Four week family itinerary for France in July

I thought that I should clarify that I do not really want to go to Paris Disneyland. My family and I like to do hiking and outdoorsy things as well.
Thanks

Sounds like a great overall plan. We like to travel the same way (sans kids). If any of yours are boys, consider the Dordogne, castles everywhere. (I guess they'd appeal to girls too, but I'm thinking mostly of the big siege catapults and boiling oil from the parapets and swordplay on spiral staircases and such.) Not to mention the caves with prehistoric paintings by real cavemen.

The Loire has chateaux, i.e. palaces rather than castles, including the one the Sleeping Beauty was based on. Plus, near St-Aignan, one of the best zoos in Europe.

I haven't been to Provence but I hear it can get very hot in July.

We've had good experiences on Icelandair, including prompt rerouting when volcanoes cancelled the return flights two separate years. Since you don't have nonstops from Edmonton, might as well make the stop in Reykjavik instead of Toronto. In fact, unless their policies have changed recently, Icelandair won't charge a higher fare if you stay awhile in Iceland on the way there or back. And, on the way over, you'll clear customs and immigration at Reykjavik instead of Paris, saving time when you get there.

Lucky kids!

Do you think there is enough to do for a week in Dordogne valley and a week in the Loire valley. I should qualify this statement by saying that I found when we were in England last year that a Rick Steves 2-3day itinerary typically takes us the whole week to complete. I find with the kids that we can't keep up the pace of an adult tourist. Do you think there is much reptilian between the Loire valley and the Dordogne valley especially if we are spending a whole week in one of these places. If I did the Loire and Dordogne valley after a week in Paris, that would still give me a week. I think that you are correct about Provence in the summer being too hot. Any suggestions for a third week.

I think going to the D-Day beaches would be particularly interesting for your children as well as for you. Visiting the museums, cemeteries and existing bunkers is worth the trip. In Bayeux, there's the tapestry and you're close enough to visit Mont St Michel. Very unique experiences that adults and their kids would find interesting. Staring at paintings, churches and old towns can grow old pretty fast for kids.

You and your family should pick your destinations based on your interests, which so far you have not shared here. All of the destinations suggested so far are rich rewarding places with things for everyone.

You should consider an open-jaw itinerary rather than a loop. If you end in the Dordogne, for instance, you can return your car in Bordeaux or Toulouse and fly home from either of those places. This will save you time and hassle.

Renting is a grand idea.

In response to the question " What do we like to do?". I think we are a fairly active family. We like day hikes so any place in France available for good days would be interesting. We enjoy going to the beach swimming. We also like canoeing.We like history and would enjoy visiting historic sites both ancient and modern. I think that we would enjoy visiting Normandy for the D-Day sites. Do you think that a week in Normandy would be a little long or would there be enough to do there if we spent a whole week.
Thanks

I think you could fill a week in each of the areas discussed so far, especially if you're basing in one place and driving on day trips from there. Stop and smell the roses (or whatever's growing). Take a hike here, explore a castle there. The kids will slow your collective pace, which is fine because you want the trip to work for them as much as for you.

And I agree with the open-jaw suggestion -- drop the car in a city where you can fly home instead of schlepping back to Paris just to catch your flight.

I am planning a very similar trip (3 weeks - Dordogne, Provence, French Alps - what I'm calling the 'smile' of France) and got a lot of good input from this forum:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/3-weeks-in-july-2015-looking-for-input

I found the provence rental the trickiest to narrow down. There's a lot to choose from but if you stray too far from the centerpoint of your desired activities, drive times go up quickly (like, for example, if you base yourself in Vaison La Romaine, google maps says you are 1.5 hours from Arles). After casing vrbo town by town, I simply set my search to 'provence' 'sleeps 4' 'has pool' and sorted by number of reviews and ended up taking a place outside of Tarascon (20-40 minute drive to just about everything we want to do), which I would not have found otherwise.

Good luck and perhaps we will cross paths next summer.

-Matt

Consider Languedoc which has lots of hiking opportunities, castles, canals, and beaches. Check out the Gorge d'Herault and the Gorge du Tarn. Also a great wine region and handy for the Pont du Gard. We rented a house in l'Herault near Pezenas and day tripped for three weeks, then went back for two weeks five years later. You could easily combine it with the Dordogne. It will be hot in July, but our house had a pool. The airport in Montpelier is easy to manage. Google "Languedoc" and you will find a wealth of information. Have fun planning.

Thank you for the advice that everyone has provided. I am thinking of the following itinerary. Fly into Paris and spend a week there. Take the TGV train to Montpelerier. I checked some schedules and they suggested you could be there in 3.5 hours. Rent a car in Montpelier and rent a place in Langduoc region for a week. Drive to the Dordogne region rent a place for a week. Drive to Normandy and stay a week there. Return car to airport in Paris and travel home. Flying from Canada, there are fewer options for open jaw travel so this would be one way around it. I thought my kids would enjoy the train and it would be less stressful for my wife and I. What are people's thoughts and suggestions. Are there additional charges for picking up and dropping off cars in other regions.

If you like to hike you might enjoy some time in the alps. If you did this at the end of your trip you may be able to fly home from Geneva. Also, it can be hot at the end of July so you could take advantage of the cooler mountains.

I have 2 boys, ages 13 and 15, and we spent 4 weeks in France in June. We flew to Paris, took the TGV directly to Avignon. This was not the most economical way to do things, but the train worked well. It was fun for the boys to see trains that were so fast and we were all too jet lagged to do anything very intense. We spent a little more than a week around Arles doing mostly Roman stuff (we actually stayed in Avignon, Vaison and Arles). Rental car with a family is the way to go. It's cheaper than any other form of transportation. The rest of our itinerary was different from what you're thinking about (we spent time in Auvergne and Burgundy). We ended in Paris, only a few days. A few days were enough for us, after peaceful days in small villages in the middle of France with few tourists.

I think you have an excellent itinerary, although the drive from Dordogne to Normandy is going to be very long. I recommend a night or two in the Loire to break it up. A lot of school-aged kids seemed to like La Maison de la Magie Robert-Houdin when we were in Blois in June.

The Alps is an interesting suggestion, it would also require you to pack some heavier clothes. We decided to save it for another journey.

I can honestly say I have never been anywhere in France I did not like. The great thing about having 4 weeks and a car is that you can be flexible if you end up somewhere that isn't working for you. FYI we just added a fleece pullover when the alps got chilly. Still warm during the day. It's not a bad idea to have a sweater with you wherever you go in France in the summer. And if you end up in Paris for the end of the Tour consider watching. My kids thought it was fun.

We have done this same trip twice with kids about your age. The key for us was to minimize time in big cities which simply exhaust kids and parents. Our kids loved Guedelon which is in Burgundy about 2 hours south of Paris (a very cool 15th century fort being constructed using 15th century techniques). They also loved the chateaus in the Loire valley. You might also consider hiking in Switzerland (lauterbrunnen area is a hit and kids travel free!) or the Mont Blanc area. We also did Brittany for a week which has lots of beaches and old buildings to explore. When we flew on Icelandair we flew into Paris and out of Zurich. Also if you are needing a car, try the buy/lease option which gives you a new car
With zero deductible insurance. Hope this helps!

Thank-you for all of the advice. I have been doing some planning and I have been spending some time on Google maps. This is now the trip I have been considering. Fly into Paris and spend a week there. Travel to Dordogne spend a week there. Travel to Loire valley and spend a week. Travel to st. Malone and spend four nights, Caen two nights, outside of Paris one night, drop the car at Charles de Gaulle and fly home. I of course still have some additional questions. Car rental. Where would you rent the car. I could rent at Orley airport and drive to Dordogne which is about 4.5 hours. I could take the train and rent in Brive. Time to Brive on train is 4 hours. I am travelling with a family of five so going by train will not be as cheap as if I was a couple . Fares for adults booking three months in advance run about $80. I am tempted to rent the car at Orly airport. Where should I base myself in Dordogne and the Loire valley?
Thanks for the advice

I suggest investigating the fares to fly into someplace in the south, particularly Marseille, and then fly home from Paris. It will require an extra change of planes outbound to an internal flight, making for a long day. But the flight home from Paris will depart midday, much more relaxed than an early departure from the south to catch a trans-Atlantic connection somewhere. Multi-destination fares to France are often not much more costly than simple round trips, and save both the time and money of retracing your steps to leave from the airport where you arrived. I understand that leaving from Edmonton does restrict your choices somewhat.

We found that a rental car was the most economical way to get around for our family of 4. We have done long driving trips in the US, so my boys are good in the car. We dropped our car off at Orly and it was a super easy drop off, well marked, easy to get gas even on a Sunday afternoon. You'll have to work out the econonics, although you may want to consider other factors. For us, we took the TGV to Avignon, which was fun and a new experience for the boys, and we were too jet-lagged to want to do a long drive. It was not as cheap as driving but it worked well for us.

I can't help you with a base for the Loire or Dordogne, but we did stay in Puycelsi ( not far from Albi) for 2 nights and loved it.

No no, fly into Toulouse (or Bordeaux) and go Dordogne > Loire > Normandy > Paris.

Or reverse the order if you prefer.

Save time and money.