Trip to France
 

A party of four, senior, active adults will be arriving in Paris on September 17th at 6:45 am I have made train reservations at 10:00 am to go to Tours where we will rent a car and drive to where we will be staying. The next day we have a full day wine tour followed by a hot air balloon ride. We will be in that area for two additional days then we will drive to Giverny stay over night then on to the Bayeux area where have a full day Normandy tour booked. We will be in the Normandy area for 3 days and would appreciate any guidance to quaint villages, great restaurants, etc. We all love to picnic and are more into meeting the locals and enjoying the beauty of France. We will then depart from Caen via train to Paris where we will stay for 3 days. Some of the group have been to Paris, some have not so our plans are still not set for Paris any suggestions would be wonderful. We will not be going to the Louvre. Again, enjoying the people, bistros, walks, probably not museums, just enjoying Paris. Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

Renting a car at St-Pierre-des-Corps suburban Tours station can be a lot easier than at the deadend Tours station - many more trains serve SPdC than Tours too - if you have booked to Tours you can get off at SPdC and pick up your car - you are then well out of the Tours urban area that IME can be surprisingly congested - all major car rentals are opposite the St-Pierre-des-Corps station - short dirve to Amboise from there. No need to go into Tours itself though it is a pleasant town you may want to peek around a bit before motoring away - if not just start from SPdC and be out of the IME often horrendous traffic of Tours.

"The next day we have a full day wine tour followed by a hot air balloon ride" you know that this depends on the weather?? However it would be more likely to be safe air in the early morning than in the evening.

Loire, I'd dig out http://www.fontevraud.fr/, you could also stay in the priory and eat in the "cute" little village. At one time the abbey was the most important in France, with various bits of Richard the Lionhearts family entombed in the floor.

Normany is big, the obvious places to visit are Honfleur and Bayeux, for the artist's colony and the medievel tapistry. If you want more WW2 stuff you might like St Mere-Eglise. Mont Saint Michael ;-) might be a bit far.

The only restaurant I know to recommend, but I really liked, was "Le Chat qui Peche" in Honfleur. The cuisine was very good and local specialties. http://www.chatquipeche.com/

Honfleur is a cute village a lot of people like visiting, and not that far from Bayeux that you couldn't go there for a day trip (about 100 km). It is actually closer to Caen, though, I'm not clear on where you are staying.

You have made a very close connection from plane to train. Have you considered the chance that the flight could be a little late? Time to go through passport control? Getting luggage (hope you won't have to report a delayed bag)? Getting to the train station with luggage for 4 people? Finding the departure track? Will you be jetlagged? Do you plan on eating?

I would rethink your first day.

Thank you all --

As far as the train from Paris to Tours I made an error we are on the 12:16 so I'm hoping I gave ourselves plenty of time.

Thank you all for your suggestions, I will rethink the location of the Car pick up in Tours -- hopefully I'll bee able to make the change. THANKS!!

The majority of the quaint villages in Lower Normandy that are in reasonable drive time from Bayeux will be found in/near the Pays d'Auge region (cheese and cidre country), which is south of Deauville and Trouville and include places such as Cambremer, Beuvron-en-Auge, Cormeilles, Pont-Audemer, Blangy-le-Château, Touques, Pont-l'Evêque and others. You can have a look at the following thread for more info about Lower Normandy:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic....html#39058384

For some general info about the Loire you can look at this thread:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-de-france.cfm

If you love to picnic and will be going to the Pays d'Auge region then I highly recommend a visit to Domaine Saint-Hippolyte. Bring bread, fruit and plates, knives, forks etc. and they'll have everything else you need for food to have a delicious and memorable picnic in a lovely setting:

http://www.produits-normandie.fr/14_...aint-hippolyte

http://www.fromage-normandie.com/fr/...rie,54156.html

http://www.francetoday.com/articles/...hippolyte.html

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ire-valley.cfm

Looking for something very different and unique check out Richelieu - well off the beaten track but I found so fascinating.