Paris to Antibes by Car - 1 Week - with a 16 YO Boy- Advice

If your son has an interest in history and is anything like me when i was 16, then some truly medieval castles or ruins should do nicely. Around Carcasonne there are numerous other of the so-called Cathar Castles and ruins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathar_castles
The Cathars where a Christian sect, who fell off with the pope and was destroyed during the little known, but bloody Albigensian Crusade. The mysterious Cathars have fueled lots of conspiricies and Da Vinci Code style books and films

Near Nimes is the superb Roman Aquaduct/Bridge Pont du Gard, which should be a must for any visit in the area. It is possible to canoe the river and pass under the aquaduct. There is also a small, rocky beach on the river, so you can also swin unde the aquaduct if you have stamina.
For an epic rafting trip there is the Gorge du Verdon, very scenic, though you can find canyons in the states as well.

Nice tie- in about the Cathars. That new Robert Langdon movie is coming out, as well. Hmm... Thank you for all of the suggestions!

Samantha, the problem I see with your basic plan is that you are planning on 4 stops in one week, with long-ish drives between each stop. I hate to see you spend so much time driving from place to place and having such a little time once you get there. I think your trip would be much more enjoyable if you stayed in one place or possibly two for your week before Antibes. Or you could move around 3-4 times, but to destinations that are closer together. Could you possibly cover some of the distance by train or by flying?

With 4 stops meaning 5 drives of 3-4 hours each I would think this is a little ambitious over just 7 days. You will feel way too rushed and just won't get to experience all the things you are hoping for along the way.

I appreciate your comments. Our dates are set for when we arrive in Paris, our length of stay in Paris, when we are picking up our rental car and when we are due into Antibes. Yes, we could fudge an extra day. I was going by the timeline of what I had seen on Rick Steve's "Loire to the South of France in 13 Days Tour" along the same route. His tour, covering the same ground, is actually 8 days, yet we weren't going to see all that he had planned on his route.

So...the days are fixed - Monday thru Saturday/Sunday. It would be more helpful for suggestions on what would be prime interest for a teen boy to see. I have spent some time in Paris, as has my husband, and I "eurailed" a good deal of France when I was much, much younger. No, we can't see it all. And yes, we can stay longer in one area than another, if it would be more central. We can slow the pace and even go back to Arles for the day (as we will still have the rental car).

I have actually given good thought to this. With that in mind...I would love some suggestions that would be ideal fro my son to see.

Thank you,

Samantha

He is 16. Ask him. When we traveled with our teens they were put in charge of some of the trip planning. Since you are heading for Sarlat you are well positioned to to do a canoe trip on the Dordogne which is always the highlight of our trips to this area. We are staying in the Dordogne for a week this fall and will be doing it again, this time with friends who are new to the area. There are numerous concessions offering canoes. We just drive a bit down river from Le Roc Gageac and rent canoes; you can pick the length of your trip (in hours) and they will drive you and the canoes to an appropriate spot to enter the water and you paddle back down to the vendor's site. You can rent a plastic barrel for your purse and other belongings you don't want to risk getting wet. This stretch of the Dordogne is stunning with chateaux and charming towns. If you have a nice day, something not to miss.

The other obvious thing in this area is to visit a prehistoric cave. There is also a wonderful museum of prehistoric humankind in Les Eyzies. You don't have time for the best cave, the Font du Gaume but you could certainly stop in Montignac and see the reproduction of Lascaux and we enjoyed Roffignac which didn't have a wait when we were there and is a genuine site.

We love the Dordogne.

Great info on the canoe. I was wondering how that worked. Do you recall hom much it generally costs to rent?

I had read about Roufingnac and very much wanted to take my son there. He is very interested in early modern man, so the museum is also an excellent suggestion. I would be asking more of him, but he is in the middle of exams and we are needing to make reservations fairly fast as the Tour de France is heading North along the track which we are heading South. I am suspecting lots of people choosing to stay for several days to a week in those areas, so lodgings are getting slim.

Any recommendations on lodgning in those main towns I mention in my post or is it suggested to find places outside of town for less?

We've booked a few nights in major cities through Hotels.com. But getting into some of these charming smaller towns would be ideal if anyone has suggestions.

We did a 3-1/2 week trip in France with my 2 boys, who were 13 and 15 at the time. I had lived and studied in France many years ago and traveled at that time as well, so I had definite opinions when I designed the trip. I really designed it around what the boys would enjoy. My boys also enjoy history. Anything Roman worked well -- the Romans were builders. It is just cool to see something 2000 years old. They also liked medieval sites and anything to do with battles. Vineyards are of no interest since they don't drink. They also are not interested in decorative arts so we only visited one chateau (in Burgundy).

I would absolutely recommend the Pont du Gard. If possible, visit Nimes first (great arena with a number of exhibits about gladiators) so you can appreciate how far the water in the aqueduct was going. The Pont du Gard has a great museum. We spent much of the day there (4-5 hours). It would be possible to go faster. We did not canoe but we saw canoes.

I think you could spend 8 days in Arles, Avignon, Orange, Vaison-la-Romaine, and other Provence towns/villages and be very happy. We spent 8 days. We did not have enough time to see all we wanted to see. It is too far to do a day trip from Antibes to this part of Provence and back.

We enjoyed "Cathar castles" (we visited 4 ruined castles closer to Spanish border than Carcassone). I loved this part of France, which you can only do by car and I had not seen before, but it is even further than Carcassone. I personally would skip Carcassone and see castles from the 100 Years War period in Dordogne instead.

I have not been to Sarlat and I have not seen the prehistoric caves. I thought about it for our last trip and then decided to save this area for another trip. I have been to many chateaux in the Loire (many years ago). I personally think there are more interesting parts of France, but I know this area is very popular.

Hope this helps.

EEF > Great Advice! I'll show you what I have planned out so far, keeping in mind that I may just throw out the whole Carcasonne thing and stick within the Dordogne Region instead and Nimes Gladiators. That would probably be of more interest anyway!

3 days - Paris (NEVER long enough!!)
1 Day - Versailles (Palace), Chartres (quick stop at Cathedral - too many will bore him), Amboise (DaVinci home)
Overnight in Amboise
1 Day - Chenonceaux (Chateau de Chenonceau), Ourador-sur-Glane (WWII village)
Overnight in Saint-Junien
1 Day - Sarlat (Canoe the Dore past chateaus and villages)
Overnight in Sarlat-de-La-Caneda
1 Day - Sarlat (Grotte de Rouffignac - cave drawings) or Padirac (Gouffre de Padirac - river tour of underground cave) and Cabreret (Peche Merles - cave drawings)
Overnight in Carcasonne
1 Day - Carcasonne (La Cite - medieval stuff - may switch to Nimes, etc.)
Overnight in Carcasonne
1 Day - Pont du Gard, Les Beaux de Provence (medieval hilltop village/ruins) and Carrieres de Lumieres (a little bit of culture won't hurt the dear lad!)
Overnight in Saint-Remy-de-Provence
1 Day - Avignon (Popes Palace, Avignon Bridge, maybe perfume factory tour)
Overnight in Saint-Remy-de-Provence
1 Day - Arles (Roman Theater and museum), head to Antibes!
Stay for the week in Antibes

Each summer a plan trips in which we travel roughly 4,000 miles in 5 weeks and see so very much. We just aren't the type to kick back and relax in one area, generally speaking. We love to be on the go and see, experience all we can. I plan itineraries out to the hilt to get in everything we ideally want to, then...allow the vacation to flow a bit more organically from there with only certain locations requiring advance reservations to be our way points.

I think this is a pretty good mix, but I believe I will look a bit more deeply into Roman history, etc. in Provence. My son is interested in engineering and I do believe keeping that focus might be better. Alas...Carcassone may yet have to wait another time.

Thank you!

~ Samantha

What about a drive over the Milau bridge and/or an Airbus factory tour near Toulouse?

Hi Samantha! We are going on the Paris and the Heart of France RS Tour with our two older teenage boys this summer, so I've mostly looked into the northern part of your itinerary. My boys are also interested in enginneering, so we will also be going to da Vinci's Clos Luce. Between Paris and Amboise, we will visit Château de Guédelon — a medieval castle being built today using 13th-century materials and techniques. I'm not sure if you have time for that, but I thought that might be of interest to your son. In Paris, there is a behind the scenes tour of the Eiffel Tower which takes you into the machinery room and also the bunker.

Oh...you are so lucky! Have a great time! When do you leave?

Thank you for your input. I've managed to make some adjustments after talking with my son and then adding a few surprises. We have a thing for always going to a zoo or aquarium each summer, so I realized one of the top zoos is a stone's throw away from Chenonceau. In adding that into the schedule, I changed things around a little to allow for a bit more breathing time between activities.

Basically, this is what our trip look s like:

Sunday
Palace of Versailles, Marie Antoinette's Palace, Gardens (4hrs)
Cathedral of Chartres (1-2hrs)

Monday
ZooParc de Beauval (4-5hrs)
Chateau de Chenonceau (2hrs)

Tuesday
Da Vinci's Home (Château du Clos Lucé, Amboise) (2hrs)
Oradour-sur-Glane (WWII Village) (2hrs)

Wednesday
Cave Drawings via train, open 10-11:30am
Canoe on the Dore - Port D'Enveaux - 3p canoe, (1/2 day)

Thursday
Cave, River boat tour - First reservations at 9am (1.5hrs)
Viaduc de Millau, Gorges Du Tarn
Try to make it to Uzes, otherwise Ales

Friday
Sunflowers! Pont du Gard - Aqueduct, museum (1hr)
Arenes de Nimes, Jardins de la Fountains, Castellum Aquae (2hrs)
check in to hotel
in the afternoon:
Medieval Hilltop Village/Ruins/Carrieres de Lumieres - sunset
Nice Dinner - Husband's Bday!

Saturday
Avignon Bridge, Palace of the Pope, Avignon les Halles -food (5-6 hrs)
Walk around Saint-Remy, Nice dinner

Sunday
Geroux-les-Bains to Saint-Adnres-les-Alpes > Lavender Fields
Lunch somewhere on the Lake Castillane | Lavender Fields
Arrivee Antibes/Juan-les-Pins

Looking for hotel suggestions (a little bit of character is good) for the following locations:

• Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher (near the Zoo)
• Amboise
• Rouffignac (considering the Manoir des Cidres)
• Sarlat
• Ales or Uzes
• Saint-Remy-de-Provence

Thank you!

Samantha

I think you may be able to do this revised itinerary. I think taking out Carcasonne and putting in the Millau Viaduct was a good idea. I was not able to fit Millau on our itinerary but it is on my list. You've got a lot on that Thursday already but you will be so close to one of my favorite spots -- Conques which is on (one of the) pilgrimage routes from France to Santiago de Compostela. Conques has a wonderful Romanesque church that I wouldn't miss (I'm a Romanesque church nut). It took me years to get here because it's not really close to anything. Michelin gives it 3 stars.

If you need to drop something, I have been disappointed with Les Baux the 2 times I have been there -- once 30 years ago and again with my boys. It's an interesting site. If you can go when they demonstrate the medieval weapons, that would be cool, but for the effort it takes to get there, I would say it's only so-so. I know others will disagree. I thought the Palace of the Popes was very interesting and an important part of history, but many on this site don't like it. If you have extra time (which your probably won't) -- the theater in Orange is unique (and doesn't take a long time) and the Roman sites in Arles are very interesting. I would do the Roman sites over Les Baux.

My boys say their favorite thing in France was Roman stuff (starting with Pont du Gard, also Orange theater, Nimes, still used Roman bridge in Vaison-la-Romaine). Also walled town of Aigues-Mortes (which surprises me because it was very hot when we were there and the only thing any one wanted to do was eat ice cream!). Another top site was Alessia in Burgundy (where Ceasar defeated the Gauls -- excellent museum). Also "cathar" castles, an 11th century door on a church, and then they mentioned non-sight-seeing things that happened that are part of traveling, the young waiter who studied English by listening to rap (!), the restaurant with the completely flat spoon....interesting what they remember.

It's a funny thing. I have read some real opinionated comments about Avignon and other places. I feast on traveling, so every site has something amazing to offer me. That causes me to have to stop and think about what would achieve other's interests. I've asked here and there. Can't believe my husband is okay with the Zoo! But I am really happy to be honoring this tradition with my son.

I went through Saint-Remy to Les Baux while on a cruise with my mother. We both said we wished we had time to spend in Saint-Remy. I had thought Les Baux was so cool. We were also driven up to the very top and dropped off, thus not having to "work for it". That being said. If we feel too pushed, it is definitely something that could fall off the schedule.

I've also been to Avignon (same trip) and felt fortunate to have an excellent guide explain the intricacies of Palace life and so on. Having studied French and sung the song...just had to go there. But, is it a must for my husband and son? Hard to gauge the temperature on this at the moment. Son has no idea what to expect. I think once we get there, I will have a better idea of his interest and will be able to adjust a few things.

The suggestion of Millau was a great one. Anytime in the future, my son could easily end up on a Mediterranean cruise and see the sites along the cost, but traveling through these smaller towns in the interior will be much more fun. And memorable as the pace can be relaxed and enjoyed. Like I had mentioned before, I plan the hell out of these trips, then let whatever happens organically, happen. If we just want to take an afternoon to picnic and play in a river, so be it. Life is all about enjoying the moments before you, regardless of where you are. Oh, and making sure there is always a patisserie around the next corner...along with wine, cheese, a baguette, oh and foie gras, as well. Hmmm...maybe I meant to say, "Life is a moveable feast!" Yeah, that must be it ;-)

Soooo looking forward to this!!