the_birds

Hello, We're hoping to tap the wealth of knowledge lurking about these forums for some tips on places worth visiting between Paris and Milan.

We are embarking on a 6 week trip late Feb to early April. Our first two weeks will be in London then a week in Paris. We have already purchased a France/Italy rail pass and plan on travelling via rail from Paris to Milan then using Milan (and some free accommodation with family) as a base to do side trips to Venice, Cinque Terre and Florence.

We're looking forward to the Paris/Milan rail journey and views of the countryside and alps, but we'd like to break up the journey and stop somewhere in southeast France or near the border for a day or two.

We're interested in food, wine and history, and generally soaking up some of the culture outside of Paris. Places like Nice don't really appeal. We'd prefer not to have to hire a car.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Many thanks, Sarah and Simon

kenderina

I have a favourite...Avignon. Full of history (was the city of Popes before they went to Rome) and then it's one of the main cities of Provence..so I think good food and wine are guaranteed You can do some trips to other villages from there using public transport and see the landscape too.

enzian

Annency? I haven't been there myself, but I've heard great things. And the train cnnections to Milan (via Geneva) are good.

travlsolo2

Possibly Beaune? Good food, wine and history. Or maybe Dijon? Probably not on direct enough route, though.

repete

Turin, Italy's most underrated city ... for the food, the culture, the chocolate and the barolo

Leburta

We stopped in Annecy to break up the trip from Paris to Rome one year. It was in late March and still quite cool in the French Alps, but then it was a cold year. (We had snow on our way back from Rome to Florence, and a week after we left Paris for good in the first week of April, it snowed there!)

Annecy is a pretty little town alongside a lake. Definitely worth a stop.

bktport

Travel through the Alsace for great wine and food. When in Paris see the Statue of Liberty on the Seine and then in Alsace stop in Colmar to see the small original model.

Then when in Milan spend a day going to Bolzano in the Sud Tyrol to enjoy one of Italy’s largest wine regions and a German/Austrian experience at the same time. It is about 4 hours from Milan by train.

If you want Beer, you will be in time for Munich’s Stark (Dark) Beer Fest, March 9 – 22; not Oktoberfest; this is for very serious beer drinkers. Another, four hours from Bolzano.

Art_Vandelay

Shame you took the pass, since it would have cost you much less to fly easyJet from Paris to Italy. Anyway, now that you are "stuck" with the train, you should know that the regular Paris-Milan line goes through Lausanne and Switzerland, not the Côte d'Azur. You could stop at some places in Switzerland (not thrilling, if you ask me), maybe Dijon-Beaune, although it makes quite an uneven break compared to what's left to ride.

BlueSwimmer

I disagree with Art Vandelay on it being a shame you are on the train. I remember the views from the train through Switzerland as being a highlight. If you are interested in food, what about stopping in Lyon?