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Fine tune May Itinerary: Loire, Bordeaux, Sarlat? & Paris

We like: wine, eating, light hiking/cycling, scenery, experiencing local culture. We have been to other areas of France before (using car and train). We like a slower pace, and do not usually head out for the day until around 9 am or so. Does the # of nights in each place seem to work? I know 2 nights in Sarlat is short. Any other suggestions on something between Bordeaux & Paris--where we can drop off car & catch train.

Day 2 - Arrive CDG and take train to Amboise, (3 nights since first day is largely travel/recovery)
Day 3-bike to Chenonceaux
Day 4 - see town and its own chateaux
Day 5 - pick up car and drive to Chinon (see Villandry and Langeais enroute)
Day 6- bike to Usee
Day 7 - drive to Bordeaux via Cognac
Day 8-10 in Bordeaux- want to explore town, several wineries and also Arachon Bay area and chill a bit. (renting apartment with parking place in center of town)
Day 11 - drive to Sarlat for 2 nights (St. Emillion enroute if we haven't done it as a day trip)
Day 12 - see prehistoric caves, maybe canoe trip
Day 13 - drop off car and take train to Paris for two nights before returning home

Posted by
1633 posts

Is night #7 in Bordeaux? If so, then you have 3 full days in Bordeaux. If you can adjust that, I would add a day to Sarlat and relax there. IMO, Bordeaux is a large city and didn't impress me.

Posted by
4132 posts

With such a tight itinerary, you'd be better off doing the open-jaws thing.

See either Paris or Bordeaux first, then work your way to the other last, fly home from there.

Spend the day you save from this in the Dordogne. 1 day there just not enough.

Posted by
605 posts

Open jaws may cost upwards of $700 more per ticket this summer as I've been pricing similar trips and found that you really cannot beat the deals Icelandair is throwing out there, which constrains you to Paris and Geneva airports (for my trip in June, Open Jaws Bordeaux-Lyon is $1700 through all carriers while Icelandair open jaws Paris-Geneva is $1,000). Assuming that this is the reason to not fly open jaws via Bordeaux, I would make just one suggestion - swap the order of the Dordogne and Bordeaux and trade one Bordeaux day for an extra Dordogne day. This would cut down on rental car days and make the train ride to Paris much more straight forward.

Posted by
2 posts

Thank you! Flights are already booked RT CDG.

Any suggestions to break up the drive with an a stop or overnight from Chinon to Sarlat?

With Bordeaux being a city, we still want to make it a base (do day trips) & have time to relax. So I'm hesitant about shortening. Alternatively, we are considering skipping Sarlat & just adding time to Loire & Paris.

Posted by
8293 posts

Stay with your present plan re Bordeaux. With a car you can visit the Dune de Pilat (Google it) and the seaside town of Arcachon. We saw the latter on a beautiful sunny day and the whole place sparkled. Perhaps you could venture as far as Biarritz.