Quick 7 days in Normany, Brittany and Loire

Use Google Maps for an idea of the huge distance from Dinan to Amboise. I suggest that you prioritize your list so you can drop things when you run out of time. Do check shoulder season opening hours. I note that you didn't mention the D-Day beaches, Fontevraud, cider, public gardens, wine harvest festivals (?), fine dining, neolithic stones. You could consider returning the car in St Pierre des Corps and taking the TGV to CDG.

You also have to reckon with approach times to isolated places (I mean like on peninsulas, not obscure places!) like St. Malo and MSM.

Edit: Typo only

Even for energetic travelers who don't like to linger, I think you're trying to cram an awful lot into 7 days. Since Giverny, Trouville and Deauville are not your top priorities, I'd eliminate them right off the bat.

The weather in the north coastal areas may be wet & chilly by late September, or it may still be mild, but you can be pretty sure it won't be summery bask-on-the-beach weather. The Loire Valley marks the geographic demarcation between north & south. Summery warmth may linger longer there.

The chateau of Villandry is on the other side of Tours from Chambord and Chenonceau, and Amboise for that matter. Driving from one to the next takes a while. I would not try to see all 3 in one day. If you're making Amboise your base, I would stay on the eastern side as there are plenty of chateaux to choose from within a shorter radius. If you're going to be there for 2 nights, that would probably mean visiting no more than 4 chateaux maximum.

We recently did a similar northern France tour with a rental car. If you carefully plan, I think that you can make your tour in 7 days, but you may need to shorten some of it. For example, you may want to consider deleting St. Malo since it has some similarities to Mt. Saint Michel and Dinan. I can if you want give you our Itinerary.

We recently did a similar road trip to what you are proposing, though a couple of days longer to visit family. Leaving that out, here's what we did, with only one day of long driving, from Carnac to Saumur (for the Loire Valley):
Day 1: Drive from Paris area to Giverny, visit gardens and Monet's house in morning, have lunch at a cafe there, then on to Rouen, arriving in time to visit the cathedral and the historic center and have a nice dinner. Sleep in Rouen.
Day 2: Drive along Route des Abbayes to see Jumiege Abbey ruins (fantastic), following the Seine River (a very scenic route) and arrive at Bayeux in time to see the flag-lowering ceremony at 5:30 at the American Cemetery, check in at our hotel, wander around town and enjoy dinner.
Day 3: We went to the tapestry museum, then the museum at Utah Beach (the best one there) and explored the D-Day area. Drove that afternoon to Villedieu-les-Poeles for a night at a gite and dinner in this small town of artisans. You could drive further to Avranches to spend this night.
Day 4: Visit Mont-St-Michel by 9:00. Walk up to the abbey the back way (see RS forum re this entrance to avoid crowds) Explore and have a light lunch on way back down. Leave by about 2 or 3 and drive to Dinan to spend the night. It's close, so you get there early enough to walk around the old town and down to the harbor. We stayed at a hotel near to one of the gates to the old town.
(Day 5 and 6 we split up so some of us could visit family. I'll pretend that didn't happen.)
Day 5: Drove to Quimper for a walkabout and late lunch, then mid-afternoon a leisurely drive to our gite near Auray and dinner at the waterfront in Auray (mussels and coquilles-yay!), a pretty town at an inlet with lots of waterfront restaurants.
Day 6: Visited Carnac for about an hour or two, then our long, 4 hour drive to Saumur, arriving mid to late afternoon. We had a drink at a sidewalk cafe to rest after our long drive, visited some wine-tasting establishments and relaxed over dinner.
Day 7: Stocked up on picnic supplies for our visit to Chenonceau and Chambord. We got to Chenonceau in time for a leisurely visit, followed by a picnic lunch nearby in a lovely setting. Then we drove to Chambord to visit, and after that a short drive to our gite for the night. (You could go straight to Paris from here to be ready for your return trip home.)
We never felt rushed, as most days we never drove for more than 4 hours, and most times drives were 1-3 hours, although maybe there were two drives in a day, but totalling 4 hours.
This was an introduction to first-time visitors to france, and even though there was a lot they didn't see, they saw a variety of things to get their feet wet for a return visit (gardens, cathedrals, museums, WW II history, prehistory, chateaux and medieval history, plus off the beaten path scenic drives to soak up the beauty of the French countryside.)
I agree that St Malo is much like Dinan, and Honfleur is more touristy, so I would skip those, but I would not omit Bayeux, if only for the tapestry.

Check out Gites de France for places to stay. We liked all the ones we stayed at, especially the one near Chambord. Also, in Bayeux, we loved the Hotel Luxembourg; in Dinan, the Hotel de la Porte de St Malo.

I hope this helps. Have a great trip!

I forgot to mention, if you go from Dinan to the Loire Valley, you would, of course gain two days, but if you haven't spent much time in Britanny, I recommend it highly. BTW, there are no "peages" in Bretagne, all roads are free...no tolls. Some ancient agreement the French made with the Breton people.

Wow - thank you. This is the first time I have ever consulted a forum for planning and I'm very appreciative for all the feedback. Honestly, we thought adding in a few chateaux in the Loire might be aggressive, but we figured we could push a little to get a feel for the area and see if we wanted to return. I am fine dropping a chateau (or maybe two) to allow a little more flexibility.

I was trying to avoid the more western areas of Brittany just to keep the overall distance a little less aggressive (since we had planned on returning the car to CDG to fly home) and I am trying to squeeze in a little Loire Valley.

I think we will definitely skip Giverny this round. May pass on Honfleur and St. Malo, though I am interested in a replacement, picturesque port town if possible.

Any great towns we are missing in an of these regions? Some of the larger towns worthwhile (Rouen, Rennes, Tours??) We definitely have flexibility.

In September the weather can be excellent and not too hot, so good for travelling around. I have travelled the region north and the Seine just west of Rouen the last week of last September and the weather was a bit more chilly, but with enough sunshine for me really good. Sorry if I am repeating idea's already mentioned in other posts, but this would be my plan.

What you can do in day 1 depends much the time your plane will arrive. If it is in the morning there is enough time to visit (nevertheless your last post) Giverny in the afternoon and having the oppertunity to deal with jet lag. Giverny is 100km from CDG and most take Paris for driving the A13 toll road to Giverny and Normandy. To avoid busy Paris you can go directly to the N104 just north of CDG with direction Cergy-Pontoisse. Follow the A15 to Magny-en-Vexin and drive from there through lovely countryside, Ambleville and La Roche-Guyon to Giverny. This route is about the same length and way more relaxing. Stay in the neighbourhood.
If having time and interest you can make a little detour to Auvers-sur-Oise just north of Cergy-Pontoisse where Vincent van Gogh spended the last period of his life.

Day 2 You have the whole day for driving to Bayeux, together with a visit to Honfleur and Deauville. The coastal route between the two places has some nice spots and views, to see a really lovely Normandy style village and countryside make a detour to Beuvron-en-Auge east of Caen.

Day 3 Whole day for visiting the D-day beaches, at the end of the day you can drive to Le Mont-Saint-Michel. Last year early June I arrived at 9pm and had the feeling having the place most for myself. Later it became a bit more busy as many want to see it illuminated in the dark.

Day 4 Visit MSM again before the crowds arrive or/and drive along the coastal road to St. Malo with a stop in Cancale. A few hours is enough to see St. Malo and have enough time to visit Dinan in the late afternoon (for having dinner) too. You can stay in Dinan or go back to the same hotel/B&B near or in MSM.

Day 5 Drive to Amboise, you don’t have to visit the castle there, it is nice enough to relax and walk around a bit.

Day 6 Not too far away from Amboise is Chenonceau, think the most beautiful of all in the Loire. Best is to drive this day back to CDG for a hotel as close as possible for the flight back home. Worth is a detour to Chambord just for seeing the outside and it’s dramatic setting. Late in the evening you can visit Paris. Worth is looking for a flight back home from Orly as you can avoid the busy traffic or plan to drive around Paris after rush hour.

Day 7 Depending the time you fly back home. If you stay near CDG and if having time you can visit Senlis and also nearby Château de Chantilly.

Rouen is certainly worth a visit but not so easy to drive through. Downstream of Rouen you have a bunch of lovely villages (as Judy already noticed) but you need time as driving around is very time consuming. But if you like a stop in La Bouille along the Seine and just a few minutes drive from the A13 is worth to consider.

It is a tight schedule, but now you have an overview if it is doable for you or not. With such a tight schedule book the hotels/B&B’s in advance.

We spent 10 days in Bretagne and Chartres. You are planning too much. We spent 5 days near Quimper. We arrived from England into Dinard, and it took 5 hours to drive to Quimper. We stayed in a small hotel. Very pleasant, wonderful breakfast. We visited Dinan (5 stars), Rennes (confusing driving), and many coastal villages. Chartres was great for 3 nights. I would concentrate on staying in 2 places, and taking day trips. For 7 days, I would do Bretagne/Normandy, and skip the Loire. There is plenty to see and do in those two areas.

Thanks to all! I am looking forward to refining my planning. I think we can stretch to 8 days to allow a little more flexibility and continue to edit the planning a bit.

I was there last September and the weather was nice. Cool in the evenings and nice in the day.

I think you should skip Giverny. It's an easy day trip from Paris and something you can see anytime from there. Instead take a train straight to Normandy.

I chose Rouen. It's about an hour to 1 1/2 hours by train, has a good medieval center. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake here. After looking around I picked up a rental car and drove to Etretat to see the cliffs. I skipped Honfleur because I planned to see more port towns in Brittany (and up the coast in Etretat and Fecamp) and I felt this one would be more touristy.

The Bayeux Tappestry was a must see for me, even though I can skip the D-Day sights. I stopped there for a couple hours on the way to MSM. I really liked it. This time of year gets some of the best tides, so the road may be covered with water for a couple hours at high tide while the bay looks empty at low tide. I didn't do a guided walk onto the mudflats but it looked interesting and fun. I just went to the the TI for directions to the ramparts (almost directly across the street), climbed the ramparts to the Abbey, toured the Abbey then came back down the main streets with some exploring chapels and towers on the way down. It's really touristy but I still really liked it. I had planned to get an omelet there, but the price, as I recall, starts at 35 euros - I paid less for many Airbnb's I stayed at.

Before St. Malo, I'd suggest stopping in Cancale for a meal of oysters. I'd heard they were the best anywhere and I was surprised that they really were that good. In St. Malo, try to be there through a low tide. You can walk the ramparts all around the town at high tide or go to the beach and wade in the water (not too cold in September). At low tide, you can walk out to two small island fortifications. The town itself has a museum and and endless supply of gift shops. I did get a Bretton flag there because the shopkeeper was really nice about explaining the flag and it's history.

Dinan is really nice. The old center is worth walking and the port area (it's upriver a ways from the sea) is really nice too.

My loop went a little further into Brittany.

I do think you are skipping something that should be a part of a trip to Brittany. The megaliths in Carnac can be seen conveniently from either Vannes (a great port town with a huge medieval center) or Auray (smaller but also nice). I was most thrilled to visit the Cairn de Gavrinis. It's only accessable by boat but there's a ferry/guided tour from Larmor Baden. It's all in French but it's a relatively new find and off the beaten track for the average tourist. Depending on the time of day, you may also see some amazing tidal flows in the bay there (almost like white water rapids).

After that I headed for Loire. I stopped at Fountevraud Abbey, then Chinon. Both have a lot of historical significance and, I thought, offered something different from the plush Loire Vally chateaux. I think Amboise is a good base for the western chateux. I went to Villandry, Chenonceau, Amboise and Clos Luce, then trained back into Paris from there.

Thank you for the terrific suggestions!