Need advice on travel options through France.
 

I am so glad to be posting again, as it means I am planning another trip! It's been over a year since I posted last, which was for our trip to Italy. But of course, I have been lurking and reading daily and diligently for the last few months in making plans for our next trip. With 90% of my information gathered here for our last trip, I look forward to receiving advice for our upcoming trip to France!

We, four adults, are planning a 14 day trip to France in April. I am the sole planner for the four of us (all unseasoned travelers including me), so the pressure is on. I am fairly certain I would like to do 4 days in Paris, 5 days in the Dordogne area, and 5 days in Provence. We will most likely fly into and out of Paris, unless I can get a great fare out of Bordeaux or Provence. What routing should we take to make the most of our travel time? What travel options, as far as car, train, or bus, will be the easiest and most efficient? Should we go to Dordogne first or Provence first after Paris? We will want a car through both of these areas after we leave Paris.

Thanks, I look forward to your replies.

Your goals are along a path either north to south or the other way, so consider flying into Paris, driving southwards after seeing Paris and flying out via Nice or Marsailles. Or do it south to north. If you arrange it right, you probably can avoid a drop off charge. The areas you want to see more or less require a car.

I would be inclined to start in
Provence and head north to the Dordogne ultimately, taking advantage of the warmer weather iin the south to begin with. Do you have the Michelin map for France? Start by looking at the main routes and deciding how much actual driving time you want to spend to get from Provence to the Dordogne; you may find that taking the train from, say, Avignon to Bourdeaux and driving from there would make sense. Otherwise you'll spend about a day on the road just to get to the Dordogne region, where you will definitely need a car.

I think it would be pretty obvious that you'd go to the Dordogne after Paris and before Provence.

I'd rent a car. The Dordogne is really not do-able without one. Rent on in Bordeaux or Périgueux or wherever you decide to end up in the region.

You have about a million options as for touring the Dordogne and then going to Provence. Have you looked at a map? Do you know what you want to see? I don't even know how to begin to suggest things for you until you say what interests you.

A first problem is 4 adults and luggage in one vehicle!! Too large a vehicle will make it difficult for an unseasoned European traveler to negotiate some of the narrow roads.

mda97: My suggestions are posted under my Trip Report of Chartres, the Loire, Dordogne, and Provence just topped today.

As to taking 4 people in one vehicle, here is what we found. We rented a minivan from Autoeurope at CDG. It had two buckets seats in the front, a bench seat (could seat three people) in the middle and two fold down seats in the back. Because we could not remove the two back seats, only fold the backs down, that did not give us room for the four 26" suitcases that we needed as we still had to be able to see out the back window. We ended up putting one of the suitcases on end on the floor in the middle seat. The carryon bags fit stuffed in where ever available. The van was manual as no automatics were available for rent anywhere in Europe. It did have AC which we needed in a warm September. We dropped it off a Marseilles airport and flew out of there for CDG-USA. We did not find the van too large for any of the roads.

Logistically it was hard to keep 4 people going in the same direction at the same time. And to think that we originally were going to have 6 people going together! But noone got their nose out of shape and we had a truly fun time, though one of us complained about too many castles and another wanted to see more.

You will have fun. Just be sure to pack more US dollars!!

Although travel by automobile may be inevitable, particularly in the Dordogne, you may wish to minimize it.

Here is a pretty good thread on the subject.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34424767

Oops...wrong thread.

It can be had by searching for "France without a car."

14 days with 4 in Paris, 5 in the Drodogne and 5 in the Provence. Take one off for the Dordogne and the Provence for travel time. I would rent the car in Paris and travel to the Dordogne via Chartres and the Loire valley. You can visit the cathedral in Chartres, arrive in the Loire that evening (if late afternoon you might be able to fit a chateau in--we happened to like Langeais), visit Chenonceau or another main sight and then drive down to the Dordogne. I feel that the Loire is a must if you go from Paris to the Dordogne and have never been to France before. The cost of the car rental should be no more than the cost of the train travel for four to the Dordogne.