Itinerary Help

Happy anniversary! Take the train to Caen (from Gare St-Lazare in Paris) and rent the car there. Caen isn't a small town but the car rental is very convenient to the station. If you have time and are interested, visit Bayeux and some D-Day sights. Drive to MSM and spend the night, preferably on the island or at the mainland end of the causeway. Then drive to the Loire and spend whatever time you can. Provence is a long drive, the Dordogne a shorter one.

Since you'd probably want a car in Provence, it makes more sense to drive there than drive back to Paris, turn in the car, take a train, then rent another. Via Michelin can help you plan the driving part of this trip. It shows a long day's drive between the Loire and Province (I picked Tours to Avignon arbitrarily, about seven hours without stops). But given all you want to do, I'd suggest limiting this trip to Paris, any time in Normandy that appeals, MSM, and the Loire. That's more than enough for two weeks. Save Provence for another trip, perhaps flying into or out of Nice.

Burgundy or Alsace could be great choices. If I knew when you were going, I might be able to offer better suggestions.

Hi,
I agree with the response of the other writer with the exception of Provence. It is simply too far. The Dordogne is a better option. You can kayak on the lazy small rivers and canals in the area. You can see the cave paintings. It is a direct shot from the Loire Valley. You are trying to do too much. Priorities would be :
1) Paris/Versailles
2) Visit Giverney on your way out to the D-Day areas, so rent a car sooner than Caan
3) Loire Valley; pick a maximum of three chateaus to visit
4) Dordogne area and Sarlet
5) Back to Paris

JR in Orange

Sorry, Caen, not Caan..........wrong area of France! JR

If you want to visit Provence from the Loire, taking the train will save you about 3 hours (versus driving) even if you return to Paris. There is one direct train per day from Amboise to Avignon,

Small towns generally do not have rail lines, though there are plenty of small cities that do.

MSM is far enough from Paris that it should really be combined with more of Normandy. If you do go, plan to spend the night there, as the day can be choked with crowds.

While what you propose is feasible, I would suggest leaving MSM for another trip and spending the time in Paris or Provence. In which case head to the Loire directly from the airport and go Loire > Paris > Provence.

Congratulations on your anniversary! What a fabulous way to spend it together. I'm currently overwhelmed myself with all the fabulous things to see and do for planning our next trip to France. :)

Not sure if your plans are set in stone but we always like to hit the road upon arrival so we don't like to split our stay in our arrival/departure city, trying to be efficient with our time. Perhaps you may want to consider taking the TGV from CDG to Tours and start your trip with the Loire Valley. You could then make your way up to MSM and Normandy, and finish the loop through Giverny. If you have any interest in the Brittany area, you could extend your loop west very easily. I suggest routing the trip this way because the TGV to Tours leaves from CDG directly, saving you a trip to a train station inside Paris. Normandy is deceiving at first glance - it offers a lot of great sight-seeing; we spent 4 nights there and would have been happy with 5th. Of course, that all depends on how quickly you want to travel. We enjoy settling in for a few nights and enjoying the area.

For the Normandy area, we particularly enjoyed MSM, Chateau Pirou, Jumieges Abbey, the cidre route, the les plus beaux villages, etc. And we spent a full day and a half visiting some of the WWII sights and barely scratched the surface (and we are nothing close to what one would call history buffs on the subject). Would have liked to have visited Chateau Gaillard but it was closed on the day we were driving back to Paris. Etretat is also in the Normandy area but we didn't have time for it.