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Four days between Paris and Milan next week. Experienced help needed!

Hi!

I have loved this forum as I prepared for my trip to Europe. There are so many wonderful people with great advice. I am hoping some of you with much more travel time under your belts might be able to help me.

My daughter and I are currently in Paris to celebrate her 18th birthday. Our original plan was to fly home on the 20th, but in the meantime, she decided to become an au pair in Italy. Once those plans were settled, we abandoned our return flight and made other plans. We were planning to stay with her host family near Milan from the 20th until I flew to Amsterdam late on the 24th or early on the 25th to meet my husband and son. Yes. A simple trip became much more complicated. And now to complicate it further, her host family can no longer have us come until the evening of the 24th.

So I now need to figure out where to go between Wed the 20th and Sunday night when I need to have us in Milan. Added to this mess is the fact that while I have a carry on and a backpack, she has 2 full size (heavy) suitcases and a carry on. I originally thought I would rent a car in France and play around in France and then Italy so that I could just cart her luggage around in the car and we would enjoy seeing more of the two countries, but now it's clear that going between two countries in a rental doesn't work well. Help!

Does anyone have a brilliant idea that hasn't crossed my mind yet? We were considering Giverny to start off early Wed to see Monet's gardens and eventually also seeing Lake Como on our last day. But now I just have to figure out what to do entirely!

Much thanks for any help. I could use help on transportation ideas for these ridiculous bags. And yes, I know that this has been poorly planned. As a travel almost-newbie, I beg ignorance and also having been a victim of changing plans!

Posted by
4132 posts

Kerry, can you ship the bags? Or do your playing around in a car as planned, but only in France?

I don't imagine shipping would be cheap, but sometimes it's best to just pay for the optimal solution.

Posted by
3551 posts

Have you considered rail with a stop over of 2 nights.
An example could be Paris Gare Lyon to Laussane Switz, stay 2 nights then Laussane to Milan centrale with 1 transfer.
Laussane is beautiful on lake geneva. Surrounding towns aRe picturesque.
Alternate would be air to Milan airport of course the excess luggage would be quite expensive for even a discount airlines.
I think rail is the best option and train is least costly.
Still gotta lug the luggage hopefully on wheels.