Florence to Paris - Itinerary?

Susan, What time of year do you plan on going? What types of activities / experiences are important to you? You have a lot of options that can be influenced by these two variables. Here's a couple general routes: Option #1: Florence to the South of France/Cote d'azur/Provence-Paris. Option #2 Florence-Switzerland/Lauterbrunnen Valley-French Alps-Rhone Valley-Paris.

We will be traveling in May of 2011. We love food and wine, beautiful scenery, little villages. That said, we also like sites of historical significance, art, & culture. I think we'd be more inclined to limit our itinerary to France this time. The Loire Valley is also appealing, for its chateaus. A lot of what I read on this site seems to indicate that most people rent cars to do this type of itinerary. Your thoughts? Thanks for the input !

I'll defer to other posters on specific recommendations as my travel has been limited to the Cote d'azur via train. If you do end up renting a car, I think most people would agree that you should bring and use a GPS navigation device - this goes a long way to reducing the stress/tension associated with finding your way from place to place in an unfamiliar foreign country where you don't speak the language.

Our 1st trip to europe was in april 09. We started with plane reservations open jaw in through Paris and out through Venice. We were insecure about handling trains and scheduals and wanted them solid before we left. But that restricted us to what we could find on line. There are a lot more options if you wait till you get to europe. We considered renting a car but there was something like a $300 drop off fee. In addition to the rental fees. I would consider waiting till you get to Florence to get train tickets. (We did that the second trip. If you fly in through Rome get your tickets to Florence at the airport.) The routes we were looking at were to southern France, then to Venice with perhaps a trip down to Florence 1st. The second option was west to Salzburg through Germany. Then through the Alps to Venice. Of course there's also through Switzerland. Have a great time in Paris and Florence. Loved them both. (Florence was the 2nd trip.) BTW We didn't take either route. We found an el cheapo $99 flight leaving Brussels a little after noon and arriving Venice mid afternoon. Opted to see Bruges than fly. Brussels Air.

We wanted to get open jaw tickets (in to Paris and out of Rome or Venice) but since we're flying on miles, all we could get was a round trip Paris ticket. So our original plans of touring northern Italy and then throwing in 5 days in Paris at the end has morphed ! We are actually excited now about getting to see some more of France, but now the trick is to know where to go and how to get there from Italy. We always leave our train arrangements until we are in a country, for the reasons you state. But we do like to have our hotels or B&Bs reserved ahead of time, so we need a skeleton itinerary at least to know what days we'll be in what places.

I really want to suggest Provence, but the rail connections are terrible. If that's not an obstacle for you, however, I'd just spend the balance of your time there. And, if small villages are really your thing, I would rent a car for a few days while there. ¶ There is a night train that will get you into Dijon at 5:36 in the morning. This is also not ideal, but it does mean you could sleep away six hours of the trip. From Dijon you could get to Beaune and see some of Burgundy, or Lyon - or Provence. ¶ Alternatively, Avignon is "only" nine hours from the Cinque Terre - you could stop there first.

I have done this in reverse before but here was mine (backwards) Florence > Cinque Terre 2 nights > Nice 2 nights > Avignon 3 nights > TGV to Paris I rented a car in Avignon and drove to see the Pont du Gard and Nimes but there are many sights to see... Have fun