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One Night Stays!?

Posted by (Cincinnati) on

Oh, wise forum members, please give your advice on our itinerary. We do not mind a one night stay now and then, particularly when the arrival time is early and the destination a small town. However, after using both this forum and Rick Steves France to help me plan, I'm finding several one night stays in a row. Advice to eliminate any? Here's my plan after 5 nights in London.
9/15: Eurostar to Lille, rental car pick up ; sleep in Rouen and do Rick Steve's Rouen walk, dinner & then Mass on Sunday morning.
9/16: Drive to Bayeux, stopping at Abbey of Jumieges and Honfleur; sleep in Bayeux.
9/17: Bayeux Tapestry, Cathedral, river walk; sleep Bayeux.
9/18: private tour with Edward Robinson; sleep Bayeux.
9/19: tour museums and anything else not covered with tour; sleep Bayeux.
9/20: Drive to Mont St-Michel, check into hotel in La Caserne, go to MSM late afternoon (Abbey closes at 6:00 in September). I'm thinking arrival by 3:00 and stay into evening. Sleep near Mont St-Michel.
9/21: Scenic drive from MSM to Dinan with possible stops in Cancale & St-Malo. Arrive in Dinan early afternoon; do Dinan walk, Rance River Valley explore; sleep Dinan.
9/22: Drive(about 3 hours) to near Chinon; do Rick Steves Chinon Walk, taste some wine, sleep Chinon.
9/23: See Abbaye Royale De Fontevraud and/or Chateau d' Azay-le-Rideau. Drive to Amboise & explore town. Sleep Amboise.
9/24: Tour Chenonceau in the morning & Chambord in the afternoon. Sleep Amboise.
9/25: Drive to Chartres to see Cathedral and town. Sleep Chartres.
9/26: Drive to CDG to return car and fly home; flight @ 6:30 PM.

Our reservations are all made, but all can also be changed. In Bayeux we have an apartment, but all others are hotels or B & Bs. We really dislike "back tracking" so hope to have an itinerary where we're always moving forward. I should also say that we don't really unpack for a one or even two night stay so we're easily out and about the next day.
I'm looking forward to hearing from other forum members as I'm the primary travel planner for our trips. Thanks!

Posted by
1229 posts

Looks good to me too. I think one night stays are fine when you have a car!

Posted by
3888 posts

I actually like your itinerary and plan. I think it works quite well. I don't mind one-night stays. What I mind are one-night stays followed by 8-hour drives so all you do is drive from place to place and don't get to explore anywhere. The 21st looks a little cramped with the stops but other than that I like the plan.

Posted by
23 posts

Thanks so very much! I spend a LOT of time, as we all do, planning, so I really appreciate getting validation from others. Having a car definitely makes this agenda work.

Posted by
14569 posts

My experience is not with driving but I agree with JHK that 21st looks pretty busy. If you stop at Cancale and Saint-Malo I don't think you'll reach Dinan by early afternoon. One of the things I enjoyed most at Saint-Malo was walking out to the islets of Fort National, Grand Be (where the tomb of writer Chateaubriand is located) and Petit Be but you may have to allow time for the tide to shift before you can get to them. Of course, it's your choice as to what you do here but you may need some flex time.

Posted by
1850 posts

For Sept. 21, you could stay in St. Malo, a much more interesting and lively town than Dinan. Next morning, drive the short distance to Dinan and explore there for 2-3 hours which is plenty of time for Dinan. Then head to Chinon for a late afternoon walk. The Rick Steves guide book seems overly entranced with Dinan, which is sort of "York lite."

Posted by
23 posts

I appreciate the ideas, and will do some research into St.Malo. It looks like staying there would also be a good option.

Posted by
15768 posts

I haven't done a long string of 1-nighters in Europe, but I've done them quite a bit by car in the U.S. and it's not a big deal. You're in one country, one language, one currency. My advice is to pack everything you need for a night's stay (not including clothes) in one bag that you can easily empty and repack. Then have your suitcase arranged so you can pull out clothes for the next day and toss them into a tote or similar, leaving most of your stuff in the trunk. My only concern would be with laundry. Will you need to do hand washing and will stuff have time to dry or do you have time built in for a laundromat (either self-service or same day drop-off service).

Posted by
6713 posts

On 9/15, hopefully you'll be on an early Eurostar into Lille and have time for the three-hour drive to Rouen and the things you want to do there. You may also have some Rouen time the next morning, since the drive to Bayeux will take about three and a half hours, not counting your stops at Jumieges and Honfleur. You can get to Bayeux late, since you'll have three more full days there.

I don't know about Brittany but otherwise I think it's a doable itinerary. I'd give the Loire some more time but this isn't my trip. I like Chani's advice about using your car trunk as a closet/hamper and exchanging dirty for clean clothes each day. This is our technique on long US road trips. But make sure you have a trunk that's fully concealed (coffre cache) if you're going to keep stuff in it overnight or in tourist-infested parking areas.

Posted by
74 posts

I'd also encourage you to switch the Dinan night to St. Malo. Walking along and inside the walls at night is really quite special. They also do light shows on the outside of the walls, but not sure if they will be running in September. Also, treat yourself to some super fresh seafood while you're there!

I've never been to Dinan, so can't really speak to it, but St. Malo is just fascinating.

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