karrie

Hi, I am in the beginning phase of planning our trip to Paris and southern France for the first 2 weeks of April. We will book our hotel in Paris. We plan to rent a car after our Paris portion of the trip. Do you think it is possible to not book hotels for the rest of the trip and just find a place wher we end up? We plan to spend time in the areas of Arles,Avignon,Nice Eze etc. Thanks for your advise.
Karrie

StCirq

Sure it's possible if you want to allocate several hours of each day to going to tourist offices and asking about hotels and checking them out and deciding what suits you, or roaming around looking at hotels and making a choice. Me, I'd prefer to use that time for traveling and seeing the sights.

ParisAmsterdam

I think you can do it... especially in April. I've even done it on the fly in August and always had somewhere to sleep. Nice places too! If you have a cellphone it's easy to call ahead while on the road and line something up.

We spent a night in Le Puy (stumbled into a wonderful room/suite recommended by another hotel which was fully booked). There was a booklet with all the other hotels in the same group in the room which we took with us as we headed for the Loire. As we traveled my wife and daughter perused the book and noted hotels they thought would suit. We stopped in a rest area and I phoned the first one. They were fully booked but suggested another hotel in town. A call to them and the young lady insisted on speaking English even though my French is not that bad. (as with the hotel clerk the night previous she wanted the practice) She was sorry they didn't have a triple but would give us a double and a single for the same price as a triple. My teen daughter was thrilled! It turned out to be a lovely hotel, Ecu de Bretagne in Beaugency.

Just an example... but we redid our itinerary on the fly and things worked out well as far as hotels go. So have a phone and a book or 2 listing hotels in various chains or groups and you'll have a fine time I'd sure. ;^)

Rob

Alan_CT

This web site and blog has lots of info about Provence, including pages devoted to many villages: http://www.beyond.fr/index.html

You can also plot a route on www.viamichelin.com and click the Hotels box. Not a complete list, but lots of choices.

You may want to take a TGV to Avignon or Lyon and rent the car there. Saves a lot of driving. Some of the scenery is nice but a lot is repetitious.

annhig

karrie,

BK [before kids] we did this all the time, and generally took no more than 30 mins or so to find somewhere reasonable to stay - we rarely had any problems. you can help yourselves by doing a bit of research on the net before you go, having an up to date copy of the michelin red guide [town and city maps and details of hotels with prices]. in some places we have used the tourist board to help us find somewhere - they usually keep lists of hotels with vacancies, and for a small fee [or nothing] they will phone to let the hotel know you are coming.

in april, [apart from round about Easter perhaps] you should have no problems at all.

have a great trip!

StuDudley

I would not do it during the week before or after Easter - especially on the Cote d'Azur.

Stu Dudley

Michael

When I travel through France, usually in May, I use http://www.gites-de-france.com/locat...bre-hotes.html and http://www.france-balades.fr/index_us.html to find locations within a few miles of where I think I will be. I make a list and call around noon to see if the host has anything available for that night or nights. Gites de France does indicate if the host speaks English, although that may at times be fanciful as the foreign language ability is self defined.

annhig

I make a list and call around noon to see if the host has anything available for that night or nights. Gites de France does indicate if the host speaks English, although that may at times be fanciful as the foreign language ability is self defined.>>

bien sur, Michael. That's exactly the sort of thing I had in mind.