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18 Days in France - Itinerary Help

Posted by on

I'm planning an 18 nights in France from the end of September to mid-October.

This is what I have so far:

Nice - 6 Nights - for relaxing, beach clubs if they are still open, perhaps visit other towns.
- this includes 1 night in Moustiers-Sainte-Marie so that we can visit Gorge du Verdon, we will rent a car just for the 2 days

Fly Nice to Caen

Normandy - 5 Nights - rent a car -
we'll visit Mont-Saint-Michel, Dieppe (both our grandfathers were here during WW2, and stay in Bayeux

Drive from Bayeux to Amboise

Loire Valley - 3 Nights - relax, see chateaux of course, perhaps visit a winery

Train Amboise to Paris

Paris - 4 Nights

My questions are:

  1. I've already cut Strasbourg from my itinerary - was this a good decision? or should I add it and remove Gorge du Verdon?
  2. We've already been to Paris, should I remove a night and place it elsewhere? If so, where would you recommend?
  3. Are there any other changes you would make? Is there an area you'd remove to replace with somewhere else?

Of course we want to site-see, but we also like time to relax, perhaps go to a spa and eat lots of cheese. Along with any itinerary suggestions, I'd love any general advice or recommendations as well!

Thank you in advance!!

Posted by
1207 posts

Are you flying into Nice? For that time of year, it seems more sensible, weather-wise, to fly into Paris and head to Normandy (either by train or driving) and head south from there, maybe adding a stop in the Dordogne Valley. Keep the car long enough to see the Gorge, then finish up in Nice, flying back to Paris if desired. It's a lot of driving, though.

Posted by
272 posts

Nice seems like a pretty far stretch from the rest of your trip. But we stayed in Villefrenche-sur-Mer, right next to Nice, and loved it. So if a beach trip is on your radar, then do it! I would cut it to 5 days though and add a day to Amboise. You’ll lose a good part of the first day driving. The rest of your trip looks good to me!

Posted by
4 posts

G3rryCee - yes we were planning to fly into Nice. I have read that it can get cold that time of year in the North, but I wanted to try to get to Nice as early as possible. I'm hoping some beach clubs will still be open. We're from Canada, so not too concerned with the cold haha. But thank you for the suggestion. I was looking at Dordogne Valley - I really want to see the caves there. Would it make sense to fly to Nice -> Gorge -> Dordogne Valley -> Loire Valley -> Normandy -> Paris? I'd have to see if my husband is up to driving Gorge -> Dordogne Valley, that is a very long drive.

Gigi8 - thank you for the suggestion! I think I will add a day to Amboise, but maybe take it from Paris instead.

Posted by
724 posts

Generally this looks fine. I would take 2 nights from nice, 2 night from Paris and 1 night from Normandy, remove the flight, add 4 nights dordogne and swap the order of Loire and Normandy.

Nice
Dordogne (or Provence or Burgundy)
Loire
Normandy
Paris

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