see how anyone can give you any usefull advice till you tell us how many days you have.

Stu Dudley



Stu Dudley

My idea is to replace Nice by Lyon. I might be wrong, although I have been in nice several times. May be I missing something can anyone tell me what is really worth it in Nice for a short two day visit.?

Graziella-- I love your posts and I am so sorry I have to disagree with you on Nice! I LOVE Nice and ADORE Lyon :-D The French Riviera is sooo beautiful, Nice is fun and lively with great Monday morning market, museums, gorgeous coast, fun oceanwalk, beautiful mountain backdrop, great restaurants. This may sound blasphemous, but I would first renounce to ever visiting Paris than Nice

Viajero I also like your posts. May be we have to learn to love Nice. I am relieved though that you adore Lyon.

In September 2006, I spent 2 nights in Perouges, located about 25 miles NE of Lyon. Perouges is a meticulously restored medieval village. I had the pleasure of staying at the Ostellerie de Vieux Perouges, a lovely restaurant/inn.

Perouges won't hold your interest for more than a day, but you can use it as base to visit Bourg en Bresse, Vienne which has a few extant Roman ruins, or possibly visit the vineyards of Condrieu...

Hi everyone!

Guess I am trying to do too much in one trip. Our first trip went well with an average of 3 days in each of 4 countries. I read a lot of Rick Steves books and he seems to promote traveling around a lot. This time we have 16 days. We are planning to go the third week in July if that has any bearing on where to go. I am considering making Nice our last stop with Munich being our first, and just doing either Venice or possibly taking a night train to AC and then flying into Nice for our last 3 days with Easy Jet. So the itinerary would be Munich with a day or overnight trip to Rothenberg (4 days), Venice or AC (3 days), and Nice (4 days) with day trips to Grasse and Eze. Does this sound more doable? Also, I am now torn between Venice and the AC coast! I really need some help please. My daughter's 21st birthday is 1/23/09 and I wanted to surprise her with train passes to start planning our trip. We usually pick out some hotels and figure our itinerary and then go see a friend who has a little business doing independent travel for booking tickets, hotels and air. We were planning to go see him on her birthday. I appreciate everyone's advice so far. Any other thoughts regarding Venice and AC?

>>So the itinerary would be Munich with a day or overnight trip to Rothenberg (4 days), Venice or AC (3 days), and Nice (4 days) with day trips to Grasse and Eze<<

What you really have is probably 3 1/2 jet-lagged days in Munich, 2 1/2 days in Venice or 2 days on the AC (it's time consuming to get to/from), and 3 1/4 days in Nice with HUGE crowds at the beginning of August.

If your daughter is 21, I'm guessing that you are over 45. When I was a few years older than your daughter, an overnight train was an adventure, but a little exhausting. When I reached your age, there was no adventure - just the exhausting.

Really, for just 11 days, I would limit my travel between destinations to not much more than 3-4 hours door to door (including hotel check-in & out).

I like to read Rick Steves & listen to his videos - but I would never travel at his pace. I really doubt that he even travels at the pace he suggests. I think I read or heard somewhere that he suggests only 1 1/2 days in the Dordogne in France - criminal.

Things to consider:

The French take their vacation "en mass" from the last 2 weeks in July through the third week in August. And they usually head south to the coast.

use http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en to plan your train trips. Also note that many air trips are around mid-day - so that will perhaps consume most of that day during "prime time".

Stu Dudley