We arrive in Paris on Tuesday and have 3 full days and nights before a 7 day stay in Sarlat followed by a 4 day stay in Paris. Any ideas on what to do for those 3 days at the beginning of the trip before we end up in Sarlat? How about Strasbourg, or Annecy or maybe Brittany, or Nice or hit the Basque region of Spain, or.......

7 full days in Paris is not too much, so you might well spend the additional time there.

However, if you want another destination in France, I'd suggest either the Provence region (to the east of Sarlat) or the Bordeaux region (to the west). Geographically, either would make for an itinerary that works.

I can't imagine driving all the way to Provence or Brittany, or even the Basque country, for a 3 day stay - you wouldn't have time for anything but the driving (assuming you will be driving) No matter how you travel, you're going to spend a lot of your first day getting somewhere, and then a lot of your third day getting to Sarlat.

I would think about a few days in the Loire, on your way down. The first time we came here we spent a night in Fontainebleau, and then moved on to Loches, in the Loire Valley. That gives you time to see the Chateaux of the Loire, and then have an easy drive down to Sarlat.

Another possibility would be somewhere in the Dordogne that you wouldn't see so easily from Sarlat - the Brantome area to the west, or the Lot, to the east. There's more than enough to see in the southwest for several weeks. No need to be heading off to other parts of the country.

Thanks for the feedback. 3-5 hours a day of driving would not bother us. I'll be with my 18 year old son and we are spending lots of time in one place in Sarlat and Paris once the family gets there. So my son and I don't mind a bit of driving to see some other parts of the country.

I don't know how much time you've spent in France, but I don't consider 7 days in the Dordogne or 4 days in Paris "lots of time in one place". You won't even scratch the surface in either.

I agree with Carlux - take the train to Perigueux, visit, then spend 3 days near Brantome & visit all the neat stuff around there. Or you could take the train to Brive & stay near Carennac & see the sites in that region (Padirac, Collonges la Rouge, Rocamadour, Martel, St Cirq Lapopie, Peche Merle, Figeac, Cele/Lot rivers, etc).

Brittany, Alsace, Pays Basque, & Provence are all too far out-of-the way.

3-5 hrs a day driving. It isn't so much the driving, as it is the lack of time for good sight-seeing. The areas between Paris & the Dordogne are not nearly as scenic as the Perigord/Dordogne region, IMO, - unless you go east into the Auvergne, but that region is next to the Carennac area - so why not just go to Carennac. You won't run out of great stuff to do near Carennac.

Stu Dudley

We're picking up the car in Paris so stopping in the Loire valley sounds good. I had not read anything about Loches before but after looking it up it seems like a good spot. I've also read good things about Chinon. Maybe we'll spend 2 nights in either Loches or Chinon and then a night in Brantome before heading to Sarlat.

Stay in Paris!

Adding on, stay in Paris, and do Giverny for a day trip. Or some other day trip if you just can't see that long. We have often spent a week in Paris. sometimes less is REALLY more. Fewer "destinations", more fun and knowledge about where you've been rather than a drive by.
Then take the train to Sarlat and start over seeing something in depth.

Train for 5 people is to much money, car is much cheaper. Would need a car in Sarlat anyway so might as well drive the couple hours down there from Paris and back and save the train fares. I have the feeling most of the responders are from Europe. Thats great to get good feedback on places to go from people who have been there. I've been to Paris but its been 20 years. Americans like me are accustomed to driving long distances (I've driven 4 hours to meet a friend, had lunch and driven back the same day) tend to view the driving part as fun and not work. We enjoy driving and it gives us a chance to see a lot of the country. I'd rather see more of the country so I have more idea of what its all like. Especially since I won't probably be going back. Vacation for us is learning new things and seeing places we haven't seen before. We don't go on vacation to relax, we go on vacation to see new things and places. Thanks for all the concrete advice.

>>might as well drive the couple hours down there from Paris and back and save the train fares<<

I use www.viamichelin.com to estimate drive times & costs.

It is about a 6 hr drive from CDG to Sarlat - not a couple of hours. Do you really plan to land at CDG, rent a car, navigate around Paris during rush hour, and then be on the road for 6 hours in a single day?? Your prior post said that this leg will only be you & your 18 YO son. Will the car rental company let an 18 YO drive their car?

I drove that route last year - not scenic at all. I've driven it other times too.

I would suggest that you not try to make it all the way to Sarlat on your landing day. The Loire is about 3 hrs away - which experience has told us is too far for a arrival day drive - but you might be able to struggle through it. Note that the drive is south - so the sun will be in your face.

>>I have the feeling most of the responders are from Europe.<<

I've lived in California my entire life. I think Gretchen is from the US too.

>> tend to view the driving part as fun and not work. We enjoy driving and it gives us a chance to see a lot of the country<<

If you plan to get off the freeway & see some not-so-scenic countryside, small villages, etc - the drive will take closer to 8-10 hours.

If this was my trip & I was determined to have an extended drive on the first day (we gave that up 20 years ago), I would drive the freeway to the Loire, spend 3 nights there, then on to Sarlat on the freeway.

Stu Dudley

It's not a "couple of hours" drive from Paris to Sarlat. It's more like 6, and most of it boring. Do you have a map?

I would drive to the Loire, then to the Atlantic coast and visit/stay in La Rochelle, visit the Ile de Ré while there, then head inland to Saintes and Angoulème, then through Limoges to Oradour-sur-Glane with a stop there, then to the Périgord Vert with a stop in Brantôme and Bourdeilles and from there to Sarlat. That should eat up all three extra days easily and give you plenty of driving.

As for the driving after renting the car at CDG--we could just barely make it to Rouen!! and we landed at 7:30AM.
Driving long distances--yes. I drive to Denver from the east.

"o on vacation to learn things." Puhlease, we do too. And we learned not to drive long distances when they aren't terribly interesting, when we could spend more time on either end where they are.
How IS your family "getting together" and where. Train for 5 is too expensive, but just you and son in the car to Sarlat? I may have missed the point.

Son and I are getting in three days early. Wife and 2 other kids will take train from Paris to Sarlat where we pick them up. Then we all spend 7 days in Sarlat and then drive one day back to Paris where we stay 4 days. Son and I arrive at 10am, I think we'll drive then to the Loire. See the Chateau de Chambord and/or Chateau de Chaumont. Walk around a bit outside to help our bodies adjust to the new time zone. Then spend the night in Amboise or Chinon. Then either 2 more days there, or 2 days near Brantome or somewhere else. Still trying to decide but it will be more or less on the way to Sarlat.

I don't see any point at all in driving back to Paris from Sarlat. Again, it's a long, boring drive and there's no reason at all to have a car in Paris. Have you looked at PREM fares on the TGV from Bordeaux or Libourne? And weighed them against costs of gas and tolls?

I've heard about Prem fares before but never found anything clear about them. I'm paying $400 for the wife and 2 kids to take the train one way from Paris to Sarlat. I don't know French so I've used the Rail Europe website to book those tickets. Thats more than the price to rent a car for 11 days, not including the gas which I'm sure is pretty expensive. But unless I could find some cheaper train fares it seemed to save a good bit of money driving.

PREMS would probably be around $45 per person from CDG to Libourne/Bordeaux. Libourne is about 2 hrs from Sarlat. $25-30 between Paris & Brive la Gaillarde (1 1/4 hrs from Sarlat). PREMS are first available 3 months before departure, and they can sell out quickly.

Gas & road tolls from CDG to Sarlat are around $85. You may also save 1 day's car rental by taking a train.

Lots of info about PREMS on Fodors. There is an SNCF English language site.

Stu Dudley

<<I don't know French so I've used the Rail Europe website to book those tickets.>>

RailEurope is a ripoff in this instance. You don't need to know French to look up timetables and fares - they're numbers. You've way overpaid for those tickets. Can you return them?

As Stu mentioned, there is a wealth of information on this site about how to gt cheap tickets from the SNCF site.

Another one who has been burned by RailEurope.
That first day is a doozy. Have at it.

It also just occurred to me - why are your family members taking the train to Sarlat? There are very few passenger trains going in and out of Sarlat, and the routing from Paris to Sarlat is often through Bordeaux with a bazillion local stops between Bordeaux and Sarlat. Why aren't they going into Périgueux or Brive?

I'll keep looking into this for the trip back because I agree it would be nicer to take a train from Sarlat or someplace in the area back to Paris instead of 5 of us in the car for 6 hours. Thanks for the advice. Cheers.