France Travel Forum

We are looking to spend a week to 10 days in France as part of a 2 month holiday in Europe. We want to spend 2 days in Paris, and possibly time in the Loire visting the chateau. We were thinking to maybe take in provence/ Avignon. We are not really interested in swimming as we have access to beaches at home - we want to experience the culture and sightsee. Could anyone please help regarding where our time may be best spent. We were probably not going to visit Nice/Monaco thinking it would be too expensive. Is this the case? We also had thoughts of visiting Mont Saint Michel but this seems a bit of a diversion to our itinerary. Your thoughts would be appreciated as we don't really have a comprehension of the distances between these places. Thanks.

France is a big country. The Loire is not too far from Paris, but Avignon is in the south and Mont-St-Michel is in the North-west. Travelling would take a big slice out of your 7-10 days. You just want to decide what you really want to see, and see that, or else you won\t see anything.

There are plenty of chateaux in the Loire valley, and the big ones need a day each to visit. Even so, you'd be on Chateau OD after about three. Other things to see in that area are the city of Orleans with its incredibly pretty cathedral, and Chartres too of course. You could even go as far south as Poitier, which to me is like heaven on earth. And then there is the wine-tasting ...

As a fairly frequent and long-time visitor to France (we just hop on the cross channel ferry so it is easy for us) it is difficult to help you choose between the Loire and Provence - two very different regions, both great places to visit but you would be hard pressed to fit them both in to one week, even 10 days - particularly if that time is reduced by time spent in Paris.

France is quite a big country to get around - will you be hiring a car? The roads are generally very good - if you avoid major towns. Driving is on the right.
To get an idea of travelling times and distances --
www.viamichelin.com --is an excellent tool.

Fuel is currently very expensive - around 1 euro 40. - more at some service stations. I believe that the Euro is strong against your currency as it is against the GB Pound right now. Last month we saw an increase in our overall expenses of about 17% compared with a visit last October.

I don't think Nice is necessarily more expensive if you stick to simple accommodation, and avoid fashionable restaurants.

For accommodation throughout France you will find a number of budget hotel chains - Campanile, Ibis, Formule 1 and others.
We prefer the small independent hotels, usually in rural locations and family run - www.logis-de-france.fr
There is an English version - look for the Union Flag.

Some of my other favourite areas are the Languedoc and the Pyrenees-Orientales. But next week we are going to another - Brittany.

Given the constraint on time it might be worthwhile having a look at some of the travel pages on VT, study a map of France and make a decision about the area you want to concentrate on. Then come back with some specifc questions .
I am sure you will love whichever area you choose - there is such a lot of history - practically every small village has a tale to tell and a castle, chateau or church to see.

In my opinion, the most beautiful part of France is the southwest. A half day's drive via autoroute will get you as far as Limoges, and from there, if you leave the autoroute and join the secondary roads, you will find yourselves in a lush green paradise of rolling hills, castles, rivers, quaint villages, and the most amazing food. Keeping some distance away from the Dordogne river will spare you the heaviest tourist traffic. This is fantastic walking country. The IGN Blue Series maps are available everywhere, and show extremely detailed walking routes that keep you mostly away from paved roads. Virtually every village has at least one decent hotel and a good restaurant. Having been all over France I can say unequivocally my favorite corner is the big varied region between Perigeux and the Pyreness.

Take the train from Paris to Avignon. Spend a day or two then hop on and explore Nimes, Aix, Beaux, Eze, St tropez, Nice, Monaco. I think It's a nice Paris/provence Tour. If you wanted the loire Valley then your two days of Paris then hope on a train and explore verasailles and then on to the Loire. Nice and Monaco areen't that expensive.

Mt st Michel is kind of out of the way for what your planning. If you need any help drop me a line.

Your itinerary needs simplification and focus. My recommendation for 10 days in France and unfortunately not really knowing the starting and ending locations:

1. 4-5 days in Paris - no less. Once you are there, you'll want a week or more.

2. 5-6 days traveling through ONE of these three options.

2a. Brittany/Loire Valley

2b. Provence including Avignon, Arles, Aix-en-Provence.

2c. Alsace/Burgundy - the wine lovers option traveling the wine routes from near Strasbourg to Beaune.


To optimize limited time, you'll need to rent a car for phase 2. Public transportation takes too long and will quickly erode your precious vacation time.

Once you have decided on phase 2, develop the itinerary to include the highlights of the area. I could write pages on sub itineraries around this framework but you need to make choices.

Katie
You may want to reconsider only 2 days in Paris. In my opinion, it's not long enough. I think 4 days would be best.
Jeannette

Taking in Paris, the Loire Valley (concentrate on Chenonceau, Chambord, Villandry, Blois) + Provence is very ambitious to say the least but obviously possible if you rent a car and don't mind driving 2000 miles or so in 7 days (obviously, you would only hire the car once you've left Paris). I wouldn't do it personally, I'd visit Paris for 3 or 4 days and take a train to Avignon, Nîmes,Marseille and Nice.

Visit Nice, it's a great city. Not more expensive than anywhere else in France.

Monaco is not pretty as such (and eminently avoidable in a whistletour of France), although its location is stunning, but has a certain appeal I suppose.
It's getting much more interesting now though, the first social demonstrations ever to place there happened only a few days ago (May 7th), some 4 000 people (mostly in the catering/hospitality business, but also from other sectors) demonstrated from the luxury hotel Monte-Carlo Bay to Grimaldi Street (the local "Champs-Elysées"), that's novel!

I agree with what a couple of other people have said, spend more time in Paris. We had only 2 days there last month and would have loved 2-3 more days. That said we did love the week we spent in Provence, it is beautiful. I'd skip Nice/Monaco.

Do not shortchange yourselves by trying to see a lot of France in 10 days. The best way to enjoy your trip will be to spend 4 days or so in Paris and then choose another region to focus on. The Loire area is not as large as some of the others and I think 2 or 3 days is usually enough because, after awhile, the chateaux all start to blend together. Provence is wonderful and can easily take a week or longer to explore - the same with the Dordogne region which is another favorite of mine. The only way to really get to know France is to spend the right amount of time driving around an area and not wasting time driving or sitting in a train.

Well said, June.

France has so many varied regions that you can't "do" France in even one month.
Look at the difference between Provence and Alsace, for example. It's almost like 2 different countries...architecture, life style, food, history. Everything is different.
Jeannette

Many foreigners don't realise that (how varied France is), I do not blame them, give the dumbing down of the media in general. Thank God for sites like VT.

There are approximately 450 distinctive "pays" in France and 1,800 "micro-pays" (depending on who you ask! it varies from one organisation to another -it is not a rigid administrative unit- but roughly speaking it is about 450. The magazine Géo, probably the most reliable authority in this field, lists precisely 420 pays in France -the DATAR -spatial management and planning of the country- has 450 and the Environment Ministry can't make up its mind and says "between 400 and 500").

A "pays" is a geographical, cultural, social and "traditional" entity sufficiently distinct from its neighbouring area to be awarded the title of "pays" (the difference could lie in the history, in the customs / traditions / topography-landscape / architecture / language - patois/ etc.).

For instance, there are 15 "pays" in Brittany (they are bigger pays -in size- than in other regions, but all fairly distinctive from one another, relatively speaking -some overlap on other administrative regions):

Pays de Rance
Penthièvre
Trégor
Goëlo
Léon
Cornouaille
Pays de Lorient
Vannetais
Poher
Porhoët
Pays de Rennes
Pays de la Vilaine
Pays de Fougères
Pays de Vitré
Pays de la Mée

Some of the Brittany "micropays" are (too many to list them all):

Pays de Dol
Poudouvre
Paimpolais
Pays Briochain
Pourlet


For those who can read french:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pays_%28am%C3%A9nagement_du_territoire%29

Thanks, Jeannette. France is like many other countries. They look small on the map, but once one gets there in person, it's so much easier to understand the geography and vastness and differences. The UK is the same way. I could live here another 50 years and never see all of this relatively small island. We used to spend 10 days in one region and drive and have such good fun... the same in Italy. As you know, I really do love France. :-)