Hi lisaud,

Let's see, Michelin says it will take 4 hours 38 minutes (without stopping) to get to Honfleur from Beaune. I love Honfleur. I hear lots of people complain about how it is very touristy and the reason some places attract a lot of tourists is because they are worth visiting. Make sure to stop at the tourist office and get a map and make sure you wander around all the little back streets, side streets and alleys and enjoy the charms of the architecture from an ancient time. You can also get info at the tourist office about what sites and attractions are in town so you'll be aware of things as you stroll around. If I remember, there are a couple of small museums and local artists galleries that are interesting, including the Musée Eugène Boudin with a collection of impressionist paintings. While you are there in late October the number of tourists will be greatly reduced and I would expect something like enough people to make it feel lively without feeling crowded. As with Auberge Saint Pierre, your have maybe set your sights a bit low and will likely be in for a nice surprise.

The drive from Honfleur to Bayeux is just over 1 hour so you can leave Honfleur based on when you want to check into your hotel. I don't have any personal recommendations for restaurants in Bayeux but I did a little research on Trip Advisor. I searched the French speaking Trip Advisor to get reviews from French people about restaurants in Bayeux. You don't have to speak/read French to read the names of the restaurants and see what gradings they received. Here is the link to what I found on reviews:

http://www.tripadvisor.fr/Restaurant..._Normandy.html

The last time I was in Bayeux I wanted to eat at a restaurant called Le Pommier but I didn't have time. It is mentioned in the list of reviews and got very good ratings based on 36 reviews.

If you want to do the Saturday morning market in Bayeux including coffee and breakfast I would think 2 hours is sufficient but if you are enjoying yourselves make it three hours. If this is a highlight for you then take your time and enjoy it. When you are finished you can head off to drive around the Auge region. I believe most of the cheese route is south of here but you will be in the vicinity of Liseux and Pont-L'Evêque, both known for cheese, if you want to stop. I wouldn't rush this drive or your morning time at the market so if it means less time or no time at the museum or cemetery that day, then so be it. Now as far as what specific route you should take in the Auge you really don't have to stick to a strict route. I'm a wanderer myself when I "get lost". I think I may have suggested that you start in Beuvron en Auge (which is worth stopping and walking) and follow the designated scenic road on the Michelin map that heads east of here. Some towns on the cider route are near this scenic drive and you can wander about at will. Once you finish that drive you can maybe head into Liseux or continue driving slightly northeast of here and do the other drive I outlined for you, keeping in mind there is no particular order to the drive. I would recommend that as you are driving when you enter a town that you find cute or charming stop, get out of the car and walk around a bit and maybe have a coffee, pastry, sample some local cheese, visit the village church, window shop etc.

You've got your Sunday planned so you know what to do. I told you that we enjoyed the hotel Auberge Saint Pierre and I think you will too. We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant and found it fine. Not as mediocre as many reviews would lead you to believe but certainly nothing outstanding. The thing about the food on the Mont is that it is really just overpriced for what you get. If you want similar food at about 1/3 less to as much as 1/2 less than the price on the Mont just drive down the causeway off the Mont and eat at one of the restaurants at the end of the causeway. We found the buffet breakfast at Auberge Saint Pierre to be quite abundant (in other words, somewhat American style with eggs, bacon etc.) compared to your typical French breakfast of coffee and croissants. Expensive at 14 euros (you're on the Mont) but convenient and filling. I hope you enjoy wandering all over the Mont at night as much as I did and perhaps like me, you'll make sure to get up and catch the sunrise. You may want to bring a flashlight with you for your night time stroll around the Mont.

So Monday is your big planning day. You know the drive from MSM to Chartres is just over 3 hours and if you are just going to briefly admire the cathedral in Chartres be sure to give yourself at least 1-1/2 hours, including time to drive into and out of Chartres. If you want to go to Giverny it takes just over 1-1/2 hours. You might want to check the Giverny website to find out what time it closes and plan on giving yourself at least 1-1/2 hours for your visit. If you find you may be short on time to visit Giverny I would SUGGEST (not insist) that you just stay in Chartres and get the map from the tourist office and walk the tourist loop. It is a lovely walk where you'll see medieval and ancient buildings, windy cobbled streets and a lovely stroll along the river lined with half timbered ancient housing and footbridges over the river. Quite scenic and pretty. However, as I have said before, it is your vacation so do it the way you want.

Now as for where you are going to drop your car I can't help you much with that. You'll have to discuss that with your rental agency and find out what your options are for drop off and see where they will allow you to leave the car. If you leave it in Rouen it takes about an hour to get to Rouen from Giverny, plus you'll likely need to figure out how to get to the rental agency and then see where that is in relation to the train station and then figure out how to get to the train station. I'm guessing the train to Paris from there must take an hour. The logistics of your car drop off location are something I really can't help you with.

I think you'll need to study your itinerary on Monday, considering you need to drop your car off somewhere and take a train back to Paris. Once you figure where you'll drop the car off and how to coordinate that with a train schedule to get you into Paris by 7PM you can sort of work backwards and see how much time you have left over for visiting/driving on that day. I think you may find that driving from MSM to Chartres, then to Giverny and then to Rouen to take a train back to Paris will be a long day and maybe near impossible if you want to arrive in Paris by 7:00PM but I'll let you make the call.

A thought just occurred to me. Perhaps you could start your day driving from the Mont to Giverny. After this you could drive to Chartres, where I imagine you should be able to find a place to drop your car and since there is ample train service from Chartres to Paris it would make it easy to drop the car, see Chartres and then just hop on the train to Paris. I suppose you could also visit Rouen after Giverny and skip Chartres. These two options seem to make the most sense to me as far as being time efficient while allowing the maximum amount of time for visits. What do you think?

I hope this helps and let me know if you have more questions. And I hope you come back and post a little report as I'll be eager to hear how your vacation went and if you found any of my suggestions helpful. Good luck lisaud!

FrenchMystiqueTours, once again I really appreciate all this valuable information. Your attention to detail is amazing. Thank you SO much!
So based on your imput, I think I've got the plan pretty well set...except for Monday which I'm still not sure about... I know that I can drop the car in Chartres or Giverny (Vernon is where the train station is)and get the train to Paris (well I hope I can get a train) and I guess I would do so in which ever town I decide to visit last (also, I wasn't thinking that I would go back to Rouen to drop off the car and get the train). What I'm not clear about is which makes sense to hit first coming from MSM - Chartres or Giverny. Looking at the map, I thought Chartre but it sounds like you're suggesting Giverny.
Anyway, I guess everything is a little up in the air now because of the strikes. I guess I've been assuming that we'd be able to sandwich our trip in between the today's and the next one but it sounds a bit more complicated this time. Yes, we are doing a lot of driving (though I imagine traffic will become more problematic if there are fewer trains running)but we also have to get from Paris to Avignon this Sunday afternoon (the 17th)via the TGV and it sounds like that could be a problem. And then there's our time in Paris (the 25th - 30th). It sounds like our timing isn't the best. I'm trying to get news off the French websites but its hard to keep using Google translator. Sometimes the translations make no sense.
So, do you have any thoughts about how much we might be affected by the strikes?
Thanks again!

Hi lisaud,

Actually I was merely unaware of what your options were for drop-off locations for your car so I thought it might have been necessary for you to drop off the car in Rouen if Giverny was your final stop that day. But I've been thinking it over and actually I think it might make more sense to visit Giverny and then go to Chartres and here's why.

There is only one thing to see in Giverny (Monet's house and gardens) whereas you could easily spend half a day in Chartres, since there is more to see than just the cathedral. The drive to Giverny from MSM is about 15 or 20 minutes less than the drive from MSM to Chartres. Also, it is almost all autoroute from MSM to Giverny and you'll be less likely to run into slow driving conditions on the smaller roads (going through various towns and villages) which you will need to take on the first part of your drive from MSM to Chartres. The gas/toll cost is also a few euros cheaper (well, only 6 or 7 euros) if you go to Giverny.

To maximize your sightseeing time this day I would suggest you leave MSM as early as possible. If you left before 8AM you would be doing yourself a favor. You would be doing yourself even more of a favor if you are able to pack a lunch or eat on the fly since a sit down lunch at a restaurant could take up an hour or more of your time. If you leave MSM around 8AM and drive without stopping you could be in Giverny around 11AM. You could stop in Vernon and buy some lunch from a grocery store or find a boulangerie that sells sandwiches, quiche etc. or other take-away food items. If you leave Giverny before 2:00 you should be in Chartres around 3:30 roughly. You could then see the cathedral and after you can visit the town a bit or just head right to Paris.

The trains from Chartres to Paris run about every half hour, departing just before the half hour and just before the hour. The cost of a train ticket is 14 euros. The trip takes between 55 minutes and 1 hour 10 minutes depending on the train. If you walk to the back of the plaza in front of the cathedral that is where the tourist office is located. You can get a map of the town there which will show you the location of the train station, which is about a 5 to 10 minute walk from the cathedral.

As for how the strike will affect your arrival day on the 17th that is impossible to say right now. It is a day by day thing and they generally don't make announcements until the end of each day (usually in the evening) saying whether or not the strike will continue the next day. And to complicate things further, some rail lines/buses which were affected to some degree on one day may not be heavily affected the next day.

Have you already bought your TGV tickets? Are you aware that the there are TGV trains that go from Charles de Gaulle to Avignon, making it unnecessary to go into to Paris to get the TGV? Some of the TGV's go direct from CDG to Avignon while others require a change in Lyon.

If I have any further info about how the strikes might impact your arrival on Sunday I'll post again and let you know. If you have further questions just post again and I'll see if I can help. If you are bikers and are interested in doing a little bike trip outside of Paris during your stay, perhaps along the Marne river, drop me a line and I'll take you on a little tour. Good luck and I hope this info helps.

Hello again. Yes, we do have our TGV tickets already but they are refundable. Also, they are from CDG. I think I'm using Paris and CDG interchangeably and I see that I shouldn't be.

At any rate, someone suggested renting a car at the airport (or at least reserving one in case of...) and driving to Avignon if the TGV isn't running. I can't imagine driving after little to no sleep (we are leaving from New York at 6:15 PM and neither of us sleep well on planes) and so I don't think we could do it in a day...if we can do it at all (I haven't tried to rent a car yet but I may be out of luck).

My husband is thinking that we should cancel the whole trip because he is envisioning one hassle after another. I guess this is sort of a splurge trip for us he's thinking we might be wasting our money sitting in traffic jams and not being able to see what we want to see in Paris once we get there. I'm more willing to roll with it. After all, we'll still be in France and it will still be beautiful right? As long as we don't run out of petrol on the autoroute.

I would definitely agree that driving to Avignon after a long flight is not a good idea. And finding/reserving a rental car at this late hour from the airport may be difficult because you certainly won't be the only ones thinking of this option.

It would be a shame to scrap your whole trip because of the strike and I think hubby's fears of constantly being stuck in traffic no matter where you drive in France are unfounded. You will generally only encounter traffic jams in and around the larger cities and even then usually only during rush hour.

If it appears that the strike will go into the weekend and will also affect TGV service to Avignon then why not just scrap the idea of going to Avignon and spend your time elsewhere. Stay in Paris on your arrival day and then rent a car from Paris and perhaps head to the Loire, Normandy or Burgundy. Heck,you could even drive to Brittany. To go one step further, you could spend several days just driving in a circle outside of Paris at a distance of 50km to 80km more or less. There are loads and loads of tourist worthy destinations within a 1 hour drive from Paris in any direction and I'd be happy to tell you all about them.

A particular passion of mine is putting my bike on a train in Paris and heading into the countryside to go biking through the countryside. It is often stunningly beautiful and I have written several trip reports about my adventures that are full of pictures if you care to see them. If this interests you let me know and I'll give you the links.

I certainly hope you can convince hubby to be more like you and just go with the flow. You are indeed correct that you will still be in France and it will still be beautiful. Besides, I'd hate to have spent all this time writing to you for nothing. Tell him he owes me, and you, big time.

ttt 4 later.

FMT (I hope you don't mind the abbreviation), thanks for making me laugh at a point where I feel as if I'm losing my sense of humor. You're quite correct. He does owe us big time! In fact, you have no idea!! I've spent months researching and planning. He left all the legwork to me but, as a control freak, I haven't really complained. Actually, its been fun. But I guess that's why it may be both easier for him to contemplate canceling and, also, to not be able to imagine that we could go and not have a miserable time, despite the problems. Also, he's a journalist, an editor at a medium size newspaper just outside of NYC and the travel editor said not to go, so that didn't help my cause.
Before we go any further, I don't think biking is really in the cards for us at this point due to some minor but limiting physical ailments. Maybe next time.
I actually was able to get a car reservation. AutoEurope was kind enough to book two separate reservations for us, one originating in CDG and one originating in Avignon. We can cancel whichever we don't use. The thing is, I think getting from the airport to Paris could be a problem too since we'd have to rely on trains (right?) so we have to go somewhere else when we get there. I thought we might rent the car and drive a couple of hours towards Avignon. I think the adreneline will could keep us going for a while and it will be a Sunday morning so I imagine the traffic won't be that bad.
I thought we could stop somewhere like Auxerre (sp?)or maybe a little further. We have a recomendation for a little, out of the way B&B near Dijon that may have availability. Seeing Provence is VERY important to my husband. I really want to also but it wasn't in my original plans and I could pass. I think he'd be devasted to be in France and not see the area.
But he's conjured up images of large tractor trailers blocking the autoroutes and not letting anyone through. I mean, does that happen? And is anyone talking about not being able to get gas/petrol? Its so hard to know if the news we get here is sensationalized. He's a journalist and should know better but, when it comes to his own life, he can be very dramatic.

Yes, FMT is much more manageable for most people and is the acronym which I have been assigned on the other travel forums in which I participate. Well, we males certainly are a stubborn species and often incredibly uninformed. And I thought it was the women who were the drama queens. His travel editor should be fired. I mean, where do they come up with this stuff about tractor trailer trucks blocking the highways and not being able to find gas? I haven't heard anything here about gas shortages and I'm not even sure where this rumor comes from. Shame on his travel editor. During the recent "terror scare" all we kept hearing in France were reports about how Americans were being warned about the potential danger of coming here. There were no similar scare tactics being issued by the French media to its citizens. Life as usual for us.

You have obviously done a great job planning as evidenced by all of your back-up plans and it seems like the extra work you did for crisis planning may serve you well. I see your point about going to Provence as this is hubby's priority and seeing another region in its place just won't do. Although I normally wouldn't encourage someone to drive after a long flight if you can keep it to a few hours and that will ensure hubby's happiness then by all means do what you need to do to prevent him from canceling. Due to the jet lag from which you will likely be suffering I would suggest going no further than Auxerre. A couple of other very nice small cities you could consider which are even closer than Auxerre and not far off your route would be Fontainebleau or Sens. Both are lovely. But Auxerre is OK too if you don't mind a little extra driving. Michelin shows the drive time from Auxerre to Avignon as 4 hours 43 minutes. From Sens the time is 5 hours 25 minutes and from Fontainebleau 5 hours 36 minutes.

Right now we just don't know how the strike will affect things on Sunday so you may well be able to take the TGV to Avignon as planned. There are also taxis and airport shuttles into Paris (if you don't want to drive) in the event of a strike but these will be in high demand should the strike still be in effect so driving may be your most hassle free option.

BTW, if you are coming from New York on a Saturday flight arriving Sunday morning you will probably be on the same plane as a friend of mine who is also arriving here on Sunday morning and leaving from NYC. If you see a tall handsome chap who looks in his late 30's to early 40's with a pretty wife and baby that would be my friend Jeff and his wife Carmen. He's the music director for the NYC production of Blue Man Group and his wife is an art adviser for private collectors. If you see such a couple you can tell them you know Bruce (my real name). They are super nice people.

I really hope you can pull this off (convincing hubby) and I'm praying for you (and Jeff and Carmen) that the strike will be over by the weekend. If you want to e-mail me privately you can reach me at [email protected] but if you prefer to continue the dialogue here that's fine too. I just figured this seemed to be turning into more of a private discussion rather than anything other travelers would find useful but I'm happy with whichever you prefer. I'll be awaiting the next installment of your continuing saga. And tell hubby to stop believing the hype!

hi lisaud,

we had the dubious pleasure of being in Paris during a strike a few years ago, and though it's not as easy to get around as it normally would be, it's not impossible. for example, when we were there the boats were still running on the Seine so we were able to get from west to east [and vice versa] using those. also, the RER was still running [thank goodness, else we'd have been camped out in the Bois!] and was free! and the traffic was bad, but not impossible.

so please don't through the baby out with the bathwater. take some good walking shoes, a decent map, and a load of patience. [and possibly a bike? - though Paris already has those].

See my reply in your private mail regarding further info about potential fuel shortages.