Ellis

My wife and I are spending a week in Madrid and Bilbao/San Sebastian next month. Then we need to head to Paris, and we would like a destination in between that will be train friendly. Might spend one or two nights there. We have been to Bordeaux, and we weren't all that impressed by the city itself. Liked the wine country out on the peninsula though.<BR><BR>So, we are just starting to decide between these: La Rochelle, Nantes and Angers. Can't say I have researched any of the three really.<BR><BR>We have been to Chartres. Liked that, and briefly to Tours and two chateaux in the Loire valley, but no further west from Tours.<BR><BR>We don't see renting a car for this, so ability to enjoy a town without one will probably influence our decision more than what is in the town per se.<BR><BR>Would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance.<BR>

StCirq

La Rochelle is a great town. Spend the night there and take the drive out over the bridge to Ile de Re to see the salt manufacturers. La Rochelle has many fine restaurants serving local seafood, as do the restaurants in St-Martin-de-R'e, the capital town of Ile de R'e.

Ellis

take the drive out over the bridge?<BR><BR>But we said we wanted to avoid having a car? So is this not a good choice without a car?<BR>

Jim Rosenberg

La Rochelle is a relatively walkable place; a nice, historic French port city that is accustomed to hosting visitors since it is one of the largest pleasure boat marinas on the European Atlantic Coast. For something even MORE compact, there is a train station in the nearby resort town of Chatelaillon Plague. (I've stayed with friends on the several occasions that I've visited, so you'll have to do your own research on lodging options). It's a smallish, but very active beach town where the vacationers are mostly French. <BR><BR>Here's a link to my travel notes on La Rochelle and the surrounding area:<BR><BR>http://www.igougo.com/planning/journal.asp?JournalID=2326<BR><BR>We ranged quite far into the region, since we rented a car, but I think you would enjoy it even without, as a stop along the way. The seafood is fabulous. In addition to the train to Paris, you would also have the option of flying from La Rochelle into Orly.<BR><BR>Happy Contrails!

Francie

Of the three places you mentioned, La Rochelle would be my first choice. This is an historic Atlantic port. Things to see and do: Musee des Beaux-Arts; Tour de la Chaine; Tour de St-Nicolas. If you like to stroll check out the rue du Palais, rue Chaudrier and rue des Merciers to see the ancient wooden houses. There are rail connections from Bordeaux and Nantes. Six to eight trains arrive from Bordeaux daily which is about a 2 hr. trip. Returning to Paris is 290 miles trip. the TGV trains to and from Paris run mostly all day long. We drove into La Rochelle late one night during a very heavy rainstorm, overnighted at "Hotel les Brises" facing the sea. Beautiful scenery, great town.<BR>

clairobscur

This is very subjective. The three towns are somewhat interesting but none of them rank very high in my personnal interest scale (which doesn't necessarily mean much, since for instance in La Rochelle case, contrarily to a lot of people I don't have much interest in port towns)<BR><BR><BR>However, I would pick La Rochelle first because it has IMO more overall charm than the two others.<BR><BR>I would pick Nantes last, because despite being a nice city it's a large one, which means that it's on the overall more bland and despite having some nice features (the castle, some old houses, the cathedral, some parks, the river), none is mind blowing (for instance, the most known monument, the dukes of Britanny's castle, is essentially an empty shell...I've visited scores of much more beautiful medieval castles all over France).