Paris to Nice Road Trip
 

I will be in France in July for my Honeymoon. After a week in Paris, my wife and I plan to drive from Paris to Nice. I would greatly appreciate your recommendations and advice regarding:

1. Car rental companies and how to best reserve a car (do we need international drivers licenses?)
2. The best route to take
3. recommendations on where to visit, eat, and stay along the way

We have 2 or 3 days to get to Nice. Thanks in advance for your help!

Aaron

Hi aa,

1. Try www.novarentacar.com
www.autoeurope.com
www.kemwel.com

1A You can get your IDP from the AAA.
http://www.aaasouth.com/travel_drivers.asp#idp

2. See www.viamichelin.com and www.mappy.com.

((I))

Despite warnings that the times listed in via.michelin for travel between two places were on the short side, I used them a lot on our recent trip. In some cases a 2 hour trip turned into 5. Construction and holiday traffic can wreak havoc with a schedule. On the bright side I found the French road signs give more advance warning than the ones in England. We drove a lot of autoroute between Paris and Nice. The heaviest traffic seemed to be the trucks around Lyon. The large roadside rest areas with gas, food, etc, are usually well-planned.

Your best bet is to get a copy of the green Michelin Guide to France and start looking at routes. With the time you have to get to Nice you can do a relatively leisurely drive using a mix of autoroutes and other roads, with stops along the way for sightseeing.

My suggestion would be to go from Paris to Burgundy, spending a night in Beaune. Be sure to make part of the route a drive along the Burgundian canal--very peaceful after dashing down the autoroute. You can visit Vézelay, the wonderful cathedral in Autun, and the little wine villages; in Beaune itself is the magnificent Hospice de Beaune, a medieval hospital.

The next night could be somewhere around Avignon, allowing you to visit that city and perhaps the pretty little village of St-Rémy.

On your way to Nice you could stop ofsf in Aix-en-Provence. From there it's only about 2-1/2 hours to Nice via the autoroute, but I'd recommend getting off it a bit past St-Tropez and taking the coast road the rest of the way for beautiful scenery.

What's your budget for hotels?

If you only have a couple of days, you might be better off taking a train to a southern city to bank some time for a more leisurely drive to Nice, taking advantage of some of the secondary roads.

I ditto that suggestion. Take the TGV to Avignon, rent a car there and you'll have some time to wander Provence and soak in its beauty.

Otherwise, you aren't going to have time to stop and smell the roses (or lavendar) along the way.