After responses to an earlier post, I am persuaded that we need to limit our 10 days in France to one, two, or three geographically close areas, to avoid excessive travel times. We travel only by train, or bus if absolutely necessary (renting a car is not an option). We want suggestions of charming towns or small cities separated by one or two hour train journeys (We are willing to travel more hours to get to and from the selected areas). We will be traveling in early September. We are skipping Paris this trip, except for the airport. We have already visited Avignon and Strasbourg.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7377 posts
We enjoyed Metz for a couple days.
Posted by
225 posts
The area around Strasbourg has a number of charming small towns, but I do not know what the train/bus connections are like (as we had a car when we were in the area). Peter
Posted by
Michigan
32 posts
If you can, go to the Grand Braderie in Lille. First weekend of September. It's so amazing!
Then you could swing over to Brussels or Bruges.
Posted by
OP
Atlanta GA
3 posts
Thank you for the suggestion about Lille. We will be there the second week of September so we will miss the festival by only a few days. We have visited Bruges and Brussels. We really loved Bruges.
James Bird
Posted by
Darmouth, MA, USA
391 posts
In 2023 we took a direct train from CDG to Lyon. Loved Lyon and them proceeded to a bike trip in Provence. Aix-en-Provence is lovely but not much there but there are plenty of other small towns. If you like history Arles is not to be missed.