Paris to Black Forest and Black Forest Travel

I expect Russ to pop up with all the links and places to see, but can I put in a vote for Gengenbach, in the northern Black Forest?

Good transportation connections - From Paris to Strasbourg - Kehl - Offenburg - Gengenbach; or Paris - Karlsruhe - Offenburg - Gengenbach.

Gengenbach - Offenburg - (Freiburg im Breisgau) - Basel - Milano - to Firenze SMN (Florence main station)

Not sure of the length of your trip or time of year. It is just my opinion, but I was quite disappointed when visiting the Black Forest area. However, since it is your honeymoon, you may have specific plans for the area. Also, it is quite a distance by train from there to Florence. Have you thought about substituting Switzerland for the Black Forest or perhaps a few days in Colmar, France? Have a great trip regardless where you go.

If you are coming from the USA where we are blessed with vast expanses of protected National Forest and National parks, the Black Forest may seem a bit of a let down. However, I have visited Gengenbach and enjoyed it there. As a home base I'm sure it would be lovely but the town itself is quite small and you can walk it easily in about 1.5 hours and feel that you have seen most of it.

Thank you so much for your replies! We are traveling in early July. The reason for the Black Forest is that we thought it would be somewhat romantic, where all the fairy tales are from. We are happy being less active for a few days and enjoying walking the towns themselves, shopping, tasting the food and having some nice walks. I don’t think we will bring hiking gear or anything. Is it worthwhile if this is the case? My husband has never been to France or Germany, I’ve only been to major cities.

I have spent 12 days in 2 visits to Gengenbach and find it an excellent place to stay. You will receive the Konus card that gets you free train/bus transportation ( no ICE, IC,EC trains ).

The town website is stadt-gengenbach.de

I stay in a third floor apartment overlooking the market square
urlaub-ratskanzlei.de great price, but landlady speaks little English. She does speak French in addition to German

Towns in Northern Germany (like Bremen and Hameln) are the ones we associate with fairytales, but the Black Forest does have towns that look like they stepped out of a fairytale.

I agree with Stephen that Gengenbach is a good base town - and a lovely place. And it's easy to reach from Paris using the TGV train to Strasbourg and connecting regional trains from there. Gengenbach is on the scenic "Black Forest Railway" just outside Offenburg - see also the map below showing proximity to Strasbourg.

http://www.badische-schwarzwaldbahn.de/karte.jpg

Along with the Hell's Valley Railway and the Rhine Valley Railway, the BF Railway forms a Offenburg - Donaueschingen - Freiburg triangle that makes it easy to explore several popular Black Forest locations.

This offshoot set of tracks from the Black Forest Railway at Hausach has some nice destinations too - like Schiltach.

Gutach (a stop on the BF Railway not far from Gengenbach but now shown on the rail maps above) is the home of the
Vogtsbauernhof open-air museum, one of the area's top attractions. Gutach can also be a nice place to stay - more rural and with fewer services than a town like Gengenbach, but with a definite Black Forest feel - maybe a farmstay at a place like this is what you're looking for?

Certain places - Freiburg and Baden-Baden for example - do NOT participate in the KONUS free-transportation program - so if you stay in one of those places, you don't get the travel card. Stay in Gengenbach or one of the others on the KONUS list to take advantage of this benefit (click on the "flyer" link on that page.)

The Black Forest Tourism site offers a complete selection of accommodations in all BF towns:
https://www.blackforest-tourism.com/accommodation

If you are coming from the USA where we are blessed with vast expanses of protected National Forest and National parks, the Black Forest may seem a bit of a let down.

I don't think people visit The Black Forest for the trees but rather for the towns and villages within and what it is synonymous with. I can't think of any National Forest in the US, as grandiose as they are, that holds anywhere near the history, charm and character that The Black Forest does. It's the land of cuckoo clocks, Grimm fairy tales and countless villages of half timbered buildings, that's what people visit for.

I suppose two newlyweds are content to sit together and look out the train window for hours. But note that you have selected stays that are very far from each other. I would not spend this amount of time on the train, and assuming you are young, I would not assume that this is the only time you will ever visit Europe. All these places will be very crowded in July. (But Paris is always romantic!)

Most hiking in the Black Forest is not technical or difficult. In many places, there are "Light", "Medium", and "Hard" trails between the same two villages, to choose from. I walked from Titisee to Hinterzarten in preppy men's loafers. And that was on the Medium trail, because I lost sight of the Light one! One reason you want the KONUS card (which is not available in Freiburg) is so you don't have to retrace any steps when hiking around. I do recommend Freiburg as a daytrip if you get tired of open air, waterfalls, and cuckoo clock showrooms in the BF.

Unless one of you is an Art History major, it might be a better use of time to visit Paris-Strasbourg-Amsterdam (with open-jaw air tickets, of course), or London-Paris-Bruges (fly home from Brussels). Paris-Antwerp-Bruges is even less train time, if perhaps less glamorous than Amsterdam. Have you two been to Europe before?