Itinerary advice - Loire, Burgundy, Provence

Our first trip to France, we did 3 nights in Alsace, 2 in Burgundy and 4 in Loire. We felt short in Burgundy but in Alsace and Loire we thought the numbers of days worked well. We have been back to Loire, since, but only for a couple days. I'm thinking that you might feel like you are in Loire too long. For us, Loire was visiting chateaus and wine tasting. We loved visiting chateaus, but after a while, enough is enough. My favorite chateaus that I'd recommend for you with children would be Villandry (gardens) Chenonceau (gardens and beautiful/interesting chateau), Chambord (HUGE, little furnishing but wonderful on top) and Clos Luce (DaVinci! There are models of his inventions and a fun and wonderful garden). I think you will find that there is more in Provence and greater variety.

To cut the drive time, you might think about taking the train to Provence and then picking up your car and making your way back via Burgundy and Loire. You could drop your car in Tours and then train back to Paris.

Of the three areas you are visiting, western Provence has the most to see, you could easily spend 10 days there and not visit everything. Beaune is a small town, outside of wine making or visiting vineyards/wine production, there will be limited points of interest, particularly for kids.

If medieval towns interest you, among the most interesting will be those in Provence or Languedoc, i.e. Avignon, Uzès, les Baux de Provence, St Rémy, Gordes, Aigues Mortes, Lacoste, among many others.

7 days in the Loire Valley seems like quite a few. You can only visit so many châteaux before they start to look alike. There are troglodyte visits and maybe visiting la Place Plumereau in Tours (again if you like medieval towns) but overall, you might shorten the time here.

Based upon what you have said so far, I might suggest your taking the TGV from CDG/Paris on the morning of your arrival to Tours/St Pierre des Corps for an initial stay in the Loire Valley and then head south to Provence. Absent a more compelling reason to visit Burgundy, I might save it for another trip. Return to CDG via a TGV the night before your flight home.

April can be very cold and rainy in France, be prepared for some indoor only days.

These are good ideas. We were planning on taking the train from CDG and renting a car at Tours, though I hadn’t considered taking the TGV back to Paris for the last day. I thought we might fly home from Marseille, though a flight from Paris would cut out a lot of flight time on the trip home and probably be cheaper (even including the train cost). It looks like driving from the Loire to Provence would take less time than the train and the fastest route seems to be through Burgundy, so perhaps at least breaking up that leg of the trip with an overnight or two?

Driving will not be faster than the train even though you'd need to change stations in Paris. You'd be on a super-fast TGV between Paris and Avignon. And with driving you are more subject to delays. Traveling by train you can leave Tours at 8:25 AM and be at the Avignon TGV station at 1:19 PM. If you've packed a nice lunch you can eat on the train and be ready to start touring as soon as you drop your luggage off at your hotel.

If you drive, you're looking at 7 hours before traffic considerations (per Google Maps because ViaMichelin isn't working for me at the moment). And you'll have to stop for food. Realistically, nearly the entire sightseeing day will be gone by the time you arrive.

This isn't to say you shouldn't go to Burgundy, but you don't need to do that to break up the trip to Provence if you take the train.

The train does sound more appealing, though I would also have to factor in the time to drop off the car in Tours and pick up a new one in Avignon (hopefully the have automatics in Avignon). I’ve never really seen this issue addressed on this forum but does anyone know how long the process of picking up and returning a car generally takes (barring waiting in line, of course)?

Rental car is the same as here, as far as timing to pick up and drop off. Very easy. We visited Loire and Provence with our teens, although in June/July. We spent twice as much time in Provence. I agree with someone above about the 4 things to see in Loire: Chenenceau, Chambord, Villandry, and Da Vinci. Those are exactly the things we did (our kids at the time were 9, 12, and 14. This was 2017)

I've never rented in Europe, but I've read many, many times on this forum that French rental agencies typically are not open on Sunday except at places like airports; I'm not sure about Saturday, but in the US closing at noon on Saturday is quite common. In France they have the extra wrinkle of often closing for lunch. So you do need to research the local schedules very, very carefully.

I hope others notice your question about automatics at Avignon. I just don't know about automatics there. Folks have discouraged expecting an automatic at smaller locations, recommending pick-up at a major airport instead. But I don't know whether Avignon is a place to worry about. I'd expect those agencies to be really busy, because so many people want to rent a car in Provence, and a lot of them arrive on the TGV. Perhaps this is a question you could ask the AutoEurope folks. Many people recommend checking their rates, which often beat those you get directly from the car-rental companies.

We have found some agencies closed weekends, or Sunday. Often closed like noon to 2. To return, sometimes can be returned after hours. I'm not clear on your plan. Are you saying train to Avignon, pick up car, drive to Burgundy and then Loire, and return in Tours? I really like Autocar, and lately I just go to them automatically. They are a U.S. based company, you can talk to people on the phone and they can be quite helpful. They are a consolidator so they work with a number of companies. I've ended up with Europcar a few times and also Avis and Hertz.

I haven't found car pick up to be much different in Europe than in the U.S. The amount of time for pick up depends on how many people are working and how many customers there are. If anything, the pick up for us has been faster, though we had an annoyingly long wait in Colmar , but there was only one employee working.

ADDED: I'm not critical of the plan, just clarifying. If that is your plan, I think it is a good one, unless you want to do it in reverse which may save you money because you can buy the second set of tickets in advance. So train to Tours, pick up car, visit Loire, visit Burgundy, visit Provence, return car and train to Paris (assuming that you are using the Paris airport??

If the car return/pick up is generally pretty easy then perhaps the train between the Loire and Provence would be the best option. We can probably skip Burgundy then and spend the extra time in one or both of those two places, and make a long day trip to Guedelon if we stayed somewhere south of Blois.

I'll go with what I know and with the kids and things you mentioned... Dordogne, Provence and Burgundy. Assuming you'll fly into and out of Paris... Train to Beaune. Rent a car and head to Provence. On to the Dordogne (which is great for kids). I've never been drawn to the Loire I guess. I'd also go as late in April as possible, May is better.

There is no problem getting automatics in places like Tours or Avignon, provided you book at least a few weeks ahead. They used to be my preference, but even now that I'm OK booking manuals, it happens more and more to me to get an automatic instead.

I’d considered the Dordogne early on, but one of my children has a mobility issue so I’m not sure how enjoyable that region might be, since many of the activities seem to involve walking up steep slopes. II was also disappointed to read that canoes/boats are probably unavailable in April (unfortunately we can’t go in May), which was one of the big draws. The Loire has the advantage of being relatively flat and seems to have other things besides the chateaux, like the Machines de l’ile in Nantes, the ZooParc de Beauval, some interesting medieval castles. Please let me know if I’m wrong about the Dordogne, because I’ve read nothing but great things about it and would love to go there if possible.