Car Trip in France using Rick's Itinerary

All the places you are visiting are wonderful.
And I appreciate you are coming a long way to see them.
However, for me this is a very rushed itinerary and personally I would leave out some sections and have a much more relaxed trip, experiencing the places you visit rather than chalking up destinations.
However, each to his own.

I think it is too much for just 2 weeks- too many 1 and 2 night stays. ( My opinion on almost all of RS itineraries)
Also too many stops en route with luggage in the car

We did something similar but had 3 weeks.

Paris 2
Picked up car
Honfleur 1
Bayeux 2
MSM 1
Amboise 2
(stopped at Oradour sur Glane on the way)
Sarlat 4
St-Remy 4
Dropped car
Arles 2
Train to
Nice 4- day tripped to Monaco- could have skipped

I wasn't crazy about the 1 and 2 night stays at beginning- wish we had skipped Honfleur and given Bayeux 3 nights
Our trip was mid Sept til early October- wicked heat wave!

"Question: This seems like a fairly rushed agenda."

Yes, this is very rushed.

To me, Day 1 is a terrible idea. I don't know where you will fly from but as a person flying from the Inland Northwest I would be a danger to others on the road! If you want to get to Normandy, take a train to Caen or Bayeux, spend the night and then rent a car the next day.

The Bayeux Tapestry museum is closing Sept 1 2025 for 2 years with a planned reopening in October 2027.

I'd recommend taking a guided tour of the DDay invasion sights. It's such an interesting area and you may miss some things if you are not a historian.

I'm not big on one night stays. I would stay in Dinan 2 or 3 nights and consider visiting Saint-Malo and Mont Saint-Michel as day trips.

I will add that I'm not a huge fan of MSM. To me it looks better from the distance. I have spent the night there, I have done the early morning vespers service there and still it just is not my cup of tea. Crowds in the daytime are heavy but after everyone leaves, everything closes up and it's pretty deserted looking, lol. IF this is something that you all feel strongly about seeing, well then include it because it's your trip not mine.

I would probably spend 2 or 3 nights in Sarlat but then I think the caves are fascinating.

I'd probably cut from Sarlat down and work back to Paris. It's NOT because Arles, Carcassonne and the rest are not worthy, it's because this itinerary is too much, too fast.

IF you are not really interested in Normandy or Brittany, take a train down to Arles and do an itinerary across Provence and Dordogne.

Thanks everyone! Great suggestions. Will work on it and will report back. Of course, more suggestions are very welcome.

bansodp,
Having never taken an RS tour, I don't know if you are replicating his tour or his recommendations for a self-drive visit. If his tour, then you are not taking into account the time that a tour saves you. If it a recommended self-drive trip, I believe it is unreasonable. On a tour, they drop you off by entrances to sights, hotels, etc, saving you the time spent in locating a parking spot and walking to the sight from there. Also, they have you checked in to your rooms ahead of time, and you just need to puck up your key. Likewise, checking out and navigating your way into, through, and out of the cities. You will be driving in an unfamiliar (to you) place and probably won't make as good of time as the bus driver.

Having said that, I also believe you are underestimating how much time you will need to do what you propose. For instance, visiting the Sarlat market, then canoeing on the river AND visiting a cave is just not possible. The canoe trip....drive to the start point, wait for your gear and canoe, floating and/or paddling to the end point, then getting taken back to your car, will use up three to four hours. Now you have to drive to whatever cave you have an appt. at (anywhere from 15-45 minutes), then a couple of hours there. It may even be closed by the time you got there. And have you had any lunch? The Dordogne has many lovely villages to stay in besides Sarlat, which is a bit difficult to drive into and out of and park in. Give it more than the one day you are planning on. With just one day in Sarlat, I would skip it and plan for a longer stay on another trip. f you decide to go there this time, I would recommend a minimum of three nights (two full days) and you can accommodate the things you have mentioned, plus maybe a visit to one of the castles there
.
Drive times.... Google drive times and Viamichelin.com drive times usually underestimate the length of time to get from one place to another. They don't account for bathroom or meal or gasoline stops. We always add another hour onto their drive times. Please take this into consideration. In general, your plans will work if everything goes perfectly, with no waiting anywhere (for parking, ticket and entrance lines, traffic, gas fill ups, toll stops, meals). Give yourself enough time at the sights as well. Perhaps you could revisit your plans and make some adjustments.

(And I sincerely would discourage getting a car on arrival day and driving to Honfleur. Plus, Giverny requires a reservation, and you need to give yourself plenty of time to meet that reservation. I would skip that this time, take a train to the Normandy coast, and pick up a car there after my first night on the ground. That may not be what you decide, but it is just my opinion.) You will do what works best for you, I'm sure. Have a wonderful trip!

P.S. You could do Giverny as a day trip from Paris. An early start would get you back to Paris in time to see something else there (Notre Dame perhaps, or a walk around the Eiffel Towe,r or a boat ride on the Seine with Vedettes de Pont Neuf...one hour).

This is Rick's self drive itinerary, not his tour. And yes, I do understand that it makes no sense to pick up a car straight after getting off a transatlantic flight. We would spend at least a day in Paris and then take the car, or as suggested train it to Normandy and get the car there.

Clearly the consensus seems to be to add more time in/around Sarlat (maybe 2 more days). Where else would be a good place to add a day or two? And what should we cut -- Honfleur? Mont St Michel? Monaco?

Yikes! We've been to most of those places so I'd scale back on locations, spending more time in the selected areas. For example:

2 days; Normandy beaches
3 days : chateaux /Loire
3 days: Dordogne (plan around sarlat market day)
3/4 days Provence
3/4 days: Riviera
Train back to Paris

If you do slow down, you won't miss some of the places you've omitted because you're going to be having a wonderful time with the places you did choose. Hey , you're in france! Enjoy!

You shouldn't focus on market days in Sarlat (Wednesday and Saturday mornings).

There are dozens of other equally good farmers' markets, with the same products, same vendors, and same producers every day of the week, depending on the town or village.

I would even say that the one in Sarlat has become a special "tourist" market, and apart from Sarlat residents who can walk there, locals tend to avoid it due to crowds of tourists and traffic/parking difficulities.

I've included a farmers' market section on this map, with market days by village:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1OdPOg8AgsNn0Jlv1cNHkujaWv9p_Jpc&usp=sharing

There's some other information, enough to keep you busy for 15 days in the Dordogne; you'll have to make a drastic selection.

IMHO you should choose just a few regions and not try to cover so many areas. We have enjoyed two France road trips, each was about 20 days including a few days in Paris. If you think this will be your only trip to France, IMHO the best choices (especially for the VERY HOT part of the year that you have chosen) would be western Normandy, the south coast of Brittany, one night in Chenonceaux (sp?) to visit that chateau ,the Dordogne, and Paris. You could rent the car in Caen and return it in Brive, train to Paris. Be sure all of the hotels you choose offer air-conditioning.

First trip was Paris-Chartres-Loire-Brittany- Normandy- Les Andelys (base for Rouen/Honfleur/Giverny.

Second trip was Switzerland (just the Berner Oberland part) for 4 days - Annecy/Chamonix 2 days - Provence 4 days - Carcassonne 2 days - Dordogne 4 days - train to Paris for 4 days.

This summer we are visiting Languedoc 4 - Albi / Cordes sur Ciel 1 - Dordogne 4 -La Rochelle 1 - Brittany 6 - Paris 4

Thanks everyone -- these are very helpful suggestions.

A few of you have said it will be very hot in early September. What's a better time to go -- weather wise and without crowds, yet still having reasonably long days? Or no such time?

Also, everyone is agreed that Rick's suggested itinerary is not practical -- is there a way to feed that back to Rick/his staff? Do they monitor these forums?

Our last trip was in September. The early part was "your shirt sticks to you" hot. By mid-September, the weather was pleasant. The last few days in Paris, early October, were chilly. You can check weather base.com to see year-to-year average temperatures.