France & Italy - First Europe Tour Itinerary Advice

Josh,

It's great that you're getting such an early start on the planning, as that will provide lots of time to work out all the details. It sounds like the France and Normandy plans are coming together. Which town in Normandy will you be staying in? Which historic sites will you be visiting in that area?

As this is your first trip to Europe, I'd suggest reading Europe Through The Back Door, as that provides a lot of good information on "how" to travel well in Europe. You should be able to find a copy at the local Library. After that use the country or city-specific Guidebooks for hotels, restaurants, sightseeing, etc.

Regarding the Italy portion of your trip, I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions here but my preference would be to visit only two locations with day trips. With only seven days to work with, it's important to minimize travel times and maximize touring time. For example, travel from the Cinque Terre to Venice will take about six hours (or the better part of a full day).

Would something like this work....

• Following your visit to Normandy, drop the car at Orly Airport and take a flight to Pisa. EasyJet currently has flights listed for June 7 at €52.98 PP, with departure at 14:35. Those prices will increase as the flight fills. Be sure to read their Terms & Conditions carefully, especially relating to luggage weights.
• From Pisa travel by train to the Cinque Terre. You can check the Trenitalia website for more information on the trains and travel times. Have you decided which of the five villages you'd prefer to stay in? 3 nights would be good. Hopefully the trails will be open then. Be sure to try the local Pesto in the area where it was invented.
• After the C.T., take one of the direct trains to Roma Termini (there are several each day departing from La Spezia, with a travel time of about 3H:45M). It's easy to get to La Spezia from any of the C.T. towns using the local trains. Spend the remainder of your trip in Rome, with a day trip to Orvieto (be sure to visit the incredible Duomo and St. Patrick's Well) or other location.

Visiting the Cinque Terre and Rome would provide one "rural" stop and one city stop, which (IMO) would be a nicer introduction to Italy.

There are some potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of when using trains or other public transit in Italy. If you need more information on that, post another note.

Congratulations on your 10th anniversary and good luck with your planning!

Since it's your first trip, I suggest you come to grips with multi-destination air fares trans-Atlantic. Most airlines and on-line agencies will help you fly into one city, such as Paris, and back home from another, such as Rome. The price will be the same as a conventional round trip or maybe slightly higher, and you save the time and money needed to backtrack to your arrival point.
As to your Normandy plans, you might consider a guided tour of the war sites, even though you have a car. You pay for the guide more than the transport, benefitting from the knowledge and context that will be provided.

I agree with Ken that you should think about picking two of the three. And I have seen Ken's postings and I think he gives very good advice!! :) When leaving Italy, I prefer to leave from Rome because I think there are more flight options. You could fly to Florence from Paris and take the train to Cinque Terre and the train back to Rome.

If you really want to see all three areas, I would spend the least amount of time in Venice. Everyone has differing opinions about their favorite cities-I am personally more of a Rome person. Venice is definitely beautiful and unique. But I also think you can appreciate it in a day very easily if you are pressed for time. There is just more ground to cover in Rome and The Cinque Terre.

Sounds like a wonderful trip! Happy anniversary!

We've done the Paris/Normandy route and instead of renting a car in Paris (which can be a bit frustrating and confusing) I'd suggest taking the train to Caen and picking up your rental car there. The car rental office is very short walk from the train station. When you are done in Normandy, drop the car off and take the train back to Paris. Pick a hotel close to the train station in Paris and then take the RER to the airport the next day. Also advise traveling light - one carry on bag each especially if you are planning on taking the trains in Europe. Also agree that with 7 days on the ground for Italy limit it to two cities max. Each change of location will cost you 1/2 to 3/4 of a day.

It might be best to travel from Paris-Orly to Pisa on EasyJet.com for between 45€ and 50€. That'll save you time to see more of Italy.

Upon landing, you take a train into Pisa Central train station. From there, you transfer trains to go up to La Spezia--where you catch a local train into Cinque Terre.

Another better option might be to take a train over to Florence, an hour away, and stay 3 nights. It's a city not to miss. From there, you can easily catch a fast train (with reservations) up to Venice or down to Rome.

Italy is full of history, culture, art, architecture and great food. Sometimes you do best taking the route of least resistance, and the C/T might be best left for a future trip.

Hello All-

Thanks so much for all the detailed and thoughtful responses. We're already learning so much! I'll try to address each of your responses/questions below:

@ Ken: We are staying in Lion-sur-mer. We found a B&B right on the beach there via AirBNB.com (all the RS recommended hotels, along with almost every other traditional hotel/B&B lodging were booked solid already as of a couple months ago!!). Since we are Canadians, we are going to focus more of our time on the Canadian sights. We want to visit the Juno Beach Centre, the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery, the Caen Memorial Museum and are hoping to attend the official international commemoration event on Sword Beach if time and security considerations allow. We're also planning to visit Mont St Michel. Any additional suggestions would be great - if need be I can post in the France section.

Your idea (along with others) to visit only two areas in Italy are certainly being taken to heart. We had been wondering if we might spend too much time travelling and not enough time in each place if we tried to visit all three. We had stumbled across the Orly--->Pisa flight via Rome2Rio.com with trains to CT and think that might be our best option.

@ Southam: Great suggestion. We had already been planning to fly open jaw. We are booking our tickets with Air Miles and they do allow OJ tickets. We're now thinking of into Paris and out of Rome.

We had been considering a tour in Normandy - any suggestions? We'd be looking for a Canadian-focused tour.

@ Nancy: We have been given varying advice on whether to rent a car in Paris and drive to Normandy, or train to Caen and rent a car there. Our thoughts were that we'd be able to explore a bit on the way out to the coast from Paris - we are road trippers at heart and always enjoy driving. Is this area particularly worth driving through? Ken's idea of having the car and being able to drive right to Paris Orly to catch a flight to Pisa is also intriguing... It might save us some time with connections getting from Gare de Lyon out to Orly?

@ David: Thanks for the feedback. Florence sounds interesting - it always seem to come up as a highly recommended spot to see. We are more outdoor adventure/walking/hiking people than museum and art people, so for us I think the CT would be a great fit.

Again, it's amazing to see the wealth of information here and the freedom with which it is shared. Thanks again!

"We have been given varying advice on whether to rent a car in Paris and drive to Normandy, or train to Caen and rent a car there. Our thoughts were that we'd be able to explore a bit on the way out to the coast from Paris - we are road trippers at heart and always enjoy driving."

A few years ago, alright a bit more than a few, my wife and I made a similar trip to Normandy. We were originally going to pick a rental car up in Rouen but because of a holiday the rental car office was closed. Instead we picked the car up at Charles de Gaulle Airport. We thoroughly enjoyed the drive to Normandy. We did stay in Rouen and Honfleur for one night each.

Josh,

Thanks for the additional information. As you've found, it's challenging to find accommodations at about the time of the 70th anniversary. I'm not familiar with Lion-sur-Mer, but as you've now found a place it would probably be a good idea to stay with it. It appears to be reasonably close to both Bayeux (which has an excellent Museum as well as the famous Tapestry) and the landing beaches.

Regarding driving from Normandy to connect with an EasyJet flight at Orly, that will only work if the driving time will allow arrival at the airport at about 13:00. I believe EasyJet has afternoon departures at about 15:30, so that's the one you'll likely be taking.

Regarding D-Day tours, you'll probably have to take those at least a couple of days prior to 6 June. I've travelled with two firms in that area, and they suspend tours on days when ceremonies are held, as they want to attend them also. One option you might consider (if budget allows) is to take two half-day tours, one covering the Canadian sites and one covering the American sites. Many of the tours depart from Bayeux, so you'd need to get there prior to 08:00 (or just take an afternoon tour). Some of the tour firms you could contact....

• www.ddayhistorian.com (Paul Woodage)
• www.daleboothnormandytours.com (Dale Booth, who is ex-British Army)
• www.overlordtour.com (various Guides)

I would HIGHLY recommend booking the tour as early as possible, as it could be difficult to find openings.

As well as visiting the Canadian cemetery at Beny-sur-Mer, I'd also recommend a visit to the American cemetery which is also very moving. If your tour doesn't cover them and time permits, try and also visit these other sites.......

• Pegasus Bridge Museum, which I found very interesting. As I recall, they have a set of Bill Millin's Bagpipes there. He was Lord Lovat's Piper and Millin was actually born in Canada.
• Gun Batteries at Longues-sur-Mer, which aren't far from Bayeux. The Command Bunker was used in the filming of The Longest Day (if you want to explore inside, be sure to take a small Flashlight).
• The Abbaye d'Ardenne, which is a very significant site for Canadians, considering the events that took place there.

As others have mentioned, you could also consider travelling by train from Paris to Caen and renting the car there. My preference would be to get to Normandy as quickly as possible rather than a leisurely drive, as there's going to be a LOT to see there. All departures to Normandy are from Gare St. Lazare, so you'll have to get from wherever your Paris hotel is to GSL via Metro or RER.

One other point to mention is that when driving even in more rural locations in France, be VERY careful not to exceed the speed limit. There have been a few posts here recently from people that received speeding tickets, even for just doing a few kmH more than the speed limit.

Are you planning on packing along any "technology" such as cell phones, tablets or whatever? Be sure to check the "input voltage" ratings on the Charger of EACH device you'll be travelling with, and also pick up several Plug Adaptors as you WILL need them.

Cheers!

For Canada's part in the D-Day campaign, search for tours that include Juno Beach, the Commonwealth landing site. You might also want to see the territory on the edge of Caen where Canadian tanks tangled with Germans in a protracted battle that slowed the momentum of the Allied advance.
The Canadian beach museum is worth seeing, even if, like me, you are unhappy with some of its issues. It's operated by a foundation, not the government, and to some extent attempts to redress arguments with the national war museum in Ottawa (or so I believe.)
Sorry, the company I travelled with a few years ago is no longer operating. Now, I would consider the tours operated from Caen museum and peace memorial to the beaches as an alternative to Bayeux-based programs. http://normandy.memorial-caen.com/
I strongly believe guided tours are far superior to do-it-yourself D-Day sightseeing, because of the context and insights that expert guides can provide.
Three Italian cities in seven days will serve as a mighty thin sample, especially considering time needed for the commutes. Two would be my maximum.

You are concerned about travel times between cities, which is very smart. One option that you may consider is taking an overnight train from Paris to Venice (highly recommend taking train from Normandy into Paris for this). The Thello train departs Paris at 1959 and arrives in Venice at 0935. Depending on how far in advance you purchase tickets as well as the accommodation, you can get a 2 person sleeper for 300-400 euros. This saves you a day of travel plus a night's expenses in a hotel. Another option is to take the overnight train from Paris to Rome. If you want to see the Alps, go during the day...but you will lose a full day traveling, which may not be such a bad thing with the scenery. The Man in Seat 61 has everything you need for train travel.

http://www.seat61.com/Europe-train-tickets.htm#.Uqc2OvRDt8F

video about overnight train Paris-Venice:

http://www.seat61.com/thello-train-from-paris-to-italy.htm#See the Thello video

(You may have to copy and paste the entire link)
My preferences for Italy are:

Venice - 2 nights (take train to Florence - 2 hours; buy well in advance for Super Economy fares)
Florence 3 nights with side trips to Sienna, Orvieto, etc. (take train to Rome - 1.5 hours; buy well in advance for Super Economy fares)
Rome - 3 nights. Fly home from Rome.

Enjoy!

We visited Benys-sur-Mer and Juno Beach center last year. I myself am not a war buff (hubby is to a certain extent) but I did find the Juno Beach to be very interesting and emotional.

We also rented a car when leaving Paris - to my way of thinking, if you need the car that day, why pay the extra expense for a train ticket? (Tho some will say gas/tolls are a factor) What I did was use a map of where all the car rental places were located, and picked the one that was easiest to get to using the Metro, but closest to the Periphique (God, my spelling - the 'ring road' around the city). I used Autoeurope (a consolidator) and the rental was thru Europcar. We ended up getting the car from a spot right past the Arc d'Triomphe, easy to get out of the city...except it backfired on us, as the GPS (which was integrated with the car) was speaking German, we have only ever used a GPS one other time, and we ended up going back to last place the person before us was (oops - wrong setting!), which was somewhere in the middle of the city...sigh, lesson learned. We figured it out, got it speaking English, and then everything was great...luckily, it was a Sunday morning (which did impact our choice of where to pick up the rental as many were closed) - so the traffic was not very heavy.

We stayed with some folks in a tiny little village called Amblie, which was close to the Juno Center, but it is a bit of a drive to Mont St Michel from the Caen area (I think it took us a few hours), so you may want to start the drive early.

Just want to mention, in 2010, we stayed in Paris and took a day trip to see the Canadian War memorial at Vimy Ridge...amazing if you haven't seen it. Easy trip by train to Arras, then bus or taxi to the Vimy Memorial if you are interested in WW1.

And I am a Venice lover - all three trips I've managed to squeeze it in. We loved CT on our first trip in 2008, but when we revisited in 2012, we found it crowded and our enjoyment pretty much disappeared when faced with the crowded train stns. (Now, both trips to CT were around the 3-4th week of Sept...1st trip was thru the week - less people. 2nd visit was over a weekend - just...so many people...ugh). I think 3 nights in Venice and 4 in Rome would be perfect.