14-Day France Trip – draft itinerary

Assuming you are arriving at Paris CDG, you would need to taxi or take both the RER train and the metro to get to the Gare d'Est for your train to Troyes.

Consider spending the night in Paris and take the TGV to Strasbourg or Colmar the next morning to pick up your rental car.

If your plan is to visit the quintessential wine villages of Alsace, Kaysersberg and Bergheim are better located. Selestat and Obernai will shorten your drive to Karlsruhe and, also, allow for a short train ride for a car free day in Strasbourg.

Be sure when you rent the car to check on cross border travel in the rental car. This is often forbidden or costs extra for coverage. At a minimum you need to be sure they know.

Have great trip,
-Tod

Your options sound good to me. My thoughts are that 7 nights in burgundy might be too long. Your option 3 looks best of what you listed. You could also expand your time in Germany to 2 nights and then 5 nights burgundy. On your arrival day I would train directly to Alsace. I can tell you from experience that if you miss your train you just lose a little money and get on the next one. In 2015 everything went wrong with our arrival (delayed flight, confusion over luggage, mobbed airport) and we missed our train to Tours. It was stressful but at the end of the day we arrived in Tours at 6pm instead of 1pm. No big deal. The other time I did this it worked as planned. To me, the 5% risk of missing the train is better than the inefficiency of a one night stay in that town I’ve not heard of.

2 more tips.

We stayed here, which fits your small town burgundy option https://www.lacombotte.com/

Consider a day trip to Arbois. We enjoyed that town.

Hello,

I second the other commenter's opinion on taking the TGV. If I were you, I would probably take it to Strasbourg and stay overnight there for one evening before renting a car the next day. The city of Strasbourg is absolute bliss and a great gateway into the region.

As such, you can hit the 'route de vin' on your second day.

I can definitely recommend the villages of Kayserberg, Eguisheim, and Riquewihr. We liked Sélestat less than we expected. We also quite liked Barr. We found the latter to be the least touristy of all the towns we visited in Alsace.

I imagine that you will be doing some wine tastings during your time there? I recommend the Domaine Mann in Eguisheim as well as Achille and Domaine Weinbach.

Don't miss the Haut Koenigsburg and the Mont Saint-Odile.

For the second part of your trip I recommend spending the week in Burgundy as you haven't been there yet.

Beaune is charming albeit busy. It is a lovely experience for its market and lovely gastronomy scene.

Just outside of Beaune there is a lovely village (one of many) called Audrey-Duresses. Some of the winemakers have airbnbs where you can stay for a reasonable price in a very lovely establishment. I highly recommend. The one I have in mind is Prunier-Damy.

You could also get off the beaten track and visit Cluny or the Brionnais... or on the other hand you could head up North to Chablis and the Vallée de la Cure, however I can't personally vouch for Chablis and the Vallée de la Cure area as I have not been.

Best of luck and enjoy your trip.

I have organized our trips to Europe many times. I am very attentive to ease of connections and transfers. My only suggestion is to take a direct train from CDG to Strasbourg. Most likely you will need to rent your car in Strasbourg as Alsace may have limited options, especially for drop off at different location. (I have just run into this for our fall trip). It is very convenient to be able to avoid the RER.
We booked an 11:59 train after arriving @8:00AM., no problem. If you are nervous about your plane being late, a quick check says there are trains @ 3, 5:30 and 6:53. Happy travels.

In Burgundy, Beaune is the most central place to base. It will have the most restaurants. If you have a car you can stay in smaller wine villages, but you may have to drive to other villages for restaurants.

Alsace is not a town, as mentioned in the above post. It is the region in which Strasbourg is located. Perhaps the poster meant Colmar, in referencing the availability of car rentals?
Parking is a problem in Sterasbourg, so I would rent the car when I am leaving Strasbourg.
Enjoy your trip!

I see the advantage of taking a fast train right to Alsace, but I liked Troyes a lot. All the visitors seemed to be French as of 2017.

Thanks for the helpful posts so far.

We’ve considered taking a direct train from Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) to Strasbourg, but I was surprised that early booking (about 120 days in advance) doesn’t offer a greater discount. The tickets are pricey if we miss the train due to delays. Both direct trains leave CDG at 15:29:

• For October: €216 ($337 CAD)
• For tomorrow: €266 ($416 CAD)

I’ve been using the SNCF app and website, but they mostly show routes with connections in Paris instead of direct trains. Omio seems a bit better for finding direct options.

After reviewing our plans, renting a car from CDG looks like a better deal. It’s about $350 CAD cheaper than picking up the car in Strasbourg and returning it to CDG. Plus, we’d save on train tickets.

We’re planning to visit Troyes, which is about a 2-hour drive from CDG. Thanks to previous posts from acraven and balso, it’s likely where we’ll spend our first night. We also considered Provins.

For the Alsace and Burgundy regions, we’ll choose specific towns once our itinerary is more finalized. We’ll have a rental car for the whole trip but might take the train into Strasbourg for a day visit. We plan to explore the villages, but not for wine tasting—just to enjoy the sights.

Wow. That’s more expensive than I had thought. That plus the positive comments on Troyes makes me change my advice. I think your plan is solid for the start of your trip.

Thanks Matt! I was hoping I’d missed something with the train prices, but I’m seeing the same rates. Since most TGV trains require a journey to Paris first, we might just buy tickets to Troyes when we arrive—or rent a car directly from CDG.

The Burgundy place you recommended looks fantastic. They have limited availability in the second week of October, so I’ll call once we’ve set our dates to check for openings.

We’re leaning toward option 3 after Alsace: 3 nights in Burgundy, 4 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, and the last night in Paris. Still considering your idea of more time in Germany and the rest in Burgundy.

Terry, what date are you planning to travel from Paris to Strasbourg? I'm seeing train fares in October for well under €100.

Hi jeanm, we arrive CDG at 10:15 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 5. We looked at SNCF and Trainline for tickets for that afternoon. Thinking about my previous post, I should've been clearer that the prices are for two train tickets. Though that is the total cost to us.

I just checked again and the price for two mid-afternoon tickets is €202 or $317 CAD.