Itinerary help? 13-year-old wants to see it all!

Take the Eurostar to Paris and start there. It's cheaper to fly home from Paris than London anyway.
In 6-8 days, this itinerary would not be doable. London and Paris alone would take up your full 8 days.
It's just not possible to see it all.

Whoa, there. Danger, Will Robinson!

You say you have "6 to 8 days." Please be more specific about the dates/times of your arrival in Europe and your flight home. Many, many people play a game of self-deception, failing to accept how few days they really have, and then compound that mistake by trying to go to twice as many places as they really have time for.

Assuming the best case scenario - you arrive in Europe, and then you have 8 full days there not counting the arrival day or departure day...

Have you already booked your flights? If so, please post dates/times/locations. If you plan to include both London and Paris, then of course fly in to one and out of the other (personally I'd fly in to London, out of Paris) and take the train between them.

If you have 8 full days (lets hope) then I'd pick 2, maybe 3 locations maximum. London and Paris count. You could include one more location in France but except for Giverny, you will burn the better part of a day getting to them (and then back). Maybe London, Paris, Giverny.

OTOH, if your "6-8 days" is actually 6 days - and worse, if that's 6 days including your arrival and/or departure days - then stick to London and Paris, as you really don't have time for more.

If you can extend the trip, then more options become reasonable.

Finally - it's great that 13-year-old wants to see it all, but somebody needs to be the adult here (presumably someone who's paying for it). If you want that whole itinerary you mention, you need another week. Treasure that 13-year-old's enthusiasm, but be careful to keep her expectations in check (I know, easy to say...they're not my grandchild...).

Sorry for not being clearer! We have a very flexible schedule, and can spend up to 8 days in FRANCE alone. Our entire trip will last 17 days. My questions pertain only to the France portion.

Ah, that's better.

Is that 8 full days in France, not including any day you fly in or out?

Man, I am OFF my game in the clarity department! Yes, 8 full days in France.

David in Seattle, we are pretty seasoned travelers who have been to Europe over a dozen times. Apparently, I'm just super bad at communicating today.

Given her interests and your cities listed, I’d focus on three places. Nantes (2 nights), a city to explore the Loire Valley (2 nights) and finally Paris (4 nights) with a possible day trip to Giverny. I’d leave out Mont Saint-Michel.

If this seems too rushed (two 2 night stays) I’d eliminate the Loire Valley and add more time to your other two destinations and visit some palaces/chateaus like Fontainebleau or Chantille from your Paris location.

I like Mona's itinerary. I'm thinking she would like the chateau that has models of Da Vinci's inventions-Amboise?

I'd start in London, because flying out of London is supposed to be hell. Fly home from Paris

I think you have time for 3 destinations in France if one is Paris and you are taking a day trip to Giverney. But not 4.

Your first day can get you to either Amboise for a Loire Chateau > Nantes > Paris itinerary, or to Nantes for a Nantes > MSM > Paris itinerary. by train. For logistical reasons, do not start in Paris; end there.

Amboise - Nantes 2:30 by train; driving is probably faster as this is not the TGV. Nantes - Paris is faster by train.

Nantes - MSM will require a car. You can return the car in Rennes and take the fast train to Paris.

You'll want 4 days in Paris if Giverny is included.

Since Nantes is important to her, I'd do 2 days there and the other 6 in Paris and then carefully plan a couple of day trips to meet other interests. There are lots of chateux in easy train of Paris. My favorite would be Vaux le Vicomte. But there is also Fontainebleau, Malmaison, Rambouillet, Sceaux, as well as Versailles. We also did a fun daytrip to see the Chateau de Maintenon with its ruins of the aqueduct Louis hoped would bring water to Versailles. These Chateaux are certainly as impressive as those of the Loire and more manageable given your short time. 6 days is not all that much for Paris but a nice base.

I have been to Machines de L'ile in Nantes and reckon you will want a whole day there. You can easily explore the Loire Valley, taking in maybe two castles (Chenonceau and maybe Villandry which has an amazing vegetable garden - yes really!). So I would take Eurostar from London to Paris, spend 3 nights there, then pick up a car and head to Giverney, staying one night near there (Vernon?), then to the Loire Valley for 2 nights, then drive to Nantes, spend 1 night there, then either drop off you car there and fly back to London, or if it's easier, return the car to Paris and get the Eurostar back to London.

Unless of course you can get an open jaw ticket and fly into London and out of Paris.

I'd say it's Mont Saint Michel that might have to hit the dust on this trip, but then IMO it's an overpriced tourist trap anyway! The crowds make it really unpleasant. And it looks more impressive from a distance then where you're in there fighting your way up the narrow main street. The smaller English St Michel's Mount in Cornwall is much better (again IMO).

@Adam we've flown home from Heathrow on several occasions without feeling it was a bad experience. (It's flying BA from Heathrow to another destination in Europe that's the bad experience.) On the other hand, CDG does not have a good reputation and French workers are prone to strikes. Of course, Brexit could also affect the ease of flying from Heathrow.

It is more expensive to fly out of London which is one reason we open jaw into London and out of somewhere else. We also try to avoid flying out of CDG when we can because it is a terrible airport filled with all the nasty unhelpful people whom we never meet elsewhere in France; all the bad French sterotypes apparently work at the airport.

I recently learned that Villandry which has the amazing kitchen garden, actually throws out the produce -- it is planted for effect and then trashed rather than harvested and sold or donated. Pretty disappointing.

I love your tradition of a 13 year old trip. We are hoping to take our oldest grandchild to Paris when she is 10 -- I am not sure we will be still traveling when she is 13 and certainly won't be when her one year old brother reaches that age. Sounds like a fabulous tradition and it is wonderful that your granddaughter knows what she wants to see -- that is half the fun.

Thank you, Adam, Janet, and Skyegirl! These are all marvelous suggestions to muse over--and I also appreciate the transportation suggestions. We spent 7 days in Paris last May (with H's cousin, for her 13yo trip), and she had a blast. In my opinion, you can never go to Paris too many times!

Skyegirl, that Villandry vegetable garden sounds amazing! We all grow veggies, so it would be a treat for sure to see a big, beautiful garden in full vigor. My husband and I saw Mont St-Michel 10 years ago and really did enjoy it, but it was September and fairly quiet. June ... not so much, I imagine. That will likely be the destination we miss.

I love your tradition of a 13 year old trip. We are hoping to take our
oldest grandchild to Paris when she is 10 -- I am not sure we will be
still traveling when she is 13 and certainly won't be when her one
year old brother reaches that age. Sounds like a fabulous tradition
and it is wonderful that your granddaughter knows what she wants to
see -- that is half the fun.

Janet, these trips have been amazing relationship-building opportunities--and one reason we're thankful we're still young grandparents. Counting this one, we have five more to go.

There is nothing like the gift of time, travel, and shared experience. Plus, at 13, they still seem to like us. :) I'll be 76 when our youngest (1 yo) grandchild is ready for his trip. But he's one of our English grandbabies, so maybe they'll send him to the States and we can dodder around here with him. LOL!

I agree that a day around the Machines de L'Isle de Nantes will be worth the trade-off of dropping Mont Saint-Michel and it can take the better part of a day to visit. We didn't see it all last October, partly due to weather, and partly because it was "just a stop" on a driving day between the Loire valley and Brittany. (We slept that night at the small walled town of Guerande and visited the salt marshes the next day.)

There were a number of turns and exits and mergers to drive into the relevant Isle de Nantes parking garage, but our rental car's GPS led us there without getting lost. If your car doesn't have that, then do study the route with GoogleMap or ViaMichelin. You'll also be just across the bridge from Nante's free Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery.

In the past two years, I happened to fly home once from LHR and once from CDG, each time spending the night before at a fairly convenient airport chain hotel (courtesy of brother's hotel points). I didn't find Heathrow any more hassle than Charles de Gaulle - they're both huge and may require using a hotel connector bus. Or it might be a good fit to fly home from Nantes with a connection built in by the airline.

I agree that a day around the Machines de L'Isle de Nantes will be
worth the trade-off of dropping Mont Saint-Michel and it can take the
better part of a day to visit.

This is super helpful, Laura! And the Memorial sounds like a worthwhile stop in Nantes.

I didn't find Heathrow any more hassle than Charles de Gaulle

I would agree. We've flown home from Heathrow 8 or 10 different times, and we've never had a problem. Usually, our son takes us to the airport, but twice we've taken the Heathrow Express from Paddington Station. It's always been fine!