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Holidays and events

Hi,

We're hoping to go to France in May for 2 weeks. There are holidays on:

Friday May 1 (Labor day)
Friday May 8 (WWII day)
Thursday, May 14 (Ascension)
Monday, May 25 (Whitt day)

The events are:
May 8-10 (Le Mans Moto GP)
May 24-31 (French Open tennis tournament Paris)
May 29-31 (Vite Loire)

If we arrived on May 6 and took the train to Tours for 1 night (renting a car after the 1st night for the entire trip) and then drove and stayed in the central Loire Valley 3 more nights (May 7-10), would the Le Mans Moto GP affect the area much during that time?

What if we moved the trip to different dates in May, how might the different holidays and events affect our trip?

Thanks :)

Posted by
2097 posts

I think you will find the holiday will impact your trip more than the events. Mainly because holidays mean almost everything is closed. i would worry more about the impact of a strike during your trip than the Le Mans Moto, because that's a prime month for the unions to call one.

That being said, the moto is a motorcycle event, and you can expect a greater number of bikes on the roads. This can be a challenge if you're not used to driving in France (or the EU in general.)

Posted by
236 posts

Thank you, KGC for your thoughts :) Appreciated.

We're considering looking at either April or May now.

We may possibly add 1-2 nights to the itinerary. This is a possible itinerary:

Arrive CDG and train directly to Tours

-1 night Tours area (taking train from Paris to St Pierre de Corps–2 hours)

-3 nights Tours area (picking up rental car in Tours)

-1 night Sancerre area (2.5 hour Tours –Sancerre)

-2 nights Burgundy area-Beaune? (3 hours Sancerre–Beaune)

-3 nights Alsace area-Colmar? (3 hours Beaune–Colmar)

-1 night Nancy (2 hours Colmar–Nancy)

-2 nights Epernay or Reims (3 hours Nancy–Epernay) train back to CDG for departure

We are hoping for decent weather with the least amount of rain. Our activities with a car rental would be wine tastings, visiting chateaux, visiting the towns and attractions along the way...

We're budget travelers and looking at booking dummy airfare I found a couple of possibilities.

Flight 1--a non-stop flight (flight time 8-9 hours each way) it would be the same price for each date set:

April 14--April 30

April 21--May 7

April 28--May 14

May 5--May 21

Flight 2--a 1 stop flight (flight time of 12-14 hours each direction)

same dates as above, but the total cost for 2 people is $200-$350 less than the non-stop flight.

Would one of the 2 week dates above be any better than the other in terms of weather, closings (May holidays/events), crowds, prices of lodging...

Which might you choose??