Hi. Traveling to France again to do a walk in the Dordogne (booked) and trying to choose amongst other stops. Bordeaux or St. Emilion for just two nights? Annecy, Colmar or Strasbourg for 3 nights? We are bravely doing this trip via train, with the occasional bus if necessary. Thank you for your advice - not our first trip to France, but to these locations. I will happily take recommendations regarding these cities, accommodations and sites to see!
(A bit of a background: We do land in Paris. My friend would like to head up to Vimy as a day trip and I understand there are tours available from Paris. We are also planning to go from our hike to Arles, then up to the Alsace. )
Posted by
11569 posts
We loved Strasbourg and spent several nights there. Then we rented a car and toured the wine villages, stay in Riquewehr. Did a day trip to Colmar and were glad we weren’t staying there.
Posted by
Paris
7300 posts
Getting from the Dordogne to Annecy or Alsace is a real slog by public transport. Stay west, or south: Bordeaux, Loire Valley, Toulouse are all easily reached from the Dordogne.
Edit: since you plan to see Arles, then Toulouse would be a great stop, or Carcassonne (but Carcassonne is really just a one-night stop). And it is unclear to me whether you plan to go to Alsace regardless?
Posted by
France Southwest
2319 posts
I admit that it is also unclear to me. Especially the “booked hike in Dordogne” part. This is the first time I've seen someone book a hiking trail😊.
Alsace is located opposite the Dordogne and although I do not know where you will stay in Dordogne, it is not going to be easy (and especially very long) to make the train journey to Alsace, even via Toulouse
Posted by
Washington DC
28065 posts
Where does your hike begin and end? That might affect the practicality of staying in Bordeaux vs. St.-Emilion. Bordeaux is a fairly large, handsome city. The train station is some distance from the historic center, but there's lot of public transportation available (reportedly not running late in the evening, however).
St-Emilion is a long walk from the train station, but there's one of those tourist pseudo-trains available. You can ride it all the way to the top of the medieval section of St-Emilion and wind your way downhill along relatively untraveled streets until you get near the base of the town where you'll find touristy restaurants and a parking lot. Folks who see only that lower edge of town tend to find it unpleasantly touristy, but I enjoyed my day trip to St.-Emilion.
Annecy's historic center is gorgeous, as is the setting, but old town is typically packed with tourists. Boat trips on the lake are nice, and I believe you can rent bikes and ride along the lake. I would not want to spend a lot of time in hyper-touristy Annecy, just hanging out. If yours is a summer trip, be aware that Annecy can be quite hot at that time of year. Be sure your lodging is air conditioned.
Strasbourg (where I haven't been recently) and Colmar are both good places to stay. Strasbourg is a lot larger and thus has more sights.
Colmar has a beautiful center, some parts of which are likely to have lots of tourists roaming around (not nearly as condensed a mob as in Annecy, in my experience). The conditions didn't bother me as much in Colmar. The Unterlinden Museum there is extremely good, and Colmar is the best base for side trips to the little wine villages for those without a car. There's not a lot of public transportation to the villages, with buses tending to fan out from Colmar rather than linking multiple villages. You'll need to do some research to figure out how to see more than one village per day--which you'd want to do, because some of those villages are tiny.
Posted by
OP
BC, Canada
2 posts
Thank you for your advice, and questions! The booked walking trip offers luggage transport, inns, & meals as we walk from town to town. The entire time in France is three weeks, late April into early May, with the walk lasting about 8 days. That begins in Cressensac-Sarrazac and ends in Rocamadour so that is why we were thinking the Bordeaux area. After this walk, we plan to go to Arles and then have time before heading back to Paris. I haven't been to the Alsace, but have been to many other places you mentioned. I was worried about that slog to the East as well so maybe will cut that out and just head up the middle of France again. There is always something I missed on the last trip!
Posted by
Washington DC
28065 posts
Lyon has lots to see if you haven't been there before.
Posted by
France Southwest
2319 posts
I suppose you already know how you will go to the start of the hike in Cressensac-Sarrazac, it is a small village served by no buses or trains. The closest town is Brive-la-Gaillarde (less than 20 km). If you leave from Paris, instead of going to Bordeaux you can also take a train to Brive-la-Gaillarde, a very nice town. Note that this walk is not strictly in the Dordogne but in the Lot. Don't worry, it's just as good, if not better. And you will never be far from the Dordogne river.