fantasy itinerary (or not)

if you want 5 places for a month at a time, including France, do you have your Schengen issues clarified?

When you say your time in Fulham is "just about up" and you are starting to look for places to go - how soon is just about up? Do you have time to work out a plan or do you need to go somewhere tomorrow?

The rail system in both this country and France is quite dense, more here than there. But you can get most places without a car if you use a bus or two or a taxi or two in conjunction with the trains.

Is money any sort of concern? I guess not with the other question about medical tourism, but you need to say. Train tickets on both sides of the Channel are expensive to just walk up to, and much cheaper well in advance.

There are maps of various areas on the National Rail website, but they are very dense. Have a look around at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations_destinations/maps.aspx

Just the South East and London have hundreds of stations, the map is http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/LondonSouthEast_0518-b.pdf you will have to zoom in quite a long way.

I'm afraid that all of your questions have been really quite vague. If you can give a few more details we can have a shot at giving you a bit of information that will help you more.

What happened to Denmark? That was your first question, two weeks ago. Have you dropped it and replaced it with France?

Yes, I knew as I was writing my post that it was very vague. That is because for the first time I am really winging it. I have always had a complete itinerary with a begin and end date and full accommodations. This time I only had my Fulham starting point and nothing else. I leave Fulham 1-Oct. I figure I may as well stay in England and visit other areas such as Cotswolds (been there but wouldn't mind going back), Cornwall, Lake district, Scotland. And since I'm so close, I should do Ireland. That said, heading south to PARIS and then through the country into aix and the others sound appealing, especially as the weather begins to cool into north. However I know zero Francias. Denmark and beyond are NOT off the table but are now feeling like a different direction. Money is not an issue but decisiveness apparently is. I've been to many of the major European cities and don't feel the need to retrace those steps. I am also a little museumed out in my life so I'm not particularly looking to fill that desire. In short, I am searching for an odyssey but with a route that doesn't leave me in the middle of nowhere with no way of getting out. Please don't feel the need to respond if it again seems too aimless. I'll stumble my way through it. BTW, Ricks radio show is really fantastic. He was made for radio (in a good way).

If you haven't already, visit the website of the Man in Seat 61 for great explanations of the European train system - including the UK: https://www.seat61.com/

That may help you spot destinations, including smaller cities/towns that are a bit off the regular tourist circuits.

Be sure you understand the Schengen limits. An American/Canadian without a visa cannot stay in France for five months. It's 90 days, maximum, counting both arrival day and departure day.

You need to visit a book store and pick up comprehensive guide books to the United Kingdom, Ireland and France. Not Rick's, because they are detailed but not broad enough for your purpose. My only concern would be weather; I hate the chilly/wet combination, especially when I'm in walk-around mode rather than museum mode.

You can easily do what you're considering, but do heed Nigel's warning about what can happen to rail fares if you buy tickets at the last minute. That can be painfully expensive, especially in Great Britain. I spent summer 2017 in eastern France, not buying tickets more than a few days in advance, and the costs were reasonable because I was making short hops, usually on regional trains with fixed ticket prices. It's the French express trains that can get very expensive if you don't plan ahead. England is more of challenge, price-wise. Buses in both countries can be very useful if you're moving between places that aren't so far apart. They're usually cheaper than train fares and can be much, much cheaper than last-minute train fares in England.

I'm lazy about changing hotels, so I look for a bases that have good transportation links to nearby attractive destinations and also have some worthwhile sights of their own. My goal is to justify at least four nights at each stop, though I occasionally have shorter stays. For a month at a time I'd want places of considerable size so I didn't get bored or have to take a lot of very long day-trips to fill the time.

Nice is a good possibility, because it has excellent rail service (on a local line, so fares are low) along the coast and is the bus hub for the villages up in the hills. It has very reasonable hotel prices off-season, unless you happen to hit a time when there's a major special event occurring on the Riviera.

It's critical to understand its limitations, but Rome2Rio.com is useful in revealing whether a trip from A to B can be completed by train or will require one or more buses. The problem is that the fares, frequencies, and travel times shown on that website are very often wildly inaccurate, so you have to use it just for general guidance (Is there a train? Is there a bus? Where might I need to change trains or buses?) and then drill down to find a link to the website of the company offering the service, where you can get precise schedule and fare information. The fare information, however, will be for purchase at that moment. The fare can be higher even an hour later.

Use nationalrail.co.uk for UK rail schedules and fares. If you want to buy tickets online, that website will connect you to the correct rail company's sales platform.

Use SNCF for French rail schedules and fares. It lists a few buses as well. To find other bus schedules, you can either use Rome2Rio or Google something like: Bus Annecy to Chamonix.

Edited to add: The idea of a month in one place comes up fairly often here, and my initial reaction is always "cool!", but then I realize that it isn't what I'd want to do unless I was staying in a major city (London, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, etc.) and perhaps taking language classes. A month at one base is far too limiting for me when there are so many places in every country that I'd want to see but which wouldn't be viable day-trips. I'd rather move around more and see more places. I'd get very bored once I ran out of day-trips.

If you're interested in northern France, I would suggest Arras, an extremely important place for the British Army in both wars. You can get there by taking the EuroStar to Lille, then the train to Arras, or from the other direction, EuroStar from St Pancras station to Paris Nord, then take the TGV Paris Nord to Arras, if you intend on going to Paris in the first place. No problems taking the trains, ie the regional TER or the TGV from Paris.

Left of the Arras train station, as you exit, is a rental car company.

Also note that you won't get another period of time by directly entering Ireland - it will count within your six months allowable as a visitor to the common travel area.

We did a wonderful drive tour of Wales and England last year.
The British countryside is amazing.
28 days in Britain and Celebrity Eclipse home
https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=599139

Go to Paris stay as long as you like then take the train to Avignon. Rent a car and look for a hotel in the L'Isle sur la sourge area. You'll be right at home for a good few weeks there. Pick up the DK Eyewitness guide to Provence before you go. Don't worry about the lack of French.

OP has not answered the question about whether or not he understands the Schengen limits.

To the OP (that means "original poster" - you, David Paul: The words "Schengen limits" are written across the sky in fire. Do you understand that you're limited to 90 days? If you don't, you could be in for a world of trouble...

OP back . . .
I had a nice chat with one of the long time posters on the forum. I am now fully educated on the time limits. Thank you the additional advice. I am departing London for Ireland tomorrow 30 Sep. Not sure how it will go but excited and optimistic.

I found that Northern Ireland along the Giant’s Causeway area was very interesting.. Good public transport links. Try the Bayview Hotel at Port Ballintrae. It was definitely our favorite hotel of the trip.