We are going on our honeymoon in France mid August. We would like to stay in Paris and few days then visit Normandy/Brittany for the castles then move to the south of France i.e. Nice. Possibly a trip to the French Alps. Any advice on Hotels in Paris and best transportation options? Any suggestions on scenic/romantic places?
Thanks!
are you sure you don't mean the Loire Valley for the castles? There are medieval castles in Normandy and Brittany, I'm just making sure. It might make more sense for you to go to the Loire Valley south of Paris anyways and then continue further south to Nice. Whether you go to Normandy or the Loire Valley, your best bet is to rent a car so you can really have the autonomy to see everything you want to see.
Is that 10 days on the ground? Even if it is, it's not much time. And it is likely to be hot, especially in the south. So if you require air-conditioning, be sure to look for or email potential lodgings about it.
Are you planning to fly open-jaw, also known as multi-city? If so, you could fly into Nice and back home from Paris or vice-versa. Airline options from where you live will have a big influence on the practicality of that.
For scenic and romantic, I think it's hard to beat Paris itself with possible side trips to Giverny or a chateau or two. This list of French castles/chateaus from Wikipedia might help you decide which ones, if any, to visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ListofcastlesinFrance. If they are important to you, seeing castles could determine a significant part of your trip itinerary. There are lots of links to more information about the regions and individual buildings.
Nice and the Mediterranean coast in general are more beautiful than most of us can imagine, but they are likely to be be cram-packed and the hotel costs expensive. Of course, that can probably be said for most of France in high season. Be prepared for it.
France is very large and you have outlined going from the far northwest to the far southeast of the country. If you research travel time, whether by train or car, I think you will find that you cannot do all the things you outlined in the places you list in the time you have. The interactive maps on this commercial website could be useful for seeing how spread out your listed destinations actually are -- http://www.linkparis.com/france-map.htm.
Using the "directions" options with Google Maps can give you a general idea of driving times if you choose to rent a car. On our month-long trip to France in 2012, we picked up our car in Reims (after 8 nights in Paris) and returned it in Aix-en-Provence (after 8 nights there with lots of driving to explore the area). The TGV from Aix to CDG was about 3 1/2 hours with no changes.
By using the DB Bahn search option (http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en), I found the general information below. The schedules aren't available for August yet. These examples are from 02.06.15. Please note that if you search anything having to do with dates, the European way is day.month.year.
You can't buy your tickets from DB Bahn, but I think they do the best job of showing the routes and connections and I especially like the ability to click on schedule options to see transfer details for the options that require changing trains, intermediate stops and for how long, and (my personal favorite) the map to show exactly where you are going.
Now for the examples:
You could take a fast TGV train between Paris and Nice and get there without any train changes in 5 1/2 hours. That's probably faster than you can drive.
You could take the TGV to Annecy from Paris and get there in about 3 3/4 hours with no train changes, also faster than you could drive.
From Annecy it's about 2 3/4 hours to Chamonix by bus and regional train. In that case, driving would probably be faster, but probably more trouble.
From Annecy to Nice is about 8 hours by regional train or bus and TGV and with 2 changes along the way. You might also be able to drive it faster.
You have lots of research to do, but fortunately you have time to do it. I love doing the research. It's like taking the trip twice for me, once when I plan it and once when we do it.
Sonia, France will be a great place for your honeymoon. Since you have so few days there, you will really need to have everything well planned out. Are you flying to Paris from the States? Is day one the day you depart or will you have 10 full days total in France? If don't already have flights, consider flying into Paris and then out of a city in southern France (open jaw). This will save you travel time back to Paris.
Like the previous poster mentioned, with so few days available, it would make more sense to fly into Paris and then start heading south stopping in the Loire Valley and then on to Provence. You could spend three nights in Paris, take the train into the Loire Valley for two nights, and then take the train to Toulouse or Avignon and then spend 4-5 nights in this area with a car. Your itinerary would also depend on what you want to see/do. Do you want to see more of the cities or would you like to stay in the country and explore more of the Provence hilltowns with a day side trip to a city? With a bit more info on your thoughts, we'll be able to help you more.
You've proposed three and possibly four locations; that's a lot for a 10 day trip, particularly a honeymoon. It's your trip, so you certainly can do it if you want. But remember that each time you change locations, you lose a half day or more, and you have to re-orient yourself, which gets tiring.
For hotel suggestions, you need to give a budget in euros ("moderate price" means different things to different people). You also need to specify if there are any special needs or wants (view, elevator, etc).
For transportation, you can do this with or without a car, depending on your preferences. The trains will also work, and will be inexpensive if you can buy in advance and commit to non-exchangeable, non-refundable tickets. Some find driving stressful and prefer the train; others feel just the opposite (they find that having to stick to a train's schedule limits or stresses them). For Paris itself, you definitely will not need or want a car, so you would pick it up upon leaving Paris.
EDIT: I was cross posting with Lo and Denise. You will notice that some of the same things have come up in all our posts.
http://joinusinfrance.com/episode-32-vacation-in-france/
This podcast is on what France is like in August. A good listen to set expectations for travel during August.
When my husband & I travelled to the south of France we found the towns of Vence & St. Paul de Vence to be very picturesque and romantic. Also as far as romance in Paris (not that Paris needs any help with that!), you should definitely do a Seine river cruise at night. The city & monuments look stunning.
Most train connections from the Loire Valley to Provence are routed back via Paris, and require changing train stations in Paris. However, there are a couple of departures that avoid that issue, such as an 8:15 train direct from Tours to Lyon and a 14:30 train direct from St. Pierre des Corps to Avignon, and any necessary connections could be made within those stations.
