Proposed Travel Plans, Advice Needed

Congrats on your 10 year anniversary!

It is always a bit iffy to fly in and then take a train somewhere else right away. Allow time for a delayed flight, a long line at immigration and customs, then getting to Gare St. Lazare for your train to Rouen. You might want to consider picking up your rental car the next day, unless it's a Sunday.

Your first 3 nights you stay in 3 different places. One night stands are best to be avoided whenever possible. It's easier with a car, but constantly changing locations can take a lot out of you.

Some people are okay winging it, but I'm of the mindset that I want to stay where I want, and that often means booking early. Will you be stayin in just one place on days 9 & 10? Speaking of days, I find it easier to plan by nights. If you stay one night you will have a partial day or part of 2 days in a place. Two nights is one full day, three nights is two days, etc. Planning that way gives me a clearer idea of how much time I really have.

Don't forget to allow time in an almost 3 week trip to do mundane things like laundry.

I bring a GPS when I drive in Europe, plus a paper map. If your phone will work offline as a GPS, there's no reason to bring another device. Study up on the driving laws. Know that in France the road tolls are high and they have plenty of speed cameras. You will need an International Drivers Permit (IDP) to drive in France. It can be obtained at AAA. You probably won't be asked for it when you pick up your car, but if you have some kind of incident you will be required to have it. You will also need your regular drivers license.

It's good to see you are spending a good amount of time in Paris. Of course in Paris, it's never enough time for me!

Have a great trip!

The itinerary and routing sounds wonderful - youve done lots of research.
My only suggestion would be to perhaps reduce the number of hotels you need to book by 2 ...
-- Staying 2 nights in Rouen and doing Honfleur as a day.
-- Staying 3 nights in Amboise and doing Chinon as a day.
Stayed a week on Ile St Louis last time I was in Paris - it's a great location.
Something like this ... http://www.vrbo.com/369883

The drive to the Dordogne will take a lot longer than you think; not sure there is time to make that drive and do the river in the same day.

I think finishing in Paris is a great idea, but I think you are doing too many regions with too many one night stops. But you should travel the trip you want. We thought our 5 nights in Normandy was a quicky trip.

Thank you for your ideas. I think you are right, we are doing to many one-nighters. Maybe we should spend the night I was thinking we'd spend in Honfleur and just spend it in Bayeaux instead. And just using Amboise as a base for the Loire instead of trying to stay in Chinon. I'll look up the drive to the Dordogne, thanks for the tip. I'm kind of trying to cram as I know we'll not be again in France for a long time. This is a once in a lifetime trip while we are raising small kids (8, 6, and 3). We'll return after our kids are grown. Thanks again everyone. I'll post a revised itinerary again sometime soon. And I'm sure I'll have lots more questions by then.

In European travel, it always takes longer than you think.
This advice can be easily disregarded, but a price will be paid, in the quality of your experience.
You learn, then you apply your experience to the next trip, if there is a next trip.
Or, you could apply the experience (of others) on your first trip.

Thanks for the sage advice Kent, hopefully this is our first of many travels to Europe, and then I can give some advice to others, thanks again.

Congratulations on your 10th anniversary! Your great challenge will be to stay alive through this demanding travel schedule & so it is a great thing that you have youth on your side! I must add that you are choosing the absolute best time of year to visit France! We are just back & as a result of this trip's timing France for me will always smell of roses & honeysuckle....blissful! Not only is the weather great but you avoid the crowds!

I would urge you to drop the two days in the Loire Valley & tack that time on to a longer visit in the Dordogne - or otherwise consolidate your time in France in fewer areas. Although your ideas are marvelously concise you haven't taken travel time into account & this will be your undoing. We just drove (just two weeks ago!) from Sarlat-la-Caneda in the Dordogne to Azay-le-Rideau & it took at least 3.5 hours & so it would be impossible for you to both drive from Amboise in the Loire to the Dordogne & do much of anything in a single day. The thing too about visiting chateaux is that more than two is overkill for most people. Stick to one or two memorable ones. We chose Villandry & Chenonceaux (stayed in the village of Azay-le-Rideau) & felt they were just right although the crowds at Chenonceaux were aggravating! That said if I were to edit our trip, these two days in the Loire Valley would be the two I'd lop out & devote to either the Dordogne or the Champagne country near Rheims & Epernay which we saw on our way back to Brussels to fly out.

Here is our itinerary from just last month (& I wouldn't change much about it!) - we flew into Brussels & drove our rental car to Verdun to see the WWI battlefields (1 night at Hattonchatel - MARVELOUS!); then 3 hours driving on to Alsace's wine route, based for 3 nights in Riquewihr (my husband's favorite area); then 2 nights in Beaune in Burgundy followed by 3 nights in Villeneuve-les-Avignon; 1 night in Carcassonne (seeing the Pont du Gar en route); 5 nights in Sarlat-la-Caneda; 2 nights in Azay-le-Rideau; 1 night in Rheims & back to Brussels for one night before flying out. I don't think I would change any of it (except perhaps to stay longer in the Dordogne or Champagne country, & avoid the Loire entirely) & think we did well to avoid Paris - but then we'd been there before. Paris is truly a trip worthy of itself.....

I hope this is of help!

Congratulations! What a wonderful anniversary trip. I agree with the other posters who think you may be setting yourself up for a grueling trip. What I'm wondering is why you have chosen some of the sights/locations you have. Some of them may be very important and you wouldn't want to drop them. If you or your wife love needlework or the period of history depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry (I do), then by all means visit. If you don't, I would skip it and see more of the D-Day sights. The Peace Museum in Caen is fabulous and a visit to Pointe du Hoc is worthwhile as well. The American cemetery is not to be missed, second only to Arlington National Cemetery in impact for me.
I'm one who loves the chateaux of the Loire, however I would skip Chinon unless you have a particular reason for being there. It's a lovely town, but not really on a par with the other sites you are interested in. I would recommend driving to Amboise and using that as your base. You could stop at Azay-le-Rideau on the way, but it isn't necessary. Photos of it are fabulous, and the chateau is interesting, but you could get more time to visit chateaux if you skipped it and based in Amboise. Amboise is a nice little town and the chateau and Clos-Luce are walking distance to each other. Both are worth a visit. It's an easy trip to the chateaux of Chambord and Chenonceaux from Amboise. If you like flowers and gardens, I would highly recommend seeing Chenonceaux and Villandry. Chambord is wonderful just because of its scale, but not much in the way of gardens. The Dordogne is an interesting and picturesque area. I would recommend seeing as much as you can in that area, and maybe leave Carcassone for another year. All of this said, this is your trip and if you want to see these places, you should. There are just so many wonderful sites to visit in France, that it is difficult to choose. Whatever you finally decide upon, I'm sure it will be a trip to remember.

It would be too fast a pace for me, but I'm twice your age, so go for it! Driving in France is easy and (mostly) fun. The autoroutes are expensive but very fast and easy.

One thought -- on your first day, there's no direct train from CDG to Rouen, you'll have to take the RER train to Gare du Nord, then Metro or taxi to Gare St-Lazare, then get your train to Rouen. Or taxi directly to St-Lazare. Time-consuming and maybe expensive. Why not get the car at the airport and just drive to Rouen? According to Via Michelin it's a couple of hours, mostly on motorways. You'll be tired and jet-lagged but it can't be harder than all that changing trains and stuff in Paris. The Via Michelin site is useful for route-planning, though it tends to underestimate travel times. Even so, driving should get you to Rouen faster, and much more comfortably, than the train via Paris. You may not have much energy left for Jean d'Arc that same day, but you could see her the next morning. And, if you're going to Chinon, don't miss the striking statue of her downtown. As you probably know, Chinon is where she met the dauphin and inserted (temporarily) the spine he needed to carry on.