One month in France: draft itinerary

You've listed 4 twice, so I count 10 moves in 30 days.

It's certainly a matter of traveling style, but I'd cut the number of location changes in half, especially with an 8 and 12 year old.

Be aware that a location change eats up at least half a day in packing, checking out traveling and checking in. Therefore your 3 nights can equate to an afternoon the first day and a morning the second of ground time.

We used to do whirlwind trips like this, but the longer we travel, the more we appreciate spending a little time where we visit instead of just zipping through it.

It looks like a fun trip! It is a bit of a faster clip, but it actually looks somewhat similar to the types of itineraries that I do. I think you've favored less backtracking over fewer moves. Everyone has their preference. When I can, I try to avoid 2 night stays, but sometimes that's the way things work out. You might take days from Bordeaux and add one to Sarlot and another somewhere else, perhaps St-Malo. There is a lot to do in that St. Malo area. Do you plan to visit Mont St Michel from there? I think kids would find it fascinating. It seems like people don't always love Bordeaux especially for longer than a day.

I think you would want to pack VERY efficiently (packing cubes help us) and make sure that you think this is a pace that your kids could handle. At that age, mine would have been happy to do that pace. It rarely takes me much time at all to change locations and calculations of time that the change would take should subtract travel times that otherwise would happen for day trips.

I'm interested in what people think of your approach for your posts. I think you might get more precise responses at each point of your planning process and people are more likely to see the updates and respond. On the other hand, if people don't mentally "connect" your threads they might be left wondering what choices you've made. Not on judgement on my part, I'm still relatively new to the forum and the more informal guidelines.

Replace Caen with Bayeux, nicer place to stay.

I woulde skip Bordeaux, there is nothing to entertain children there. And barely a day's worth of sightseeing for adults.
With the extra 2 nights, I'd add one night to St Malo (pour la plage) and one night to Sarlat (to chill in the countryside).
To reduce driving distances, I would also choose Toulouse instead of Lyon as the end point, and combine the 6 Auvergne and Alps nights to replace with 6 Pyrénées nights. The area around Cauterers is a great base (Cauterets, Luz, Bareges).

I agree with Suki. I was not impressed with Caen other than its museum (which is VERY large) and probably less interesting to kids than actual D-Day sights, and the smaller museums. I thought the Utah beach museum (also fairly large) was far more interesting and would be more interesting I think to kids. I would base in Bayeaux OR still can't recommend enough, Arromanches.

Agree, Stay in Bayeux, and be sure to see the Tapestry!

As for the "fast pace", we travel like this all.the.time with some stays as little as 1-2 nights. We tried the "base" method one summer and found it really exhausting; so much time driving every day to get to the day-trip-destination and then back again. Didnt like it at all. We tend to stay in big cities for 4-5 nights (Paris, Rome, etc), and smaller towns fewer nights. This past summer we traveled for 3 ½ weeks (oh, by the way, we started these travels when our three kids were 9, 12, and 14. Now they are 11, 14, 16) and alternated 1 and 2 and 3 night stays (except for big cities)! It was fast, but because I thoroughly researched the areas, I knew what we could do with each day and frankly, two-three days was all we needed. And I didnt want to backtrack! And the timing was perfect! Just as we were feeling 'done' with a place, it was time to depart the next morning. That said, we are usually out of the apartment by 9a and come back by 9-10p. A LOT of walking. By the time we leave a city we have walked everywhere, and I mean that. In Barcelona this summer, we looked at public transportation possibilities, but never ended up using any. We walked from one end to another. So much of what we see and enjoy is the day-to-day city life going on as we walk from one point-of-interest to another.
We did a similar trip to yours two years ago. We loved the Dordogne - be sure to rent kayaks and paddle down the river - we did this; found a rope swing along the way that the kids loved, and then we stopped in La Roque Gageac for lunch - such a fun day, and go to the castles, especially castlenaud with the Trebuche demo. We went to the cave with the train that goes down into it (cant remember the name), and that was great. We didnt stay in Sarlat itself but in Vézac at a B&B that had a pool, which was great at the end of a day of sightseeing.
We went to Mont St Michel at 5p, and had it almost to ourselves. As we walked over the bridge to the Monastery, hoards of people were walking the opposite direction. MSM is open until 19:00, so we had two hours to walk around with few other people, and then we had dinner on the rock and then departed.
Sounds like a great trip

Thanks to all, it's very helpful !

1) So Bayeux instead of caen...Noted !

2) Why Paris last (cant remember who said that) ? we are always jet lagged the first day and we do like to be in a big city for many days so we can be ready for the rest of the trip. at the end we are often a bit tired and dont appreciated the trip as much as the begin. In the past years we were jetlagged in Rome, Venice,Berlin and Barcelona, all went well !

3) seing less is seing more, tha's what we always thought, maybe it,s too much. We were trying to make combination of Cities, villages, natural wonders and fun places for kids.

4) Our kids are good travellers, we are taking them with us since they are born, many road trip here in in Québec, Eastern Canada, many parts of USA, 3 european trips. They are interested kids , they are very calm and not the kids who want to go in shop to buy everything. They are foodies like us and like to go in restaurants. and since they are french speaking France will be easy for them (and us !)

5) and St Malo...we are from Québec, and the guy who discover canada (jacques cartier) have started is trip there. Theres many connections between Québec and St-Malo...and I do teach history for living so.....

We will deal with Paris without any problem. We have been in Berlin, Lisbon, Barcelona, Rome, New-York, Washington, Venice,and Chicago...and many other large cities....

And we are french speaking, english is our second language so no problem there!

This is a nice long trip. Do yourself a favor and vary the pace a bit. Otherwise things blend together.

Rent a place for a whole week. Someplace with lots of great day trips but also local charm. Some place to catch your breath and savor where you've been.

I nominate Sarlat, if you like a town that size versus one of the small hill towns on the river. Alternatively, consolidate all your time in Brittany into a single location and add a night, visit some of those sights as day trips.

Skip Bordeaux. I like the idea of touring the SW after the Dordogne and flying home from Toulouse, but all of your other ideas sound pretty good too except swap Chamonix for Annecy. Lyon is a pretty great place with fun stuff for all ages, but don't bother if you are just there for the night.

I don’t think it matters much if you do Paris at the beginning or the end. If you will be doing activities in Paris that keep you up late, such as the theater or concerts, I would put it at the end. Otherwise, I think you could do either.

We did a 3-1/2 week trip in France when my kids were a little older than yours. My kids really enjoyed “Roman stuff” in Provence, then outdoor activities in Auvergne (we stayed in Conques, Salers and Orcival). I snuck in some churches as well. We all loved Auvergne. It was off the beaten track and very relaxing.

I notice you are skipping Burgundy, but you can’t see everything on one trip.

Adam: thanks for those answers/ideas ! Lyon is just to catch our flight back if we chose to go in the alps.

Andrew.reis:You have the right to do it ! What suits us best is arrival in a big city for 4-5 night. And you are the one who said that the language barrier could be a problem on the first days, I was just saying that, this time, it wont be one for us.

Eef: whit kids we wont be up very late, maybe some later meals than what we us to, but nothing more. And yes we are skipping Burgundy, and Alsace and ....many parts ! We have to make some choices ! Auvergne seems to bring something different in the mix, we like that idea.

I would suggest keeping Paris first.

When my grandson went with us on his first trip in in June 2005 at 4, we went to Paris first after landing at CDG from SFO, just as you have listed above, after which we headed north into the Pas-de-Calais area, His trip was only for 2 weeks in France.

Hi again!

How about:

Paris 5 nights
Honfleur 2 nights
Bayeux 2 nights
Somewhere around st malo ( with a stop at MSM in route)4-5 nights
One night between st-Malo and Sarlat
Sarlat ( or near) for 4 nights
Carcasonne ( near) one night
Provence near mont Ventoux 5-6 nights
Alps ( Annecy ?) 4 nights
Lyon 2 nights. Fly home

Total: 30-32 nights

I like your 10/15 proposal. Depending on your plans for Honfleur, you could do it as a day trip from Bayeux (I hate packing, moving, unpacking because one of the kids always forgets something). Or even base yourselves in Honfleur, but I suggested Bayeux my family found it easy to spend five nights there seeing D-Day beaches, tapestry, etc.

If you've done this sort of trip before you'll know to allow time for doing laundry and the occasional rainy day museum visit (but I mention it for other readers). And if you can, involve the whole family in the day-to-day planning. We've used Cynthia Harriman's Day to Choose concept for every family trip, even though the kids are now 34 and 31 (Take your Kids to Europe, c. 2007). It hasn't been updated in ages but if you get it from the library it's worth the trouble for her planning strategies.

Have fun!