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Northern France in late October

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We are considering a trip to northern France the week of October 19-25. We will likely fly into Paris and have 4-5 days to explore some part of northern France before we return to Paris and travel on to Amsterdam. We have visited Paris itself, Normandy and Burgundy, so we wish to explore some other area of France relatively close to Paris; Mont Saint-Michel is a possibility, but we are concerned about the climate during that part of the year. We would like others' experiences about visiting the northwestern French coast during this time of year as well as suggestions for other sights in this general area that are worth visiting; one of our passions is wine and wine tasting, so we would like to incorporate that into our tour.

Thanks in advance for your ideas.

Bob H.

Per your feedback I should amend my request to say: "We would like others' experiences about visiting areas of France within approximately 400 km of Paris during this time of year; although we are open to other directions particularly if there is the likelihood of bad weather, our current preference is to head west towards the Atlantic coast."

Posted by
9110 posts

It sounds like you're talking about Brittany?

It could get chilly and damp with wind. It could be all sunshine.

Grab a jacket and go. The area's fairly uncrowded anyway.

Before we start listing all the places.......NO WINE IS GROWN IN THE AREA. Sorry.

Posted by
1971 posts

Mont Saint-Michel for me is already western France, so do you mean actually the north-western coast between Le Havre and Dunkerque is what you are looking for?

Posted by
1005 posts

I've traveled the Brittany coast and it is marvelous--if the weather holds. In mid-October you can expect a good deal of rainy weather. Also, there are no wineries to speak of in northern Brittany. If you really love wine, it would be better to hit the Champagne region around Reims and save Mont St-Michel for another trip.

Posted by
8045 posts

We spent the last 5 nights of October in Normandy the year before last; 1 night at Mont St. Michel, 2 in Bayeux with an Overlord tour of the landing beaches on the full day, and 2 in Honfleur with a day trip to Etretat on the full day. We trained to Caen and picked up the car there from Paris where we had been for two nights. We returned to Paris and spent November in Paris. You can see some pictures that give you an idea of the weather and such for us then on my photo journal at www.janettravels.wordpress.com in the category 'Normandy.' As you will see the weather was a bit showery and overcast -- but one big benefit is that there were no crowds even at MSM which must be unbearably crowded in summer given its narrow street. I would definitely do MSM -- we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We like cider and so took advantage of the fact that this is cider country to enjoy the wide varieties available in Normandy. I don't think of it as wine country but we are not experts on that and so maybe someone can point you to opportunities for wine tasting.

Posted by
9110 posts

Yo, Bob

How about a little help here? The northwest coast could be anywhere between Saint Nazaire and the Belgian border (maybe even all the way around from La Rochelle?).

You said you'd seen Normandy, but Janet's typing her heart out about it.

Give us a target.

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