80 days in France

Have you looked at the Scrapbooks from France tours? They've been interesting to me.

Will you fly roundtrip to and from Paris? If so, visit Paris at the end of your stay. Also, buy Rick Steves https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/france-guidebook that will provide way more information than any of the responses you’ll receive on this thread.
The best way to get around is by train: https://www.sncf-connect.com/en-en/. There may be occasions when a place you want to visit doesn’t have a train station so a bus is best.

denisemillette,
Without knowing what type of things you like or wish to experience, it is hard to make suggestions. Lucky you to have 80 days in France! It will be full and satisfying. If you want to, you can visit all the regions of France in that amount of time, some for longer periods than others, but it all depends on what you hope to see and do. Can you fill the forum in a bit? How many people, ages, travel experience? Do you want a mix of big cities and small towns? Are you willing to rent a car for part of this time? Some areas are best seen by auto. And, of course, there is Paris! Be sure to allocate enough time to visit what I call the capital of Europe!

There’s no overall best way to travel, but there are good ways to travel depending upon your plans. I’m writing this from a TGV train, covering a long distance quickly. But there’s a car in my garage for when I want to visit villages, the beach or mountains near home. One method doesn’t fit all needs.

When we have spent that long in France we have spent a month in Paris in an apartment and then anchored other regions with rentals of a week or two using them as bases to explore with a rental car. With that much time, I'd think regionally and where you might like to base that would be convenient with a car. If you want to include Nice, I'd fly into Nice and spent a week there and use it as a base for the Riviera and then pick up a car and make your way to Paris. I would then drive to the Dordogne and get a rental in a small town for a week. we have stayed in two small towns in that region at different times. In summer you have the night markets and canoeing on the Dordogne.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/perfect-place-for-murder-commarque-chateau/

Then move to another region -- maybe a week in the Loire and one in Burgundy and then Alsace -- or head to Brittany and Normandy and then drop your car on the way into Paris. We have never paid a drop fee in country (and once managed to drive from Amsterdam to Provence to Paris without a drop fee because they needed to get a Paris car back to Paris but that was just very lucky). Compare different rental options to avoid a drop fee within France.

When you rent and base in an area, you don't have to worry about your stuff being stolen from the car and you can take advantage of the wonderful local markets which gives you better food and saves money. Pick a small town with a bakery and a rental with good parking.

With 80 days you can easily base in Paris and 7 other regions. Last time we did a trip this long, we spent 4 nights in Rome, two weeks in Montepulciano, a week in Florence and then two months in Paris. We had been to all those places before -- if you are new to France then a month in Paris and 7 weeks for 7 regions would be a dream vacation.

Thank you all so much! I appreciate your input! I am interested in hearing how you travelled the country.. Of course we plan trips according to our interests. I have ordered updated Rick Steves book, have lonely planet book and !ots of other material. Sometimes I feel we watch too much youtube etc and the element of surprise isnt there. So let me continue to hear how you saw France! Au revoir

The guidebooks are a great way to know where not to go, IMO. Staying in the next town over, even if it's one you've never heard of but has suitable accommodation and transport connections.
Consider the weather in deciding where to start and end. Without oversimplifying, southern France is very hot in summer, northern and Alpine very cold in winter. If you can avoid the summer entirely, you'll avoid many of the tourists.
You can use seat61.com to find out all about train travel and plan your journeys. I think some folks recommend leasing a car for a stay as long as 80 days.
Finally, with a trip of this length, consider leaving at least part of the trip unscheduled so that you can add something you didn't think of or stay longer in a place you like.

If I had such a period of consecutive days to travel in France alone, I would know exactly what to focus on and getting there.

I have traveled in France using both public transport, trains and buses and numerous times was driven. Use of a car is very advantageous if you intend to go to the backroads and villages, the backwater places....very revealing and interesting.

I'll be back in France summer 2025 aiming for June and July using buses and trains. The bus network extending from cities is much more elaborate and extensive now than it was 25 years ago. I saw this in several cities by checking out their Gare Routiere, the bus depot, eg, in Lille, Troyes, Metz, Arras, etc.

In France you can rely on the train system , TGV and local trains. I had no problems at all last summer and this summer, getting around from Paris, Grenoble, Normandy, Alsace-Lorraine, Nord Pas-de-Calais using local trains and TGV. I used both the point to point tickets plus the Eurail Senior Global Pass. ....all depends.

Look at where tour companies go on their longer Best of France tours, and where Rick goes, and "borrow" their ideas.

As noted, you should probably plan to move from one base to another every few weeks.

And beware that 90 day Schengen rule.

I use only public transportation. I spent about 87 days seeing mostly eastern France in 2017. I began in Nice, where I spent about 2 weeks for French lessons and nearby side-trips. I traveled along the Riviera, through Provence, Montpellier and Toulouse, and then almost to the Spanish border (Collioure). I then headed back north to Lyon, Dijon, Nancy, Alsace (basing in Colmar) and Troyes before heading to Normandy and eastern Brittany (as far as St.-Malo and Rennes).

In 2019 I spent an additional 7 or so weeks in France, beginning in the eastern Pyrenees, traveling west to the French Basque Country and then up the western side of the country (Dordogne, La Rochelle, Poitiers, Limoges, Nantes) to western and central Brittany.

I haven't listed all the towns I visited.

I didn't have time for Paris or its immediate surroundings (I skipped the Loire).

I would caution you that France is a large country with a wealth of very worthwhile destinations. I wouldn't try to see the entire country in 80 days.

So let me continue to hear how you saw France! Au revoir

I spent 2 months in France a few years ago. One month was in an apartment in Paris and the other month was traveling around France. I took a train from Paris to Nice; train from Nice to Avignon; rental car from and to Avignon to explore Provence; train from Avignon to Lyon, then bus to Annecy; train from Annecy to Colmar; rental car from Colmar to Chartres (seeing Normandy, Brittany, and Loire Valley); then train back to Paris. It was a wonderful trip.