France and Germany itinerary

Here is the rest of the itinerary. I hate that this will not post formatting with spaces and such. It makes it hard to read. Saturday Drive to Verdun and explore battlefields. Drop off rental car at Forbach ( closed from 12- 4) so shoot to return car at 4. Take train over to Germany and on to Bacharach to check into bed and breakfast for the next few days. Sunday Relax around Bacharach. Take boat to St. Goar and explore if we wish. Monday Take train over to Berg Eltz and possibly on to Cochem if we feel like it after the hike to the castle and back. Train back to Bacharach Tuesday Unsure what to do here. My step-brother, wife and new baby are stationed at Baumholder. They may join us for some of our other adventures. If not, we could just take the train to visit them this day. We have a hotel reserved in Mainz that evening. Wednesday
Flight leaves at 11am

If this is your first trip to Paris, and you are going that quickly through Paris, you might want to consider one of two ways to get a quick (2 hour) or longer overall glimpse of the sights that Paris has to offer, you won't be disappointed. the L'open Air hop on/hop off bus: I know it is dorky to take a city tour bus, but really it is terrific. If you look on TripAdvisor it gets rave reviews if you have little time and want to see as much as you can. You can sit on the top deck and drive around Paris and see all the sights from the outside within a relatively short time. You can either ride the bus all day (there is an audio headset) and see the sights...or just for 1 hour if that is all the time you have or for all day, or you can get out at any of the stops, look around, and then return to the bus stop and get back on the bus and continue the tour. I personally also like the Batobus river cruise, which is almost like a water taxi. There is a stop right near your Louvre apartment, you can ride it directly to the Eiffel Tower, and then back to Notre Dame. It is really fun to be on the Seine and to see the city go by. There is an overhead audio but it is not very good, but you really get a good feel of the city. Your family will remember the museums, but to really get the feel of Paris, I recommend the bus or boat tour. The bus gives a better view of more top sights, but the Seine is good too because you go from scenic spot to scenic spot while enjoying being on the river. I think your children would enjoy either one. Boat tour: http://www.batobus.com/english/index.htm L'Open Air bus: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187147-d585912-Reviews-L_Open_Bus_Tour-Paris_Ile_de_France.html Enjoy!

Versailles is virtually an outer suburb of Paris. So you could extend your Paris stay by one day and catch the train there from Paris. This would save you one day of car hire. Then you could drive straight from Bayeaux to Reims without the detour.

Nope that won't work as Monday a lot of Versailles is closed. Plus, to rent gites you either go Friday to Friday or Monday to Friday. So we have it reserved for Monday to Friday. We can't do it less. (My original plan was to visit Versailles on the way out of town, but when I saw it was closed, I had to rework.)

OK. I had forgotten about the days that museums etc are closed.

Christine...it sounds like you wont have a car for the German leg of your trip? If you did you could drive on the Tuesday to Bernkastel Kussel (a medieval town on the river bank) (or even Trier, a bit further but with Roman remains worth seeing) both situated on the Mosel (it would take about 40 minutes on the E42 motorway to Bernkastel from Bacharach), and then drive on to Baumholder(about 45 minutes drive from Bernkastel K or Trier) to see your family. If you were to stay overnight in or near Baumholder it would be more relaxing and would give you more time with your family. You wouldn't need to return the same way, but drive a quicker route back via Idar Oberstein to Bad Kreuznach and then Bingen and then a shortish drive back up the Rhein to Bacharach. Check out car hire prices for the day. Sorry, I don't know about train connections, or if it's even possible.

Sorry, just realised you are returning to Mainz on the Tuesday. Even closer, but again via Idar Oberstein and Bad Kreuznach.

Here's my overall impression- you're trying too hard to pigeonhole everything. If you've traveled like this before and it works for you, then OK. But otherwise, I found out long ago that some of the most interesting sites on my travels were the ones I discovered once I arrived. A lot of things sound great on paper but are less interesting in the flesh (and vice versa). Or, certain days that I had budgeted for a specific activity, I may have found my interest for it had waned (not another art museum!), or the weather wasn't cooperating or I was too tired/stuffed/hung-over, etc. So, I recommend you leave yourself a bit more breathing room and allow some time for the unexpected.

I know it SOUNDS like I'm pigeon-holing everything. But I have discovered this when I travel with my wonderful hubby. I need to know all the pitfalls, ins and out, hours etc. I have a general plan like the one above. I hold it loosely because hubby will decide we will do some of the more spontaneous things like that. I need to be able to tell him, that's great honey, we can do this, but if we do this we won't get to do this because it is closed. Make sense. We've only been as a family to Disneyworld once and believe me, I had it almost minute by minute in what we would ride and in what order so we could do the most and not wait in line. It worked out really well and we did so well we had extra time and yes we deviated sometimes. And yes, some of our best moments were the unplanned ones. I just don't want to show up to a museum and it is closed. ( Been there, done that when the kids were younger.) Dh is so planned here at home and he gets wild when out on vacation. But if I know it will take 2 hours to drive a certain place and it closes at such and such, it takes some disappointment out of it. Christine