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Burgundy and Provence with Kids

In November, we will be spending one week in Burgundy and one week in Provence with our 3 young kids (ages 3, 5 and 8) and I am looking for any ideas on things the kids might enjoy doing/seeing. We have been traveling with the kids since they were infants and will have a car. We prefer a slow travel style - taking ca. 1-hr day trips, going for walks in the countryside, exploring smaller villages and towns, discovering playgrounds and just basically getting to know the area where we are staying. On this particular trip we don't want to visit any cities or museums.

In Burgundy, we will be staying very near Semur-en-Auxois in Burgundy (Guedelon is already on our list). In Provence, we have rented a cottage between Menerbes and L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

Any suggestions people have of things for us to consider would be appreciated. In particular, I would love to find a nice tourist train, regular train, cable car, etc for a short ride or day-trip. We will have a carrier for the youngest and would also love to find a few short (1-1.5hr) walks to go on. Any indoor ideas would be helpful as well, since it will be November and we could get some very cold and rainy days.

Posted by
2916 posts

Semur-en-Auxois is itself a beautiful town/village to visit, as are nearby Chateauneuf, Noyers sur Serein, and Montreal. The following link to my blog has some photos of Semur, and nearby blog entries have some of Noyers and Montreal. http://mainelywinenews.blogspot.com/2013/04/semur-en-auxois.html

There are a lot of very interesting chateaux scattered all over Burgundy, although I'm not sure as to how many are open that time of year. For example, I just looked at the brochure I have for southern Burgundy, and most, but not all, of the chateaux there are closed in November.

Posted by
4132 posts

Chis,

If you are going to Guidion, you might enjoy stopping in Vezeley, which is nearly. I am thinking that your kids would like the medieval architecture and the geography--it is a stunning hill town. Of course, the outdoor stuff will be weather dependent, and it gets dark early.

There are some fine walks in the Luberon; there ought to be a book of French walks in a good travel bookstore.

In Provence I would try the Roman antiquities in Arles, the Pont du Garde, and the theater on Orange. These are, with a few restrictions, ancient things you can walk and climb and sit on.

Arles is a city but a small one and one with great charm.