Hi. I'm helping a friend plan a trip to France. They will actually start in Amsterdam, but the part I need help with is Southern France. At this point just trying to get the destinations established. They will pick up their daughter in Lyon and then have 8 days to visit places in France. They will then fly back to the U.S. from Paris. They don't want to spend much time in Paris (maybe just one night prior to their flight) because they have been there many times and want to focus more on other French destinations. Interested in wine tours and as they are devout Catholics are considering Lourdes. Would love recommendations.

You talking about driving? Hopefully if you want to explore southern France where though you can go by train this is one of the very finest places in Europe to motor thru.

Lourdes can be a destination - from Lyon I would drive to the Avignon/Arles area - the epicenter of the dreamy Provence etched inour minds' eyes - Avignon, Arles, St-Remy and any ole town here make a great base to visit Les Baux - an awesome site - a Dead City topping a wide rocky plateau - the Pont du Gard - roman aqueduct that is one of the most intact Roman relics inside or outside of Italy - dreamy towns like Uzes - then drive over to Carcassonne area - one of the most amazing medieval citadels in France (well because it was rebuilt from rubble in the mid 1800s but still - the Toulouse to Lourdes - return the car in a place like Bordeaux and take the TGV back to Paris in a few hours.

It would help a lot to know what time of year they will be travelling and what their interests are--besides possibly Lourdes. On a strictly geographical basis, the most logical thing would be go go from Lyon to Provence spending say 3 days in St. Remy or some other small town of Provence, then moving on for 2 days in Marseille, if they enjoy a larger town, Cassis if they like a smaller town, and then driving along the Cote d'Azur to Nice from when they can either fly or take the train to Paris. All of that is a long way from Lourdes which is a great deal further east and close to the border with Spain.

The more info you can give, the more help you can get. Will they be driving or going by train? Do they like to make stops of 3 days or more, or are they content to move from place to place with stops of only a couple of days? etc?

Thanks for your responses. They are trying to decide whether to use a car or trains. They may be fine with staying 2 nights in each destination with a stop of 3 nights in one of the places that has more to do. I'm not sure if they will put the time into Lourdes since it is further removed. The time frame is late Feb./early March. Plane tickets have been purchased but that is all.

Where in the south????

Cote d'Azur
Provence
Languedoc
Roussillon (most southern spot in France)
Dordogne
Pyrenees
Pays Basque/Biarritz (which is actually south of Nice)

I have itineraries for:
Provence & Cote d'Azur
Languedoc/Roussillon
Dordogne

We also spent 5 weeks in the Pays Basque/Pyrenees last year - two of those weeks very close to Lourdes.

If you would like any of my itineraries, e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach a copy to the reply e-mail. I've sent itineraries to over 5,000 people on Fodors.

To get to the Avignon TGV station in Provence, I would take the train from Amsterdam to Brussels that leaves at 9:18 & arrives at 11:08. Then take the train that leaves Brussels at 12:17 and arrives at the Avignon TGV station at at 17:07. The train stops in Lyon at the Pt Dieu station at 16:06, where they could have their daughter join them.

Rent a car at the Avignon TGV station.

It is a 5 1/2 hr drive from Provence to Lourdes. They could then visit one of my favorite cities in France - Toulouse. Then fly home from Toulouse.

A good itinerary would be:
- 5 nights Provence - stay in St Remy
- 2 nights Lourdes (vist Carcassonne for 2 hrs on the way from Provence to Lourdes).
- 1 night Toulouse.

We spent some time in Lourdes - but not at the shrine. Not much of interest there (fortress was OK though) except the shrine. Pictures & descriptions that I've encountered of the shrine/cathedral seemed quite depressing to me - but I'm not a devout Catholic (I'm not even a Catholic).

Stu Dudley

>>They may be fine with staying 2 nights in each destination with a stop of 3 nights in one of the places that has more to do<<

We've spent 18 weeks vacationing in Provence & 16 weeks on the Cote d'Azur. We're going back for 2 more weeks in each location next year. 2 nights/1 1/2 days is not enough time to see anything - except Lourdes & Toulouse. Plan on at least 5 nights/4 1/2 days in Provence. You'll run out of days before you'll run out of interesting sites in Provence. I just posted a list of sites in Provence for the first-timer - click on my name to find them. We've also spent 10 weeks in Languedoc/Roussillon (2 this year) and 10 weeks in the Dordogne.

Late Feb/early March isn't the best time to visit France. You may have your "desired" itinerary altered by bad weather - that's why it important to limit the 1-2 nighters. What happens if you drive for 3-5 hours to a new location with the plan to spend 2 nights/ 1 1/2 day there - and it rains for the entire 1 1/2 days. Lots of driving for nothing. Visit caves, museums, & Chateaux on rainy days.

Stu Dudley

The South of France is huge. They need to look at guidebooks and maps and narrow this down. With only 8 days for the whole of it, or even one or two small parts of it, they'll need to do some serious winnowing.

They are not trying to do it all. Just needing suggestions of favorite places so they pick a few great ones. Thanks.

Bookmarking