Rural France questions
 

My wife and I are going to be traveling in France during May for two weeks. We plan on visiting Paris (5-days), the French Riviera (3-days), Provence (4-days)and Burgundy (2-days).

We'd like to stay at gites or ferme auberges,in Provence and Burgundy, if we can but we haven't had much luck in locating listings for them. Do you know of any or any listing or websites that could help?

Also, we're thinking about get the France Rail n Drive pass. We want to travel by train for the long strecthes, but we think it might be good to get a car for 2-3 days to bounce around the Riviera and Provence. Either that or we may rent a scooter or bikes to get out of the cities. What combination would you recommend?

Thanks!

http://www.gites-de-france.fr/fr/index.htm

That gives you a start for the gites. I'm not sure if the auberge are listed on the same site-maybe. This site is in English too.

Cheers

Blackduff

http://www.francecity.com/carte_gite..._auberges.php3

This covers the ferme auberges

Blackduff

aggieactuary,Gites in general rent by the week but from the gites web site you can check out the B&B listings. We've had some wonderful stays through gites.fr. Deborah

I really like the places I have found through the Alistair Sawday website.

another site to try is www.fleursdesoleil.fr We stayed at a charming B&B in Couchey 8km from Dijon on the way to Beaune near Gevrey Chambertin. It's in the midst of the Burgundy vines. Great location Deborah

Rather than use the Gites de France site, which for many localities presents a mind-numbing number of choices, we use the Rivages guidebooks, "Maisons d'Hotes de Charme'' and "Hotels and Auberges de Charme," which have sifted through the offerings. (39 selected in Burgundy for maisons d'Hotes). Rivages has a Web site with an English-language option, though the translations are poor. You're unlikely to be disappointed by their recommendations but it is a good idea to Google target places, which may have been reviewed elsewhare, and of course visit the owners' website when there is one. A combination of train and car is a good idea. We do that, too. A word of caution on "tables d'hote," bed and breakfasts that offer optional evening meals. Always confirm with the owners while reserving to room, if you want that. Often special circumstances make it impossible to dine in in the evening, even though the guidebook says you can. Traveling this way most often lands you in places with no restaurant within walking distance. You may want to make lunch in a town with attractions worth several hours of exploring your main meal to avoid long drives after dark, as you can be more relaxed about restaurant choices, over even picnic, for the secondary meal of the day. Whatever you do, don't drive after drinking more than one glass of wine. France has cracked down in a major way. There are road stops with no "probable cause" like visibly erratic driving required, and breath tests are administered on-site.

Great stuff! Thanks!

Any laws on riding a bicycle drunk?

aggie, according to the level of alcohol in your blood, if you're drunk, you'll pay a big fine and the police can keep your driving license! (I know it is curious for someone who is not driving!):-)

the rail and drive in France can be a great deal if you are only renting a car a few days - especially if you want to do so in different places and blast between them by France's highspeed train network. Cars are thru AVIS, which has the franchise for station rentals, making it conveninet to pick up and drop off at many stations or 400 AVIS locations throughout France.
Prices start at, for the base package of 2 days of rail travel and 2 days of AVIS car rental, p.p. for two people, at $225 (first class rail) and extra rail days are $30 p.p. and extra car days are $39/day per car - VAT and all charges necessary to drive a car in France included. This is for an economy car - which is fine for day trips. Car prices escalate by about $10 per category up to a Minivan at $306 p.p. and Premium automatic at $285 p.p. Third and 4th person sharing car pay $190 p.p. Max 3 extra rail days allowed. This is thru RailEurope - i always recommend BETS (800-441-2387) for booking due to their expertise in my years of dealing with them and they don't charge some of RE's fees. Not available in France i believe.
Provence and Burgundy would be great places to rent cars for a day or two. Burgundy to drive down the fabled Wine Road between Dijon and Macon via Beaune and Provence to explore the Avignon/Arles area - driving to Pont du Gard, les Baux and other gems not reachable by train.

Coco- are you saying there is a big fine for being drunk in public? Will they give you a ticket for being drunk in public even if you are behaving?

I'm not planning on being drunk. I'm just curious.

PalQ- Thanks for the detailed info! Also, do you buy the pass, and then just make the car reservations for each rental day separately?

Thanks all!

Yes the pass comes with vouchers that you give to AVIS when you pick up the car but to guarantee availability in the category you want where you want it you have to call AVIS and make a reservation at least 7 days in advance to be so guaranteed - you can change the reservation or even drop by without a reservation if cars are available.
a nice drive would be to go from Provence to Burgundy via Macon and the wine road thru Beaune to Dijon - perhaps picking up car at Avignon and returning it at Dijon station from where you can hop highspeed TGVs to Paris.
Yes the rail and drive is great for folks just wanting a car a day or two in some place like Normandy to drive to the D-Day beaches and Mont Saint Michel and taking TGV from Rennes back to Paris.

aggie <Will they give you a ticket for being drunk in public even if you are behaving?> I was talking about riding as you mentioned it. You can get a fine if you behave badly, but I'm sure you won't! ;-)
cheers!((D))

I used to frequent a cafe in Orleans where the local mailman (postes) regularly stopped off to down several glasses of wine before he headed back off on his bicycle - he didn't seem worried about drunk biking or even imbibing on the job. This was several years ago and perhaps the permissive climate as regards drinking on the job has changed!

Tu parles Pal! ;-) (you bet!)

PalQ-

What is BETS? I'm assuming they are a some kind of travel agency. Do they have a website? I can't find them on Google.

Thanks again!
Tim

www.budgeteuropetravel.com - they are a travel agency that only does european rail stuff.