We are going to be travelling for about 10 days and exploring the idea of southern France. I would love to get some feedback on what I am thinking:
Fly into Lyon and drive south towards Marseille.
Stay in Montpeiller.
Montpeiller to Marseille .
Marseille to Nice.
My biggest question , Is driving doable in France with 2 kids( 4,5). Second, am I being too ambitious with two kids.
Sounds like a wonderful trip. I wonder, driving at home, how much do your kids do the "Are we there yet?" thing? How far do you drive at home in a given day? If you stick to the Autoroute and drive 130 KPH, slowing for the occasional toll station, you can make pretty good time, but you'll have to assess your energy and fatigue, and that of the children. Are you going to be doing all the driving, or will there be another driver to switch every 90 minutes to two hours? Are you planning on regular breaks along the route?
You may have definite reasons for the itinerary you mention, in that precise order, but is flying in to Marseille a possibility we did that last year, then drove to Lyon, but with lots of stopovers in between)? It almost sounds like you're planning to get in the car at the Lyon airport and head straight out towards Marseille. If you're figuring on some time in Lyon first, then never mind about that part :-) Still, were you planning on seeing some things between Lyon and the cities on the coast? Otherwise, what about taking the train from Lyon, or otherwise flying to the coast instead of Lyon, then picking up your rental car in Montpellier or Marseille?
What time of day are you arriving in Lyon and/or leaving Lyon? If it's later in the day and not in the morning, perhaps Valence would offer a stopover one night, before you continue farther south. We stayed near there for a week last summer, and caught parts of two stages of the Tour de France - it's a neat city!
You may have already figured all of this, but be sure the vehicle you rent has room for you, the kids and child safety seats in the back seat, plus all your luggage, snacks, etc. You will probably want to be able to stow all the luggage out of sight when the vehicle's parked in an urban or isolated environment.
