We loved Auxcerre (oh-serre, I think it's pronounced). We stayed at a lovely hotel just about 5 minutes walk from the centre of town. Here's the link:

http://www.hotel-parcmarechaux.net/chambres.htm

Ours was the red room which is the third picture. It was huge and had three sets of double doors that opened onto the garden. The town is charming.

Metz (pronounced 'Messs' by the locals, although the rest of the French say 'Metz'*) is indeed a wonderful big city. The <b>Pompidou Center II</b> is currently under construction there. It is 1h25 by TGV from Paris.

*this is to be compared with Bruxelles, pronounced Brusssell by the locals and Bruxell by all of the French other than those in the northeast near the Belgian border.

Always amazed that Amboise is pronounced with the s sound even though it follows the s rule like in Senlis i guess.

bur why is it Par-ree and not Paris with the s pronounced?

and Biot - Riviera pronounced "Bee-ott" by locals when i was there

Amboise ends with a vowel, so it is Amboize. That is normal, not an exception.

Amboise has totally normal French pronounciation (z sound, not s). It's the place names that end in an s, not a vowel, that can have varying pronunciations or just be pronounced contrary to what you might think. Same is true of some place names that end in other vowels - e.g., you don't pronounce the q in St-Cirq (at least not the one I live in).

I loved Metz. I believe the population is around 125.000 Spent a cpl of days there and really enjoyed it. Stayed at the La Citadelle. It was so neat. Dining there was an awesome experience (the crusted bass. oh yum!!!) If and when I go back I will stay at a more reasonably priced place. Maybe one with a B&B type atmosphere. cyndyq

Oh! I've read back. kerouac stayed in Metz too! k- you're quite the traveler! witty as well . . .

I can recommend a neat small town, but I don't know if the train goes there (sorry). We reserved a B&B room at Pierrefonds on the internet because the B&B looked nice and it would be an hour's drive to CDG the next morning. We knew nothing about the town, drove in, and boom! there's a very picturesque chateau on the hill above the main street. We didn't visit it or spend time in the town center, but it seemed like a nice small town. Population is 2150. It's near the beautiful Foret de Compiegne.