We have a college student studying in Seville and would like to visit him in late Oct/early Nov. Will have about 2 wks. Would like to go to Paris, possibly southern France, then to Seville and a few sights in Spain (Grenada??). Is weather going to be a problem (especially in France??) How about driving? Would rather do trains than rent a car but if car is only way and not a huge hassle would consider. Thanks for helping with any comments!

Well Nov in Paris can be chilly and it gets dark early. Also - the south of France can be chiily then as well (not cold but not beach weather).

You can certainly do the trip by train - but it will be some long rides. Depending on your itinerary you might want to check out cheap flights to Seville from France. Using a car to get around the Seville area (Cordoba, Granada etc) probably makes more sense.

If the trip is one way then they have to take a train. To return the car back to the country of origin in Europe costs a ransom!
If they have never driven in Europe then two weeks may not be enough. They have to navigate and drive and learn the rules of the road all at once. Driving is Spain is very different to France. Driving in the cities could also be problematic, chaotic for the first time driver.
Weather should be no problem, as the snows in the mountains should not have arrived at that time of year.

Ian and Irene

You plan to cover huge distances in rather short time. Actually, you have three destinations which are 1000km away from each other.

Paris is one destination, southern France is a full day's travel away, and Sevilla is in the south of Spain, another full day's travel away. Travelling by train will also be tiresome.

Think about spending three days in Paris, then flying to Nice, spending four days there (rental car), then flying to Sevilla or Malaga, renting a car and driving to Granada, Cordoba, Jerez de la Frontera, Sevilla.

Weather will be cold in Paris, but nice and mild at the Cote d'Azur (I go usually swimming by end of October there) and also nice in Andalusia.

I think traveler1959 has the right idea.We drove that last fall ( Paris to Andalucia ...actually started in Amsterdam) and arrived on Nov 1st. BUT we took 2 months to do it.

Look at our blog archives for that time period ( or other info that might help as we toured Andalucia recently with family in a two week period).

http://www.soultravelers3.com/

We saw no real difference between driving in any of the European countries and pretty similar to home ( stay mostly out of the big cities...they all have circle roads around them).

We had mostly wonderful weather and it was very hot all thru Spain. We had warm days in Provence,but ran into rain in Carcasonne.

I think the cheap airlines will be the way to go too and car or train around Andalucia.Paris to Seville is a LONG way by car. It just took us two 8 hr drive days to get from Granada to Barcelona ( we are in a motorhome so slow). Beautiful countryside, but not something for a two week stay.

Don't forget to add the jet lag equation into the mix as you will probably be a little out of it for a few days.

Thank you so much everyone. We will certainly rethink our options. I really appreciate everyone's ideas.