France Travel Answers

France is the largest country in western Europe so it would help us make suggestions if you would tell us where you want to go in France. For instance, are you flying into Paris or some other city? How much time do you have and how are you planning to travel? Can you give us a ballpark figure for your budget? Since you mention bike touring opportunities, I'll suggest you look into the Loire Bike Path. You could fly into Paris, spend a few days there and then take a train to Tours in the heart of the Loire Valley. Not only is this a very nice bike path, you are in very romantic chateau country and could easily visit several of the famous Loire chateaus. There is a bike path that covers a lot of the Loire and it might be fun for you. You can find information at: http://www.cycling-loire.com/ travelandtourismnews.com/exp... Camping information at: http://www.campingfrance.com/UK/ You might also look at the Logis de France web site. It is a chain of small, family-owned hotels that nearly always have a good restaurant. They are very French and come in all price ranges. They have special Logis for bicycles that might be of interest and some of those will arrange bike tours for you if you stay there. http://www.logishotels.com/en.html If you are looking for quaint towns, you can't beat the Plus Beaux Villages of France. They are under 2000 population and very pretty. You will see other tourists in the more popular ones, but we've seldom felt crowded in one. Here is their website. les-plus-beaux-villages-de-f... Best wishes on your forthcoming wedding and enjoy your trip to France.

I've biked in the Loire and Dordogne regions. Both are excellent for cycling, but I think the Dordogne, although less flat, is probably less filled with tourists except for a few towns like Sarlat. There's a great deal to see in that area and you could also make your way towards the Lot River where there are some terrific, pre-historic caves like Perle Meche (my favorite). There are lots of quaint towns to explore.

That's rather a broad question, if you could give us a (or some) preferred areas, and what type of budget, it will be easier to give you an answer.

i would like to suggest looking at this page. I went there to paint watercolors and found the town to be awesome. What a view. You see towns and castles across the valley at night. In fact Marquis de Sade's Castle is lit up at night. This is a get away place....we were headed to Avignon, and found what was one of my best hill towns in Provence. Take a look at...... "Seeing Provence Without Breaking the Bank" - Bonnieux by painterdave

Thanks to the sharp person who realized I meant to write Peche Merle, which is the correct name for that wonderful cave. I'm still laughing at such a funny mistake, but I'm jet-lagged!!

have you seen a map of France? Any idea how many quaint towns are here? Less touristic ,,,at the NO 1 tourist country in the World...budget what budget? hiking and bike, this is a pastime here is all over. Very broad question indeed, you need to get a hold of a map of France, see the areas and get a tourist guide or look up destinations here in VT above right for tips by posters lke us, zillions there. Hope it helps your planning

I saw some bicyclists in Provence last month and I was really, really glad not to be them. However, I saw a batch in the Loire Valley many years ago and it looked to be a lot of fun because it is a lot flatter. Google cycling in France, you'll find a bunch of websites that will give you some idea of itineraries and difficulty levels. If there's something to see in France, it's almost guaranteed to have tourists, perhaps try to schedule your trip outside high season, there's nothing that says a honeymoon has to be right after the wedding! This link seems to be a nice place to start, you can get some ideas by reading their trips discoverfrance.com/selfguide...

If you don't have a map of France handy, you can use Google Maps. Just type in France and it will give you the entire country. Then you can zoom in on different areas and see what appeals to you. http://maps.google.com/ I'll reinforce Dabs suggestion that the Loire is flatter than most of Provence. There is a good reason the Tour de France goes through the Luberon of Provence; it's great hill climbing. I much prefer the Loire for biking . . . although I will freely admit to being in my late 60s. We do go out on our bikes nearly every day (except in our current 70-km/hour winds!) If you are going to northern Italy (from another of your posts), you could fly into Paris, spend a few days; train to Amboise and visit the Loire for some biking and then either train, fly or drive to Provence for a few days before heading into northern Italy. I will admit when we're heading into Italy, we fly into Nice and drive into Italy from there. Much closer and easier. Don't know how much time you have so hard to make suggestions. Plenty of things to think about here and above.