I'm new to this so I here it goes.
I'm traveling to Europe to meet up with my daughter who is currently living in France for the year. We are meeting in Basel (after I do a 2 week river cruise). We are planning to stay in Riquewihr for 5 days just to stop and flop together and catch up on each others news. Then, we have 11 days to fill in before ending with 8 nights in Paris.
Any suggestions on how to fill in the 11 days? We plan to head down to Montpellier for a few days and would like to 'have pizza in Italy' but otherwise, are open to suggestions. We'd both rather see fewer places and be able to relax than spend all out time traveling from place to place in train stations, airports or buses.
Is it worth hiring a car or better to train around. I haven't been to Europe in 30 years and am comfortable driving overseas but have no desire to drive in crazy cities, especially in Italy. If I did hire one, I would drop it off outside Paris and then use trains around Paris for the week.
Look forward to hearing people's ideas!

This is a little open ended for me to be of much help. You want to spend a few days in Montpellier. Is that in addition to the 11 days you have to fill? If you spend 3 days in Montpellier, you will have 8 days left before going to Paris? If that is the case, consider what you would like to see and do. Eight days is enough for Venice and Florence and I think that is what I would do. Eight days in Provence would be lovely, too. But without a little more from you about your interests, it is hard to make a recommendation.

Without knowing which 11 days of the year you are talking about, it is hard to make intelligent suggestions. Venice and Florence in July are 2 of the last places on earth I'd want to be, but I might enjoy it in early Oct -- but only if you are interested in art and architecture.

However, if you aren't merely joking about pizza, the places in Italy for memorable pizza in a memorable pizzeria are Rome and Naples, and various points south of there. That doesn't change no matter what time of year you are talking about. Florence and Venice are both noted for having some of the worst pizza in the world, let alone Italy. After Montpellier, you should be able to find convenient flights to Rome or Naples from Marseilles or Nice, and from Rome or Naples it is easy to find flights to Paris.

Sorry, I wasn't very clear...I'll be traveling late July to mid August. And yes, three days in Montpellier is included in the 11 days.
Any suggestions on Turin or Verona? I'm leaning towards renting a car...not concerned about driving around France but am nervous about Italy. If we stuck to turin or verona, would driving be difficult? I like the idea of being able to stop wherever we want to to explore areas off train tracks and also, not being tied to train schedules.
Thanks!

Oh please, we have had memorably good pizza all over Italy. Are Rome and Naples exceptional, well,yes, but you certainly can be more than satisfied in many other places.

pozzo,

No guarantees about weather, but it is generally a bit cooler and drier in Torino than in Verona in August, and a bit emptier too with great deals on hotels, because Verona has the opera and it attracts huge crowds. I'm not sure why you think driving in Italy is more difficult than in France (the French are also aggressive drivers). Italy has a long tradition of great road engineering and is the home of Italy's automobile industry, so a lot was done to make the area car friendly in contrast to other places in Europe.

Trust me that in either place it is worth looking up the local cuisine and regional specialties not eating pizza, which you will certainly find at all the tourist spots (and probably a McDonalds. it makes no more sense to eat pizza in Turin or Verona than it does to eat it in France.





<oh please yourself, socaltraveler. Perhaps if you named the pizzerie where you had "memorably good pizza" (in your estimation) your post would begin to look like it was an informed opinion. It is hardly news to most people that Italy is a land of intensely regional cooking, and it is worth traveling to the places where pizza is part of the local tradition if one is coming all that way for pizza. Europe is not some kind of generic, evermore homogenous place like the US, without any distinctive content or culture or food as you drive around. (I suppose you have had "memorably good" pizza in southern California too.).

>>Europe is not some kind of generic, evermore homogenous place like the US, without any distinctive content or culture or food as you drive around.<<

LOL. You think the food in Memphis is the same as that in Boston? Try someplace other than Applebee's.

Anyone who would say "the US is without any distinctive content or culture of food as you drive around." simply has not been to the US. What a fatuous statement.

What a statement!!
I wonder why choosing Montpelier. It is a lovely town, a little large. There are more charming small Provence towns I might choose--even largish Avignon.

I believe that stevewith may be a poster who has appeared under many names, knowledgeable but so opinionated and crabby tha even those of us who may agree on particular topics are turned off. Certainly the affect and xenophobia are similar.

No doubt---the jabs are well known.

This is her 6th or 7th poster name---I have lost count.
Someone explain to me the rationale for changing names on this Forum---I just do not get it. Perhaps she is hiding from the Fodors police or her probation officer.

Actually stevewith, I have had memorably good pizza in southern California, but I am not going to go mano to mano with you over anything. As people say your info is good, and generous, as long as you can be the authority on everything. I have also lost track over the mutliple name changes you have used in even the shorter time I have been here than others. And I am only saying this as a warning to others to proceed with caution..

<< Europe is not some kind of generic, evermore homogenous place like the US, without any distinctive content or culture or food as you drive around.>>

Sweeping blowhard generalizations from the queen of obnoxiousness. Nice try using a male-sounding screen name, as if that could ever disguise your hall monitor tone and tenor. And while you may know a bit about Italy, clearly you know absolutely zip about the USA. There is amazing food here, but if we're lucky you won't make it over here to sample it.