First trip to France

The rail network in France is very centralised so most inter-regional trips can't be done easily without going into and out of Paris. The level of provision of rural public transport varies an awful lot. For the trip that you describe, I think you would be best hiring a car. Your main choice would be whether to hire the car in Paris or go by train to Normandy first and hire the car there. The former would probably be cheaper but the latter might be a bit more relaxing and reduce the amount of dull motorway driving you do.

I'd recommend a minimum of three full days (i.e. four nights) in the Loire area. You could fill a few more days with chateaux and countryside and wine and the city of Tours if you wanted. I'd suggest picking a base and going out from there each day. If you have enough days, you could choose a base east of Tours and another west of Tours, giving yourselves a chance to see things on both ends of the valley. Use a guidebook to identify the places you most want to see, and base yourselves as centrally as you can in relation to them.

I agree with Phillip that driving would be the best way to do this trip (apart from Paris of course). There's an easy train to Caen in Normandy and car rentals near the station there (plus an excellent WWII museum nearby). Without a car, the only way to see the D-Day beaches effectively would be a guided tour -- which could be great, but further limits your flexibility. Ditto for the Loire, where the chateaux are mostly in or near small towns strung out through the valley. And the driving time between Normandy, Loire, and Bordeaux shouldn't be a problem. Much better than trains into one Paris station and back out from another.

I understand that there's also some good wine around Bordeaux. ;-)

We take a train to Caen (or sometimes a ferry over from Portsmouth, UK) and fetch our rental car from right across the street from the Caen railroad station. We use AutoEurope and everything has gone smoothly. It's about 16 miles to Bayeux and the Churchill Hotel from whence most of the D Day tours depart. It's around 90 miles to Mont St. Michel from Bayeux via four-lane highway if that's in your plans. We've never gone any further than Cancale in Brittany so can't advise you on how best to travel down to Bordeaux. It looks to be quite a drive so you might investigate taking a train from Bayeux or Caen to Bordeaux and rent another car there. Driving in France outside of large cities is easy with a GPS and a Michelin road map.

For your time in Normandy, I stayed in Bayeux at Le Castel Guesthouse and took the Overlord Full-Day tour. Both easy to find on the internet but PM if you have specific questions!

Thanks for your replies! Is Bordeaux an interesting area to visit? Are there caves or special wineries/wine tours to consider. We have not researched Bordeaux very much, but think it could be interesting. Suggestions?

So the answer in simple English is:
1) Fly to Paris
2) Train Paris -> Caen (pickup rental car)
3) drive to the remaining destinations
4) drop car in Bordeaux
5) fly home from Bordeaux

Thanks for the helpful info! Other questions:
Are there interesting/ancient caves to be visited near Bordeaux? Other than wine (visiting vineyards), what are the attractions or interests in that area?

If you go to the wine town of St Emilion near Bordeaux, you can tour a cave church underneath the village - book at the tourist information office.

Just in case you mean a prehistoric cave: Pair-non-Pair near Bordeaux: http://pair-non-pair.monuments-nationaux.fr/en/

Driving is a good way to move about outside of Paris as long as you have a good map and don't expect to drive as fast as you can in the states.

We recently stayed in Amboise for 2 nights to visit nearby chateaux. It was fabulous, and I would recommend at least 3 nights as it is nice to just stroll around the town. We visited the Amboise Chateaux late in the afternoon and there are no crowds at all. I believe Chambord and Chenonceau are "must sees" and we stopped by Cheverny as well to see the feeding of the hounds. If I could, I would return to the area for about a week to see chateaux and just enjoy the beautiful scenery.

We will have 5 days in Paris. We want to see the famous museums and sites, but we would also like to hear classical/sacred music. Do you have recommendations for venues or best websites for this information? Thanks!

Oh, another question! If we are heading to the Loire chateau region later in our trip, would you recommend spending one of our Paris days visiting Versailles or not? Or perhaps the Vaux le Vicomte? Our trip is Mid April.

For classical/sacred music, I recommend an evening concert at St. Chapelle or La Madeline, St. Sulpice, St. Eustache. I go to recitals by a classical group at La Madelline a lot-- and will go there again this April. It is not free. Some concerts in churches are free. You may see signs posted around town advertising these concerts, or you can probably find out about them on various Paris church websites. I went to a free Sunday evening organ recital at Notre Dame that was very good. (I just looked at ND website and see they have a calendar of their musical events, I'm sure other churches do too).

As for including Versailles during your stay in Paris. If doing only 5 days there it may not be a good idea. Depends on how many sites in the city you want to see -- and there are certainly enough to keep you busy for 5 days. And since you are doing the Loire, you will be seeing several great chateaus -- granted not quite as spectacular as Versailles, but wonderful.

I agree with both of BG's answers. You may get more responses and info re your classical music question if you post it separately, with a subject line that will draw on-target replies.

We were just there in SW France this last October and stayed in Carcassonne two nights, then Sarlat le Caneda 4 nights, then LaRoque Gageac 3 nights. We drove to Bordeaux to drop our car, fly back to Brussels for our return home. Around Bordeaux there is not that much unless you are really into their regional wines.

However, just east of Bordeaux in the Dordogne/Perigord region is beautiful countryside, rivers, castles on every bend, charming towns, the Cro-Magnon caves, orchards, sunflower fields, quaint villages. We thoroughly loved that area. Go to that section in Rick's book and read a bit on it. A very overlooked area of France. Not so crowded. Not so touristy. More like Provence when you get away from the bigger towns, but in some ways, prettier than Provence. We used the main towns of Sarlat and LaRoque as home bases for day trips, short trips as there is not far to drive.

Next to Provence, the Dordogne region are my favorite areas of France.