France/Italy August 2018 2 weeks

You can get a lot of transportation information at rome2rio.com. This will help you considerably.

For the lavendar fields, you'll be a tad late. The lavendar will already have been harvested.

When you say south of France, what do you mean exactly because Provence, where lavendar is grown is about 3 hours away from Nice and the Riviera.

Finally, how can you have three days in Paris with only two nights. Are you counting on a full day of sightseeing your arrival day and then taking a late plane or train to Nice, which is a six-hour train ride and a much longer drive from Paris. It will be easier to plan if you count nights you are staying somewhere rather than days.

As for what to do in Paris, there is more than enough to keep you busy for such a short visit. I'd recommend getting a good guidebook (Rick Steve's book on Paris is quite good :-) and then determine what you'd like to see while in Paris.

Best way to get to Provence would be to take the train from Paris. Once in Provence, I'd suggest renting a car especially if you have any interest in seeing some of the villages. You could drop the car in Nice before heading on to the Cinque Terre.

A couple of thoughts hit me right off the bat. First of all, if seeing lavender fields is your priority for southern France, you should check to see if they are still in bloom in August. I'm thinking they may not be,; but, of course, there's plenty more to see in that region. Train is probably your best bet for Paris - Nice, but check out budget airlines.
Nice to CT to Sorrento is a lot of train time. If you were to omit the CT and fly to Naples, you could have some seaside time on the Amalfi Coast (much more beautiful in my opinion than the CT) and see some interesting sights.
All coastal regions in Italy are likely to be jammed and very hot in August. It would be prudent to get lodging reservations as soon as you pin down your itinerary. If you use hotel sites such as booking.com, you are likely to see "no availability" for several more months. Don't panic. It means that the hotels haven't set next years rates, or haven't released rooms yet. Use the sites to select hotels; then contact them directly.

The Italian part of your trip seems to amount to a bunch of cute, touristy coastal villages. Individually, they are lovely if overrun, but for me that would get repetitive. Perhaps you've done that sort of trip before and know it appeals to you.

In addition, the heat can be oppressive at that time of year, as already noted. That applies to southern France (and is a risk in Paris) as well as in Italy.

This itinerary feels like it has a lot of lengthy transfers (to Provence, to the Cinque Terre, and to Sorrento). And I simply cannot imagine spending just two nights (one of them at the end of the initial sleep-deprived/jet-lagged day) on a first trip to Paris.

Your time in Paris will evaporate like a drop of water on a hot frying pan and will be totally wasted.
Maybe you should just take a direct train to the lavender fields, instead.

I would start over on the planning.
Give yourself more time in Paris and if the lavender fields are your only draw to that region, skip it you are too late to see the fields in bloom if traveling in mid-August.
So stay longer in Paris and then fly to your first Italian destination, for Cinque Terre a flight to Genoa or Pisa is best.

For 2 weeks you don't have time for more than Paris, Cinque Terre and Amalfi Coast/Sorrento ; and each location in August is going to be super crowded.

Allow 5 nights for Paris, 3 for CT so that leaves you with about 6 I assume for Sorrento/Amalfi Coast which is about right. You could extend Paris by a day or two and do a couple of day trips while there and reduce the Sorrento time if you wanted. Given your travel time between each location (none of which are convenient to each other consider those lost days, so your 2 nights originally planned for CT is really one day ; lot of traveling to reach an out of the way place for only 1 day.

For the lavender if the timing was different (you were earlier and had more time) you would need to take a TGV train from Paris and then rent a car or find a tour as there would no good way to reach the fields with public transit and they are a little ways from one of the cities you could reach with the TGV train (Avignon, Nice, Lyon, etc...)

Gordon-- you need to realize how hot Italy will be in August. Think Georgia without air conditioning. I just got back from two weeks in Sicily in September where we sweated buckets. Our one concession was 4-star hotels with room air conditioning. Otherwise we were out and about in the heat. Some in our group live in Nice and Marseille, and even they found it hot.

Yes, going to Italy in mid-summer is similar to doing light gardening at home (not in the shade), basically all day long, day after day. Museums are often not air-conditioned or are under-air-conditioned. Many shops and restaurants are also not air-conditioned. It's not like being at home where we tend to spend most of our time in an air-conditioned environment.

Everywhere will be hot in August - Paris, Cinque Terre, Nice and the Amalfi Coast.
I would cut out one city - possibly Cinque Terre, because it will be a madhouse.

You will also have to consider "wait time" at the monuments, getting to train stations or getting a car, checking out of hotels, etc. It will take longer than you think it will.

I truly appreciate all your comments and have decided to change things up. We will spend 3 or 4 nights in Paris, skip Lavender fields, go right to Amalfi coast for balance and enjoy the beaches and maybe spend a night or 2 on Capri. My wife wants to go to Cinque Terre because she has seen the pictures but I have told he we are better of staying in Amalfi coast area (which we have been to, but not when it was warm enough to swim. ) we have already done Venice, Pisa, Florence, Tuscany and Rome, and loved Amalfi the best of All.

So what are the best sites to see in Paris staying 3 or 4 nights?
thank you all for all your input

Gordon

A much better plan Gordon.
Definitely go with at least 4 for Paris, it is a large city and the attractions are spread out. Even 4 is not enough to see everything so you have to prioritize your interests.
If you want to do a day trip to say Versillies OR Champagne Region, etc... you would need to make it 5 nights.
I would recommend you think about a day trip and go with 5 nights Paris, and the 7 or 8 you have remaining in the Amalfi Coast with a 2 night side trip to Capri sounds like a perfect trip.

The city is broken out into different Arrondissements so picking one to stay in is your first course of action.
You have to compromise on something as any one location will mean a good walk or public transit to certain things.

I think if you like cobblestone streets and lively markets, tons of dining and shopping options the 5th or 6th is a perfect spot.
I kind of lump those 2 together since there is no clear division of where it changes to my knowledge at least near to the river they have the same feel.
the 1st is good for being centrally located, scenic, quiet but is not that lively and lacks restaurant and shopping selections ; this would be my second choice.
Your really won't find the large hotels and chain hotels in the areas that I am referencing.

I first assumed I wanted to be as close as possible to the Eiffel Tower, but the more I looked into it and what I wanted to do and experience the area near the Eiffel Tower is not as appealing to me. It is more spread out there, more modern, more car traffic, etc... But if you really want to look at the Eiffel Tower from your room each night, then maybe you compromise at the expense of the benefits of staying elsewhere, as I mentioned it is a compromise no matter where you stay.
Since you mentioned you have been to Rome.
I guess a similar comparison to where the Eiffel Tower is similar to where the Colleseum is in Rome vs. the 5th is more like where the Pantheon is. Just double or even triple the distance between to get an idea on size.
Paris is much more of a working city, with tons of traffic ; more like NYC in ways than Rome in that regard.
It has amazing sites and history for tourists but is not a tourist first city.

If you really like luxury shopping or want to be next to a specific place there may be better options for you, just giving you the general idea that sites are spread out.

You may want to do a boat/bus combined hop/on hop/off the first day.
Especially if you arrive in the morning from a flight it is a good way to take it slow, get over the jet lag and kind of get the lay of the land.
You should book your time/ticket to the Eiffel Tower and Museums in advance to avoid lines so figuring out which day you want to see what is a good plan.
Keep your daily plans open and not packed, the heat and lines in August will make you regret a packed itinerary.

I have been to both the Amalfi Coast and Cinque Terre and though I like both places a good deal, I think there is not much to gain by including them both on a single trip. The August crowds in CT could make it less enjoyable ; they could do the same in Amalfi but that is a larger area so more room to spread out, also much more to see and do there.
Amalfi Coast is more Wow scenery than the CT. CT can be in places more picturesque, the AC more grand, blow your mind kind of views and of the 2 most definitely my preference for a long stay especially.

Yet one more comment after my wordy post above:
I think for Paris the best starting step is to figure out which of the top sites you are OK not seeing!

it is easy enough to Google the top 10 or top 20 sites in Paris.
Asking which is best or some ones own top couple will net you a countless number of different answers.

Since you cannot see them all, go through the typical top sites, read up about each and determine which you are OK not seeing to help you narrow it down. Those hop on / hop off busses companies have good online maps that show your where each attraction is. They cover every site on their routes, but that involves about 5 different one way loop routes they utilize so would need more a full day or than just to ride the bus through each route I would imagine

Removing my post -- just saw your followup.

Capri is wonderful and the views are spectacular, and I agree the Cinque Terre will be overrun. There is plenty of beauty there, especially if you take the hikes, however. All in all, mid August is so tough in Italy due to main holidays at this time, as you may know from past visits. But this is especially true of the coast. .

Here's what you do:
Google a map of Paris.
Look for the basic monuments, museums.
Plan to group two or three of them together.
Then, stay in the shade, walk slowly, wear shorts and t-shirts and a hat.
Don't drink too much alcohol - tap water is free and you will need it.

I would stay in the 6th arrondissement, around Metro station Odeon, because that's what people think of when they think of what Paris is like.
It is also the most centrally-located with great transportation options.
Look for a hotel with air-conditioning - you will need it.
Apartments do not have air-conditioning as a rule.

Make sure you have A/C wherever you stay in Paris and south! We were there and in Provence last June and nearly died in the 100 degree heat. I learned the hard way that this is non-negotiable in future for summer Europe trips.