France and Italy

You'll need to pick and choose, because I believe the places you've mentioned would add up to more than 3 weeks' time. Are you sure you want to try to hit both France and Italy on this one trip? If so, I think I'd include only southern France or only Paris and Normandy. I believe trying to do it all is going to push your ratio of travel days to sightseeing days way too high.

On a more encouraging note, these are some places in northern Italy that I've enjoyed or expect to enjoy on my next visit to the area (based on multiple positive comments here):

Ravenna**
Padua
Vicenza
Ferrara
Verona
Torino
Lake Como (mid-lake)
Stresa/Borromean Isles on Lake Maggiore
Dolomites

And these are places I liked in Normandy and the very eastern edge of Brittany:
Honfleur
Deauvile
Cabourg
Bayeux
Caen basically only for access via public transportation to the first three (coasta) places
Rouen

St. Malo (very touristy; I could only take it for a few hours)
Dinard
Dinan
Rennes
Fougeres
Vitre

Hi Donna,

Even at a fast pace your France itinerary is about 2 weeks, with a fair number of travel days. (Personally, I'd want more time than that.)

Does that leave enough time for you to have a satisfying tour of the highlights of northern Italy? If not it is time to start making compromises.

Assuming Paris as a given, you could get a taste of Paris and Normandy in 8 or 9 days, then fly to Milan form Paris on day 10. If "Normandy" is really "a tour of the d-day beaches," you can cut that back by 2 days though more would be nice. Bayeux makes a good base for this.

Alternatively, there are 2 significant wine regions more or less on the way from Paris to the Riviera: Burgundy and the Rhone Valley. You could pick one of them and end up in Nice, for 10 or 11 days. Day 12 would be a long travel day into Italy.

In terms of transportation, any in-depth exploration of Normandy or the wine regions will need wheels. In Burgundy, there are some well-pedaled (but still wonderful) bike routes into the vineyards, and you can rent bicycles in Beaune. Otherwise both wine regions offer tours, and there are some D-Day beach tours that are highly spoken of on this forum.

I hope this helps you to think about your plans.

You should look for the 13-digit registration number, first. You have enough time to do your due diligence.
I don't think that you will find any apartments for 6 people, though in Paris or Italy.
You should look for the "flexible" fare on the SNCF website, if you are flexible enough. Otherwise, it's 90 days out.

France: Paris, Normandy, the Riveria and wine country. Paris is my favorite city and I've been there at least 6 times, always for more than a week, last time for more than 2 weeks. While I always revisit some of my favorite places, I always find new sights and experiences. No one can decide for you how long to spend there, but I would counsel at least 3 full days not counting any day trips. I'm not interested in Mediterranean shores (I have my own here :-), so I haven't been yet. I would like to explore Provence . . . wine country - well, that's nearly all of France (see map). You have to choose which wine or better yet, what other sights you want to see. One of the joys of the French countryside is visiting the many charming villages, chateaux, medieval churches and abbeys, which are not easily accessible by public transportation.

Milan has enough sights for 2 days. Other than that, it's a big city. One of my favorite towns in the north is Verona. Assisi is lovely for a day or 2, but it's hardly in the north of Italy. I enjoyed spending time in Bologna. It's very convenient for day trips by train to Padua, Modena, Ferrara, Ravenna and others.

If it’s helpful, I’ll share the Italy/France 3-week itinerary that we did two years ago to give you an idea of how much you could cover in three weeks if you’re trying to see both countries. All transportation was by train; most places we were at our next destination by noon.

Otherwise, you could fly into Milan and head to Lake Como and then go West. This would give you time to see Normandy when you’re near Paris, but you wouldn’t see much of Italy.

1. Fly into Venice and stayed here 3 nights
2. Vicenza (recommend Verona for you)
3. Parma (substitute Lake Como or Maggiore)
4. Torino
5. Annecy
6. Lyon
7. Paris and fly home from Paris

My advise would be to pick 2 of these 3: Normandy, the Riveria, Northern Italy
Adding Paris and wine country to either plan can be done I think in 3 weeks but all 3 on the above list would be a challenge.

Sounds like you should just do a trip to France. My wife and I just spent two weeks in Italy and four days in Paris. It was an odyssey getting from Milan to Paris and we never quite found the motivation to learn any French or brush up too much on French culture, food, history, etc for four days. We did stay at Lake Como for two nights and loved it. Next time we’d like to focus our trip more on one area and one language if possible.

We just returned from a 3.5 week trip to France which included a 13 day RS tour (Loire Valley and the South of France).

Paris alone is worth a week.

My wife and I are doing France and Italy this September and have limited and firmed our itinerary to the following
Flying in to CDG and then flying straight to Nice.

Spending 4 Days/nights in Nice with day trip to Monaco and or Cannes.
Taking train from Nice to Vernazza in CT. Spending 3 days/nights there.
Taking train from CT to Lucca for 2 days/nights.
Train again to Pisa Airport and flying back to Paris for 4 days/nights.

Why aren't you flying into Nice and out of Milan? Or into Paris and out of MIlan. We have been flying open jaw for years and the cost generally is about the same as a round trip -- and even if it is just a bit more, saving the time and the cost of returning to home base is worth it. Or if it must be a round trip, why not Milan rather than Paris since your trip is focused in Northern Italy.

Cheap flight, coming from Canada