Itinerary comments

Hello,

A trip to France sounds lovely right now. Our trip to France and Spain was cancelled this year too. We were hoping that we would be able to travel at Thanksgiving time, but we scrapped those plans a few months ago. While I cannot speak for most of the trip, I can discuss Toulouse and Paris. Six days seems like a long time in Toulouse. Are you planning on taking day trips like to Carcasonne? Have you been to Paris before? I think 4 - 5 days is good for the first time.

Good luck!

Bordeaux is a nice city (often times gets a bum rap) but I think you would find 6 days is too long. We were there for two days (two nights) and would maybe return someday but not for longer than a couple of nights. Saint Emilion wine tour is a half day from Bordeaux. Five days in Paris is perfect - don't forget to take a high quality dinner cruise on the Seine.

There’s enough to keep you occupied in Bordeaux for a day or a day and a half tops. I found St Emilion to be disappointing as it was overrun with tourists, even though I was there in early May. There are better experiences to be had by driving around to individual vineyards in the area. Six days would be too long for me in Bordeaux. Six days is also a long stay for Toulouse. What made you pick Toulouse?

Have you been to Paris before? You can easily fill a full week here.

I agree with the others that 6 days (I assume you mean 6 nights) in Toulouse and Bordeaux is rather a lot. I easily filled 5 nights in Lyon, so no quibble about that one. Annecy is rather small, and 4 nights would be too long for me there, but if you want to spend a very great deal of time looking at the lake, perhaps it's right for you.

Albi is a good day-trip from Toulouse. But I'm curious about your plans to travel through Provence without stopping there. Have you visited that area on earlier trips?

Most people who go to the Bordeaux area seem to want to see the Dordogne and/or the Lot, which are lovely. You haven't mentioned having a car, and it's true that your options in the Dordogne/Lot are somewhat limited when you are traveling solely by train and bus, but there are many picturesque small cities accessible via public transportation. Places like Perigueux, Figeac and Cahors would add some variety to your itinerary; Bordeaux itself is more handsome than charming, I would say. I'm sure you could pick up a one-day bus tour to a few of the smaller towns from somewhere in the area.

I did like St-Emilion, which I visited on a day-trip while staying in Bordeaux. It is very touristy, but most of the visitors stay around the base of the town. I rode the little tourist "train" from the St-Emilion train station (well out of town) up to the top of the town and walked down. I saw few other tourists until I reached the restaurant-filled area near the base.

Do you have special interests driving your choice of destinations? I ask because it seems unusual to plan more time in Toulouse and Bordeaux than in Paris. And I say that as someone who happily spent 5 nights in Lyon, 4 nights in Toulouse (with 1 day trip) and 5 nights in Bordeaux (also with 1 day-trip).

Hi,
If you travel to France in the spring, rates are cheaper and there are less tourists, too, so that may work out better for you. I've been there in March, April, and in June and in September/October, and I like the off summer months. You don't list your interests, your ages, or how active you two are, so it's difficult to give rock solid advice. It appears you don't have a car, either.

Based on that, four full days and nights in Lyon might be a day too much as you could do it in three: it's a beautiful City, especially at night. Walking along the Rivers while seeing the City lit up is a beautiful scene. There's plenty to see and do during the day, too: great Roman ruins, at least two great museums (Fine Arts and Confluence), the old Town, Notre Dame, the Parc Tete d'Or, and of course, the world famous food and wine. I've been there three times and really enjoy the City.

I haven't been to Toulouse, so I can't comment. Off the top of my head, six days there seems like a lot, though, especially if you don't have a car. Have you considered taking the train from Lyon south to Arles/Avignon and or Nimes and then on to Toulouse? All three are beautiful and easily worth two to three days each. And all of them are about an hour apart. And you don't have to go to all three. That is a route I took a few years ago and had no regrets. When you eventually end up in Toulouse, I would absolutely take the one hour train trip to Carcassonne. It is a magnificent medieval city and easily worth a full length day there.

As for Bordeaux, I spent five or six nights there and loved it. That was sufficient for me. However, I'm a VERY big wine fan so I spent three full days touring vineyards in St. Emillion and the Medoc drinking wine. If I'm not mistaken, about 67 % of Bordeaux's economy is derived from wine sales, tourism, etc. so that is certainly the main draw there. The restaurants in Bordeaux were excellent and there were plenty of great wine bars, too. The opera and the Fine Arts museum were both excellent. When you get to St Emillion, make sure you get into see the Monolithic Church there.

Finally, if you are adamant on spending 25 days in those five cities you identify, I would spend more time in Paris than anywhere else. It is truly one of the greatest cities in the world with so much to do and see. Not only that, there are fantastic day trips that you can take from Paris: Rouen, Giverny, Chartres, Versailles, Fountainbleu, etc. and still see the City.

Best of luck

If you are planning to use these cities as a base for visiting each region, that is a good plan. Lyon is nice, but doesn't deserve four days by itself. Same for Toulouse and Bordeaux.

Any itinerary can make for a successful trip as there are many factors defining success. However, your itinerary is not one I would recommend. With the time you have available, I would plan regions and count nights, not days. For example, for every 3 nights at any single location, there are only 2 days to explore.

Typical regions I might recommend are western Provence, the Loire Valley, Alsace, Normandy, or Brittany. Your itinerary is based upon large cities, and I am not sure what you have planned for 4 days in Lyon or 6 days in either Toulouse or Bordeaux. About the only area of France where I might attempt to explore without a car is the Côte d´Azur (Nice). Here, local train service is available to reach much of what is popularly visited. Otherwise, I would take a train from CDG to the farthest point south on your first day of arrival, rent a car the next day, and work my way back north to Paris for the final 6 nights (5 days).

For example, arriving CDG in the morning, I would power on by train to Avignon or Aix-en-Provence, rent a car there the next day, explore western Provence, work my way north to the Loire Valley, ending in Paris. Modifying the regions are simple but you could easily spend a week or more exploring western Provence from Nîmes/Uzès to Aix-en-Provence and many places in between. You could also drive A9 from Provence to Lyon and on to Annecy (but I have never found Lyon to be more interesting than for a visit of more than a day or two).

Other than Annecy and the Bordeaux wine trips, you are seeing only very large cities. Consider the option of staying in some of France's gorgeous small towns and villages.

For example, from Lyon, you could instead stay in Beaune. You can get there by train.

Between Lyon and Toulouse, you could instead stay in Carcassonne. You can get there by train to the new city, but definitely stay in the old city.

Between Toulouse and Bordeaux, you will kick yourself if you do not visit the Dordogne region. Stay in Beynac or La Roque Gageac for village life, or Sarlat if you prefer towns. You will need to rent a car for this leg, and that would allow you to see other villages, the caves of Lascaux or the chateaux along the Dordogne.

Perhaps you like cities, and there is nothing wrong with that, but in my mind, France gets better the further you get from the cities.

It's difficult to read your plan because it says days. You need to count by nights.
Where is your first night after landing? Paris, Annecy? If Annecy, then it's three days but four nights because your first day is in a train and getting settled.
Count 1/2 to a full day each time you change locations, packing up, getting to and from the station, checking out and checking in to a new hotel. So again, you don't have a full day to devote to the destination.
Could you redo the itinerary using nights.

Hello from Wisconsin,

Most people try to do too much and spend way too much time traveling and too little time relaxing and soaking up France. You, on the other hand, may be traveling a bit slow. I only say that because you don't mention hiring a car. And as someone else mentioned when you say four days in a city do you mean, 'arrival day, in the city, in the city, departure day', as four? That is three nights, and in my book two days. Arrival and departure days mean packing up and exiting your housing early, then the train ride, and then timing your arrival so you can check in. Travel days gobble up a lot of time. If you have two full days in Bordeaux, you will wish you had three.

I am betting that for the cost of the train tickets ( and I do love train travel) you can rent a small fuel efficient car and do the same trip. French roads are pretty much like US roads except their pavement is cracked to death. Slow down entering villages and cities, yield to pedestrians. The drive from Lyon to Toulouse could be a great day out. The countryside scenery of France is eye catching.

Renting a car: You arrive at the airport (CDG) and can pick up a car there. I would try to time my flight so you arrive late in the day and just spend the night at the airport so you are fresh to start the next day. Exiting the airport is A LOT easier than renting from the city center. Exiting the airport is more difficult than returning the car there. When you return the car there are excellent signs showing you where to go. Exiting the airport you have to plan which road to get on.

Or you can rent a car in a place like Chartres. A short train ride out of Paris. Check in to Sylvie Menard's B&B in Chartres, where she will take excellent care of you. You can rest, walk up to the cathedral, catch something to eat, rest, and go back up to the cathedral. Renting a car in Chartres is a piece of cake. And the drive to Lyon, it is five hours, but if you take the back roads it will be prettier.

Just thoughts.
wayne iNWI