How to split up two weeks in France (Paris, Burgundy & Nice)?

Does the two weeks include your travel days? If so, you have 12 days to play with. I would stay in Beaune for three nights, giving you two full days for Burgundy. With the remaining 9 nights, I suggest 5 for Paris and 4 for Nice. Making use of the train and renting cars in Beaune and Nice will minimize your travel time and make for a more relaxing trip.

Carolyn thanks so much for your response! That day breakdown you suggested seems like a good bet!
Hmmm no I guess it doesn't quiteinclude the travel time and that's good to think about.

We have an overnight flight from Baltimore to Paris (getting into Paris in the early morning) and figured that first day we would get settled, walk around, something to eat and rest to hopefully shake the jetlag. The flight out of Nice is early afternoon.

As for train traveling to Burgundy and then to Nice we haven't booked any of that yet ...I'm hoping we can do the earliest and make the most out of the day and not spend it on the train!
Thank you!!!

I would keep the car to drive to Nice, stopping en-route at smaller Provencal towns, or going past the Grand Canyon du Verdon. You don't need it during your whole stay in Nice, however, since local transport along the coast is good. Try to identify and "front load" any stops you want to see that are not served by train, before turning the car in at Nice. Car rentals are often the same price for 1-3 days and again for 5-7 days. Dropping in a different city within France should not affect the price.

I'd spend 6 nights in Paris, 5 in Burgundy and 3 in Nice and would pick up the car at Orly on the way to Burgundy and stay in a smaller town than Dijon although a night in Dijon on your way south would work. Perhaps Vezelay or Semur en Auxois or perhaps make the Burgundy portion more of a road trip and spend two nights in a couple of spots and one in another and then drive to Nice and drop the car and use public transport in Nice for a couple of days. We thought Nice was a great town to spend a couple of days. Or perhaps 4 nights in Burgundy and then a night on the way -- we stayed once time right at a hotel by the Pont du Gard after leaving Nice and our next night in Semur en Auxois on our way to Paris.

Burgundy IMHO is much more beautiful than Provence and the Med. coast -- not everyone agrees of course.

While planning your drive south, you should avoid driving any Friday or Saturday, particularly at the end of July, the heaviest traveled days of the year. Not only are the French driving south on those days, but also the rest of Europe is heading toward the sea, creating jams up to 200 kilometers long.

It clears up around 2:00 p.m. on Saturday up north of Lyon, but continues on south until a little later in the day. These are also the heaviest train travel days with the SNCF adding not only extra cars but also extra trains to the schedule.

I suggest you think in terms of nights rather than days. The day you depart doesn't count because you'll be flying; the day coming back will be taken up by getting to your flight.

So you have twelve nights. I would spend 5 in Paris, 3 or 4 in Burgundy and 3 or 4 in Nice.

Laura and Janettravels44 - Both your ideas sound like lovely plans. I will definitely look into maybe stopping at a few different towns instead of making Dijon a base.
I'm only hesitant on driving down to Nice because I've read that the tolls can be be pricey along with the cost of gas. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Bets - This is good to know! Thank you! Unfortunately right now the travel date down to Burgundy happens to be a Friday but nothing is set in stone yet so we may be able to figure out a way to avoid the worst of it. I figure it's bound to be fairly busy anywhere that time of year!

Zoe - So true! Thank you for the reminder. That's the day breakdown we keep coming back to! I wish I had a whole summer to explore!

Paris to Burgundy will be ok if you leave in the morning, especially if you pick up your car at Orly. The traffic will start to thicken around noon and continue from then on until Saturday afternoon. There's one toll plaza that gets pretty backed up. Picking the car up at Orly puts you fifteen kilometers or so south of the city boundaries into the burbs on the way to Burgundy.

You can calculate gas and toll costs on viamichelin.com.

I tend to drive more than I take trains... hence the bias... but I would definitely keep the car and look at Laura's post. The areas she is talking about are simply stunning and the ability to travel at your own pace is worth the extra expense of tolls (if indeed it would end up costing more than the train) I have never hit all the traffic backups except along the Riviera on a weekend, but even then, it still kept moving. Try to plan your driving to avoid those times... just stop for a nice long lunch!

Thanks of all so very much for your suggestions! We haven't decided on anything quite yet but all this information is so helpful!
The only thing we've run into is the fact that the train (or car) ride down to Nice from Burgundy takes up pretty much a full day with the traveling. My husband was wondering if there were maybe another town or city we could visit that is more of an equal distance between Paris and Nice? Does anyone have any suggestions on that end? I would be a bit dissapointed in giving up the countryside for a couple days (along with the town of Dijon which looks adorable!) but two 3 hours train rides would beat a shorted then a much longer one.
Thank you again. This is so helpful!