Please critique our France-Italy Itinerary

Susan, I strongly urge you to consider going straight to Bayeux after arriving at CDG. Paris is truly the "City of Lights" and wonderful at night and not the place to get over jetlag. Coming from the West Coast, you will definitely feel the effects of jetlag for a day or two. (It might be hard to stay awake for an evening or two.) Then you can spend your 5 nights in Paris after Bayeux. Just my opinion...As to the rest of your itinerary, I don't know much about flights to Italy (although that's the very thing we're doing next month - Venice to Paris). Everyone will have their opinions on the rest of your itinerary...sounds like a great trip!

Some will suggest Rome for your unplanned days. Save Rome for when you have more time or cut Florence to two days. However, for two days you might consider Milan. IMO it is an unrated tourist site and two days would be about right. And you would have good air transportation back to Paris

I'd suggest Siena for your two undetermined days. Reachable by train, will give you a taste of Tuscany and it's a spectacular city on its own.

Thanks everyone for your input. I should probably have noted that on past trips, we have spent significant time in Rome and Tuscany. So, we're looking to see someplace new for our "undetermined days". Any other ideas ??

I count 7 train trips, 2 flights, and 7 destinations in your 20-day itinerary. That's lot of time packing and unpacking and going to and from train stations and airports and checking in and out of various hotels (and B&B's?). To me, it seems like a bit much. I hope you're young!

Doug suggestion of Siena is nice. Or San Gimignano. You could sandwich that between CT and Florence. And fly out of Florence. Either Siena or San G would be great places to prop up your feet, enjoy the wine and just relax. Although I believe you'd have to get to San G by bus.

I'm with Tom, seems like a bit much to me. If you are convenicesd that you have to all these destinations, it's your trip. however, it seems like there should be a more efficient method of doing this. It feels like there is a lot of backtracking in your current plan. I would suggest this and in this order: On arrival at CDG, fly to Venice (probably on Easyjet). I'd probably skip the extra destination in Italy and add a night to Venice and Florence. so Venice 4 nights, Florence 4 nights, train to CT for 2 nights. Fly to Paris from Pisa, easyjey has a flight from PSA to ORY at 14:35. Once at Paris, I'd do the loop Bayeaux Amboise and end with your nights in Paris. If you absolutely have to have an extra destination in itlay then try Bologna. SO Venice then Bologna then Florence the CT then fly out of Pisa.

Susan, Why not make that undetermined city, Lauterbrunnen/Murren, Switzerland? Beautiful, relaxing 7-8 hour train ride from Florence to Interlaken, with the last half through the Italian/Swiss Alps. Spend a couple days in the Lauterbrunnen area, including taking the Tram to the top of the Schilthorn. Then a relaxing 6~7 hour train ride from Interlaken to Paris. As much as I love Italy, it tires you out - heat/crowds/lots of walking/bad air (cigarette smoke/vehicle exhaust). A couple days in the Alps are the perfect way to decompress and a welcome contrast.

Great advice, thanks to all of you ! Ron, I never thought about flying from Pisa. I kept looking for flights from Florence back to Paris and wasn't having much luck. I don't see a way to fly from CDG to Venice on the day of our arrival as our flight arrives from at 9:40am and the easyjet to Venice leaves at 11:00. So we may go from CDG straight to the Loire and Bayeaux, then from there to Italy. I agree with your advice about adding extra time in Venice and/or Florence as we don't want to be rushing from place to place. Then we can fly back to Paris from Pisa and do our nights in Paris at the end. Are we getting closer to a more do-able and relaxed itinerary?

There appears to be an Easyjet flight from Orly to Marco Polo leaving around 14:40.

Hi Ron, how feasible is it to get from CDG to Orly in time to pick up that easyjet flight?

I don't have any personal experience, but the folks over at flyertalk have threads that say it takes about an hour 15 to an hour and a half to get to ORY from CDG. forums at www.flyertalk.com

Sounds like you are really planning to cover a lot of territory. Last year, I went from Frankfurt (going in and out of Frankfurt), then Amsterdam, then Hannover to visit friends, then Frankfurt to go to St Goar on the Rhine, then to Innsbruck and stayed in Hall in Tirol, then from Innsbruck, to Florence and stayed in Arezzo with relatives, on the return, stayed a couple of days in Verona, then Hall in Tirol, then Ulm, Germany, then back to St Goar, and then return 2 days before the flight left, counting that day and stayed close to the airport in Frankfurt. This was all done by train. Then one year went from Frankfurt, to St Goar, to Paris, to Strasbourg, to Freiburg, Germany, then overnight to Milan, and then on to Florence, and stayed in Arezzo with relatives, then took day trips to other areas of Tuscany, and Rome., when returning, went from Florence to Basel to Freiburg (stayed overnight) and then to Colmar, France, then St Goar for time on the Rhine and then to Frankfurt. So all these examples are not necessary what you are going to do, but I took the train with a Eurail Pass and didn't have to fly. Of course, with all the cheaper flights, like easyjet, ryan air, etc, it might be cheaper than using a train pass. I tried to do a circle, sort of, so I wouldn't be back tracking. However, you can't help about a little back tracking, just depends what you want to do. I also was able to day trip to, Lucca ( I really enjoyed), Pisa, Assisi, Cortona, Siena and San Gimignano. But what ever you decide enjoy your trip.