Please sign in to post.

To France for 4 wks each June, 2016 and 2017 - best way to split in half?

We usually have the month of June to travel, and this year have tickets in/out of Paris June 3rd/June 30th. We've recently spent 10 days in Paris, so we won't be going into the city. We're renting a car. Originally we'd planned to make a wiggly circle to see the rest of France. We usually stay in most places 1 or 2 nights, with an occasional 3rd night. Though longer apartment stays are popular, we prefer not having a home base to go back to for multiple nights. Mainly we like to be in new places with ambience in the longer summer evenings, walk around, sit in squares. We're interested in history more than fine art.

So, our (happy) situation - after looking more closely at the RS planning map, we realize that 27 nights will not be enough and we've decided to see 1/2 of France this summer and come back to France again in June 2017 to see the rest.

We're thinking in this case of taking the ferry to Jersey/Guernsey Islands for a few days this year, since we'll have more time flexibility, and next year of taking a similar amount of time to explore the Basque area of Spain.

My question is, where are the logical geographical breaks? I'm looking at the planning map and the center area of France seems to have fewer featured sights/sites. What are your opinions of best ways to take in France in 2 equal chunks?

Merci beaucoup!

Posted by
3580 posts

RS used to have two France tours, Western France and Eastern France. You could take them back to back. One tour started in Rouen, headed to Normandy and Mt San Michelle then on to the Loire Valley, Albi, Carcassonne, Arles. I think it was two weeks.

The second tour covered Eastern France and began in Nice, headed to Chamonix, Lyon, and other eastern sites. I think it ended in Paris.

The Western France tour could be expanded to include Channel Islands and Basque Country.

Posted by
345 posts

Are these two books still available? I really don't care so much about hotels and restaurants. I want the places to see and things to do.

We have been all over France on various trips. We rent cars so we can visit out of the way places.

This year, I am thinking of the southern half, west from Marseille to the Atlantic and then returning to the Luberon area of Provence.

Thoughts?

Posted by
1175 posts

We took the ferry over from Portsmouth, UK to Quistreham, the ferry port. A bus took us to Caen, about 10 miles to fetch our rental car, right across the street from the Caen RR station. Other trips we took the train to Caen and drove to our rural B&B outside Villers-Bocage, www.bandbnormandie.com. We easily drove all over the place from there and you can too. Normandie and Brittany are at most a couple hours drive, including MSM. Go to www.seat61.com for all ferry (and train) info should you decide to visit the Channel Islands. Another trip we started in Monaco after a train ride from Paris, got a car and explored all of southern France. Two chunks, both amazing, and both well worth the efforts.

Posted by
2086 posts

History can mean a lot, especially in France you can find it as a matter of speaking around every corner. So it makes sense to have an idea what part of history you are looking for, so are you interested in Gothic cathedrals, castles, medieval places, 20th century battle sites etc.

Posted by
35 posts

Thank you, Swan, Bev, George and Wil for your useful responses.