Paris Itinerary + Side Trip

Loire Valley. Base yourself in Tours or Amboise, then shuttle/day tours to castles if you don’t want to rent a car. My teen loved this part of our trip to France.

I'll add a second vote for Amboise - low-key town is easy to navigate. You could book local tours to the Chateaux, but with a family you might find a car more practical once you get there. Driving would be over scenic country roads. Easy train ride from Paris. Rick's video covering the town:

https://blog.ricksteves.com/blog/video-travel-bite-amboise-france/

My husband and I spent a month in Aix in 2021 and LOVED it! We cannot wait to go back!

That said, I think with teens, I would choose elsewhere. Aix is going to be about 4+ hours to get into town. And, the beauty of Aix is that there are no big sights to see. There is a charming pedestrian town with beautiful medieval architecture, tree-lined plazas, daily markets, fountains everywhere, a small museum with a few pieces from the Masters and a cathedral that dates back to the 12th century.

I like the idea of the Loire Valley. There is Amboise and some other charming towns. You could rent bikes, tour chateau, find some good restaurants.

Or how about Sarlat? It would give you a charming pedestrian market town, yet you could go canoeing, see Lascaux cave in the Dordogne: https://www.lascaux-dordogne.com/en/lascaux-cave.

Normandy logistics seem doable enough, especially if you base in Bayeux instead of Caen. Train out there, cathedral and tapestry, overnight, then a tour of D-Day beaches (Overlord and Dale Booth are popular on this forum, I haven't done this), overnight, then a tour out to Mont-Saint-Michel and back (I think you can get one from the Churchill Hotel in Bayeux), overnight, then train back to Paris. That's three nights.

Not the best way to visit MSM, which can be very crowded during the day. And both kinds of tours may be booked up by now, especially in early June when people are observing the D-Day anniversary. But it's worth looking further into if you haven't already. Of course you could spend much more time in Normandy, or anywhere else, if you had it. But Normandy's advantage is minimal travel time from Paris. Plenty of good food there. It's not a wine-growing region but there's plenty from other areas!

I would flip this trip so you go to your furthest spot on arrival using that first nasty jet leg day on logistics. And finish in Paris. Otherwise you waste one of your prime days on logistics of getting back to Paris for the flight home. How much nicer to spend this day seeing something interesting.

And Caen is not a good Normandy base or IMHO a very interesting place compared to Bayeux where you can also see the Tapestry. I'd do Bayeux, St. Malo and Paris. If you are counting nights as days, note that 3 nights is two full days. You gain a little by putting all Paris days together soyou have 4 nights 3 full days in Paris at the end.

Thank you - these responses are so helpful!

Of course flipping it makes so much sense.

So, these would be our two options. One seems tight and the other seems a bit more loose!

Option 1:
Day 1 arrive paris, train to Bayeux
Day 2 Bayeux D-Day beaches
Day 3 St Malo Mont St Michel tour
Day 4 St Malo
Day 5 Paris
Day 6 Paris
Day 7 Paris
Day 8 Paris
Day 9 fly out

Option 2:
Day 1 arrive paris, train to Amboise
Day 2 Amboise
Day 3 Amboise
Day 4 Paris
Day 5 Paris
Day 6 Paris
Day 7 Paris
Day 8 Paris
Day 9 fly out