Help with 3 night suggestion

Lyon? I know it is not a village per se, but still, wonderful for a couple of nights, great food.

Or maybe Reims. Love it, too. Places you closer to CDG at least.

Guedelon and Bourges.

Maybe Lyon? Reims, as much as I would love it, that would be a 7 hour drive by car from Provence. I'm hoping to still have a car, but then drop it before we train back into Paris near the airport.

We have been to Guedelon Castle but never to Bourges. I'll research that. And then drop our car in Tours and train back?

Do you know where in Provence you’ll be driving from?

We will be driving from St Remy

Susan, do you follow Rick Steves' guide Vero on FB? Her pictures of Tours are so cool!

No, I don't. I'll look her up!

Bourges looks wonderful. Is there 3 days of sightseeing around this area, Bets?

Semur en Auxois is a gorgeous medieval town with magnificent walls. There are lots of interesting places to visit nearby. Here are some we visited with this as a weeklong base:
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/category/burgundy/
We have overnighted here a couple of times when driving up from the south to Paris.

We loved Semur en Auxois, but only went for a day while staying in the Burgundy area! So, we have been around that area on two trips. We did love it though!

Hmm. Good question. I think Vero had a video on it. It's deep France and the area where my father-in-law was from. More research is needed. Or, combine it with Montargis.

Or, from Provence, go west of the Rhone into the Massif Central to Le Puy en Velay. There's easily three nights of sights.

Her FB page is France with Vero but it is actually still under her former blog name, French Girl in Seattle, lol.

https://www.facebook.com/frenchgirlinseattle

Troyes is about 2 hours from CDG and quite enjoyable.

I’m puzzled why you are not returning the car at CDG? Training to Paris, station change, then RER seems a mistake.

There are now 7 hotels on the CDG campus.

Véro has a YouTube channel as well as FB with lots of videos. It’s under France with Vero”.

Thanks everyone!

Tom, I was thinking it is such a long drive back to Paris that it would make better sense to drop the car in another city away from Paris, like Dijon, Tours, anywhere that might be near our 3 night stay. Then just take the train from the car drop city back and stay near an airport hotel. Does that make sense or is there a better way?

I've always wanted to see Troyes, but that would over a 6 hour drive from St. Remy. Anyone suggest dropping the car in Avignon and train elsewhere and just use public transport? We usually have a car and love driving to small villages, so that is why I was thinking of keeping the car for our final 3 days.

Now I'm wondering if there is a better stop somewhere between the Dordogne (Sarlat) and Provence (St Remy) with a car for a 3 night stop? Then we could drop our car in Avignon and train straight to a CDG hotel the night before our flight.

Then we could drop our car in Avignon and train straight to a CDG hotel the night before our flight.

This is what we have done before, and I highly recommend it.

If this were my trip, I'd go for Lyon after Provence, drop the car, spend three nights, and TGV right to CDG the day before my flight. But you're looking for smaller places.

How about moving those extra nights back to Languedoc-Rousillon, since you're already planning a night in Carcassonne. I've never been to Albi but I'd like to see it, and there are other interesting towns in that area. Then on to your week at St-Remy, then drop the car at Avignon and get the train at Avignon back to Paris.

An additional thought is an open jaw where you finish in Provence then fly home from there, connecting in Paris or Amsterdam.

Hi Rick,
It's Chris Kelly, your guide from Vézelay.
I hope you are well.
Another solution which works well : go to Autun. Its' less far than Troyes and its' not a big city like Lyon. You can leave vehicles at the TGV Le Creusot Montceau station 20 minutes down the road. The TGV is direct to Paris or Charles de Gaulle which ever you wish.
In Autun you are in the heart of Burgundy with any number of interesting sites and villages close by including Bibracte...
Just a suggestion.
A la prochaine,
Chris
www.vezelay-visiteur.com

Susan, are you driving from Paris to Sarlat-la-Canéda to Carcassonne and then looking for a place to stop between Carcassonne and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence?

Susan, Your guide, Chris, is SO right about Autun! We spent a week there in a gite. It's very special, more traditional. The market is amazing, very local, not geared to tourists when we were there. My Parisian husband still talks about the food we bought.

It's in the Morvan forest, more isolated, rural, a bit wilder than the parts of Burgundy you have visited. Autun was founded as a Roman garrison town after the troops defeated the local Celtic tribe and forced them to leave mountainous Bibracte to live there.

David Downie (my favorite English-language author about France) has a description of walking through the Morvan in "Paris to the Pyrenees--a Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James."

Reconfigured suggestions:
Autun
Le Puy en Velay
other route: Uzès.
Bonne route.

If you choose Lyon I’ll share with you the best Airbnb we have ever stayed in. It’s in the old town and you don’t feel like you’re in the city. Lyon has a lot to offer. Or if you choose Tours, which in is the Loire, we stayed at a great place in the old town that came with parking. It would be easy to drop your car in either place and train to Paris. Let’s talk…

Thank you all for the input and suggestions! I really do appreciate it!

Dick- I like the idea of Albi, what other interesting towns are in the area?

Tom- We normally do open jaw but we quickly booked this trip based on our miles and I wasn't able to find any cheap miles to do that.

Chris- thanks for your suggestions, but just to note we have not used you as a tour guide. Autun looks interesting.

MaryPat- we are staying in Paris a few days, taking the train to Bordeaux and picking up our car there, and then straight to the Dordogne. We have houses we want to rent in both Dordogne and Provence. The house in Dordogne needs to be rented Saturday to Saturday but our house in Provence we can rent any days. So, now with three extra days we can put them between Dordogne and Provence or after Provence as we are headed back and plan to spend one night in an airport hotel before our flight home.

Andrea- yes, I'd love to talk :-)

I so appreciate the help. I'm going nuts right now trying to decided and then finalize my rental house as I know people are booking for summer. I think a big thing I"m feeling is I want an easy transition between car/train back to Paris, or I need to decide how far we are willing to drive. We do love medieval villages, but we want to base for three nights with enough to do as well.

Thank you all!

I finally made a decision to stay between Sarlat and St Remy. Then we can drop the car in Avignon and train up to CDG. Sounds easy and we will discover new areas!

St Cirq Lapopie may be an interesting stop but is only 1h 45m west of Sarlat and is not out of the way if driving from Sarlat to Saint-Rémy.

MaryPat, I LOVE that! Definitely on my list! Thank you!

I now realize we have 5 nights in the region between Sarlat and St Remy so we should be able to stay a couple locations as we head to St Remy.

Hi Susan and Monte,

I’m from the Netherlands and France is our favorite destination (luckily even the South is easy to travel to for us).
My tip would be to go to Annecy, it’s a bit off the beaten track and a detour, but by car that’s easy to do. Annecy is where the French Alps start and it gives you a totally different flavour of France. See www.lac-annecy.com.

It’s difficult to top Sarlat and (I assume you mean) Saint Rémy de Provence. To be honest, I find them a bit too crowded, but maybe Figeac (www.ville-figeac.fr) is a good alternative. I know that’s also is a detour, but driving in France is easy.

Good luck,

Han Biemans