twoweeksoff

Hi all,

I am hoping to get some help from all the experts here. My wife, 10 yo son and I will have 11 nights in France starting end of August. After reading quite a bit, we are 90% thinking we’d like to visit Paris (flying in), Dordogne, and Cote d’Azure (flying out of Nice). There are two fundamental questions that we cannot come down on: (1) how best to split the time & (2) best way to travel?

My wife and I have been to Paris before but our son has not. We’re cannot make trip longer. We love to drive, but also don’t mind trains. On the second day in Paris we are going to a futbol game so cannot purchase tickets for museums in advance on that day. We do have a family tour of the Louvre scheduled for our first day and the Eiffel Tower on the third.

Any assistance with these two questions would be much appreciated.

Michael

You do not have much time. Train to the south will be faster than the car. Day three is already taken, so day four would be going from Paris to Brive-la-Gaillarde, pick up a car and drive to your base Sarlat. Day five, visit Lascaux IV and what there is to see between Sarlat and Montignac: Saint Geniès and Saint Amand-de-Coly. Day six a drive along the Dordogne with stops in Domme, Beynac and Castelnaud with its museum and demonstration of Medieval weaponry.







Day seven would be a long drive to the Provence west of the Rhône, perhaps Arles with its Roman ruins and museum of antiquity.


Day eight would be spent in Arles.



I'll let others fill in the last three days of your trip.

Good luck and happy travels.

shelemm

It's not clear how many nights you have on the ground.

I am not much of a fan of Nice, so for the last part of your trip I suggest having a car and staying outside of cities and seeing villages in the area. Villefranche with its rue obscure, Eze, Hauts de Cagnes sur Mer, St Paul de Vence, so many great spots to visit.

I am not sure why anyone is interested in visiting the Eiffel Tower. The best view of Paris is with the tower IN the view, which I prefer by climbing the stairs up to the rooftop of Sacre Coeur. Yes, you can walk on the rooftop of the highest point in Paris.

You are brave visiting the Louvre on the day you land, IIUC.

uktravelover

It is a long drive from the Dordogne to the Côte d’Azur (8-9 hours) and equally long if not longer by train, so I would recommend stopping in Narbonne overnight having stopped in Carcassonne on route. You can then drive to Nice stopping at Nîmes and Aix-en-Provence on route. Stay in Nice and return the car. Use the bus/ train to go along the coast to Menton, Monaco, Villefranche, etc.

twoweeksoff

Thank you both. We will be in France for 11 nights (I always get confused talking about days and nights on vacation since last day isthrow-away).

Re: Eiffel Tower, our son really wants to go up and so we signed up for skip line tour to minimize time. Louvre first day is not ideal but only day for 1.5 hour skip line family tour. I do not know how much more time I can keep his interest there, but i will go to a couple of pieces i find interesting after. I did not know about the Sacre Coeur. Thank you for the recommendation. I really wanted to see the Pompidou, Rodin museum and Carnavalet. But time is limited and we think he will like d’Orsay.

We added Dordogne for cave paintings and castles/. We have reservation for Font-du-Gaume on day 6 but possibly changeable and not expensive. We were thinking 2 nights here, but you definitely identified so much more. On the other hand, with time being so precious, we need to be judicious.

twoweeksoff

Thanks, uktraveler—looking at Narbonne and Carcasonne now (we love board game with same name)…

Michael

Instead of the Tour Eiffel you could also look into the tethered balloon ride in the Parc André Citroën,

twoweeksoff

Thanks, Michael. I will look into tethered balloon.

Uktraveler—thank you for the suggestion. Carcassonne seems really delightful, but sounds like better time to be there is afternoon. Is there a reason you suggested staying in Narbonne over Carcassonne?

Michael

I would choose Lascaux IV over Font de Gaume

https://www.lascaux.fr/en

bilboburgler

futbol? Is this the e-game?

Take the train south. Drop Nice

twoweeksoff

Seeing original cave drawings was the purpose of going to Dordogne. If Font-du-Gaume is not recommended. Perhaps we would visit Dordogne another time. Do you know about the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave further south? I know i started with 2 questions, but i guess never so easy.

So far, thinking 4 nights in Paris, 2 nights Dordogne (or near best caves), 1 night Carcassonne and 4 nights Cote d’Azur (based in Antibes).

Any thoughts on Dordogne change?

geetika

I haven’t been to the Dordogne in over 35 years, but from what I know the public isn’t allowed entry to view the original caves and drawings, you only get to visit replicas.

One of the few places where you still get to see the original charcoal drawings is at Perche Merle, south of the Dordogne, near Brive la Gaillarde. An incredible setting and experience, we loved it.

AJPeabody

Two comments from our experience:

Peche Merle: This visit was a number of years age, when most sites did not need pre booking but Peche Merle did even then. The guided tour was in French, with an English handout. The cavern has both cave paintings and cave features. Well worth it. Myself, I would not visit a reconstruction of a cave any more than I would go to a museum to see posters of Mona Lisa. I think some of the cave art was protected naturally by a layer of transparent mineralization, some sort of calcite, I think.

The tethered balloon: Ballon de Paris. You reach the same height as the top of the Eifel Tower, with an unobstructed view of all Paris. It does not ascend if the wind is too high or the weather is bad.
https://ballondeparis.com/

geetika

We visited Peche Merle in June 2018 and needed to pre-book tickets. Small group tour of about 10-12, in French, which we speak, so it was fine. English tours were available, but not daily, if I remember right.

uktravelover

Narbonne is a lovely town on a canal. Really charming and historic. There are some lovely restaurants where you can eat outside under trees. I suggested staying there as it is usually less busy and not as hot as Carcassonne, as well as about an hour closer to Nice.

FTOttawa

This is getting confused.

Font de Gaume has original paintings and excellent tour guides. If you are keeping Dordogne at all, keep FdG.

The other cave where you can still see (a modest assortment of) original paintings is Cougnac.

You could add Pech Merle and Carcassonne and maybe some of the other wonderful sights of Dordogne and the Lot, but then there is no time for Provence or the Côte d’Azur.

if you wish to head for the Côte d’Azur and fly out of Nice, that is also a great trip but there’s no denying that Dordogne just isn’t on the way there.

At Chauvet it is now only possible to visit the reproduction. I haven’t been, we went to the Aven d’Orgnac instead as we are equally taken with concretions.

tomboy

2017-Pech Merle's cave paintings are pretty much the same as Lascaux 2.
Since no one can see Lascaux 1, I wouldn't disparage it. Both are remarkable, givven their age.

Eiffel Tower: we didn't go up in it, because we've both seen a metropolitan city from a tall height (Chicago, New York, Detroit), and in my opinion , all cities look pretty much alike from 500' up.
One can get a pretty good idea of the Tower's construction from just the ground floor, without getting in lines.
On the other hand, the view from across the river, atop the Jardin d'Trocadero. is excellent. Better yet, take the 8:00 PM (or so) Batobus on the Seine, which discharges at the base of the tower at 8:55 PM; as one disembarks from the boat, the Tower's lights go on, as if they turned them on just for you. Then the light show begins. Truly memorable

10 year old son would be memorably impressed by seeing the castles at Beynac and/or Castlenaud.

Michael

I believe that Lascaux II has been replaced by Lascaux IV, which a friend says is fantastic, and she saw the original before it was closed to all visitors.

abbydog

In May I was persuaded by my companions to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower and we all regretted it! The view of the city was just as good at the lower levels, and we had to endure a crush of people and long lines for the elevator to reach the top (in addition to waiting in a long security line at the entrance, which you can't avoid). I highly recommend skipping the ride to the top unless you happen to be there on a day with light attendance. Re: the Louvre, do you have a guide? We used Paris Walks and were wildly impressed by our guide's ability to maneuver through the crowds, enabling us to quickly see highlights and find refuge as needed. Re: caves, I second a visit to Font-du-Gaume, which is extremely cool, but I have no idea how far you will need to travel to get there from your other destinations.

shelemm

Shorthand: Keep Dordogne, skip Nice. The number of amazing sites you can see, even if you stick to a compact area, is astonishing. How about a boat ride on an underground river? Or villages built into or on a cliff? Fortresses, farm visits, and more evidence of prehistoric man than you could possibly take in on one trip.

Unless you are locked into Nice for the flight back.