France- Itinerary 14 days

Even assuming that none of the fourteen days are travel days, you may be looking at too big of a bite. Paris to Bergerac is six hours of road time. The same for Bergerac to Aix. Aix back to Paris is a good seven. No matter how you wish and dream, that's three days burned up just traveling (hotel to hotel). You're down to three days in each area which is not enough to even scratch the surface of either the Dordogne or Provence.

Thanks but I would at least like to hit some of the highlights. We went to Italy and did Florence, Sorrento and Rome and only had 12 days and had a fabulous time, there were many people who said we were not being realistic and wouldn't have enought time. What do you suggest?? This is why we are asking for advice

Why not consider travelling to the south via train instead of by car? You'll save a lot of travel time, but you'd need to rent a car to efficiently tour the Dordogne.

You can drive from Florence to Sorrento and back up to Rome in about eight hours (or two half-days)- - now you're looking more than twice that in distance and trice that in days. Several options, pick and choose: 1. Fly into Paris and out of Nice - - saves one day 2. Make the route linear rather than triangular - - skipping either Dordogne or Provence - - if you do this, there's more stuff to see enroute to Provence 3. Ditch the car in Avignon and take the TGV back to Paris 4. In the Dordogne, stay as close to Les Eyzies as possible and concentrate on that area 5. In Provence, stay in Nimes and concentrate on that area with one eastward excursion into the interior, skipping the Cote d'Azur 6. Cut Paris by a day - - four nights is enough if you don't try to go to every museum in town - - in that regard, expand on my thoughts here: http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/56917/paris-in-3-days.html

Fran - I liked Giverny very much and I enjoyed seeing Monet's little house and garden. That is a short day trip from Paris. I found the most wondeful B&B 5 minuites from Monet's garden called Le Moulin de Villez. It is an old manor house situated on a creek with an old waterwheel mill. Peaceful and beautiful. I have been to Provence a couple of times and it is lovely but closer to Paris you can go to Bruges, Belgium. That is a wondeful medieval town with canals that rival Venice. From there, if you like, you are not far from Brussells. Larger than Bruges but smaller than Paris.
Think about it.

This is a lot for 2 weeks, but if you can fly home from Toulouse you might go Paris to Provence by TGV, then drive to the Dordogne. One long travel day in there, though you could break it up with a stop enroute. The only question would be how to divide up your remaining week (after travel days)--you could easily spend a whole week in either locale. Alternatively you could spend a few days, with a car, in Burgundy between Paris and Provence. Not as wonderful as the Dordogne, but still a great slice of France, and much more convenient to your itinerary. Do yourselves a favor if you can and steal a day or two more for your vacation. You'll never regret it.

If you cut a day off of Paris then go south to Provence you should be able to see a lot of the south of France. You could take the fast train to Avignon to save some time and then pick up a car. If you have never been to the Med. coast I suggest you see it. You could stay in a village like St. Remy (my favorite) and see lots sof surrounding towns as well as drive to the coast. Lots of markets and beautiful villages. If you do not have your ticket yet maybe you could fly into Paris and out of Marsailles. I know this does not include the Dordogne region but there is so much to see in Provence I do not think you would be sorry. You could also drive to the mountains...Gordes, or Moustieau (sp). I have been there in May and it was beautiful...no lavendar yet, but its still Provence! A favorite beach town of mine is St. Maxime.

You should take the train to Strasbourg, then rent a car to go through the Alsace wine route towns. Train Paris to Strasbourg is 3hrs, wine route towns are very cute.
www.visit-alsace.com has a nice run down of each village with pictures. You could then drive down to Beaune, leave the car and take the train back to Paris.

I think with 14 days you have a lot of options. I don't think you should shy away from seeing more of France, but I would trim it down to Paris and it's environs plus one other place. Two other trips is going to be more travel time for less reward, IMO. I think doing a Paris + Provence trip is very doable. A lot of people say you can only see Provence by car, but I disagree. You'll miss out on smaller towns and country inns and stuff, true, but there are a lot of evocative, wonderful places on the train routes. Basically splitting your trip up half and half with paris and provence gives you a great trip. it's not part of the RS "best of europe" but I think Paris to aix-en-provence overnight then on to marsielle and/or cassis, then onto nice for a few days would be absolutely lovely. i love that region and with those stops you're getting a lot of the diversity it has to offer without bothering with a car.

Gosh, first time in Paris? Including a jet-lagged day? I wouldn't take a day from there to feed the rest of the itinerary. Better to steal an extra day from your jobs and lives in Princeton if you need one.

Have done Paris, Provence, and Dordogne. In answer to Ed, I think you state that you already have airline tickets so there would be change fees to change to Nice. Dordogne is nice, but given your time frame, I think I would skip it and concentrate on Paris and Provence. I would train to Avignon and rent a car there. Probably stay in Avignon as a base, walk around there the afternoon of arrival, then rent a car at the TGV station the next morning to start day trips to the many towns in the area. You can even drive to St Tropez and Cassis and back to Avignon in a day if you wish.

The problem is that France is made up of a number of very beautiful and distinct regions, and France is geographically rather large (in comparison to many European nations). Paris for 5 nights sounds great. Alsace, Burgundy, or the Loire Valley/Normandy regions would be convenient areas to explore. I'd suggest you choose one or maybe two of those areas. I'd also suggest you start your vacation outside Paris and end in Paris. My logic on this is that your first day you will probably arrive early in the morning and will not be able to check into your hotel until the afternoon. Why not continue travaling by train to one of those other areas and arrive in time to check into your hotel or b&b, explore a bit, enjoy a light dinner, and sleep? By ending in Paris, that also means that your last night in France can be devoted to sight-seeing and dinner (instead of dashing back to Paris) and your final morning will be relaxed .

There is a direct train to Charles deGaulle from Provence that delivers you to the airport at 10:32. Depending on your return flight's departure time, you can spend your last night in Provence and avoid the need to double back to Paris. There are similar direct trains (bypassing Paris and the need for metro > RER transfers) from Burgundy and from the Loire valley. You can spend the night this saves you in Paris if you like (on the first leg of your trip)--which is lots better than breaking up your trip just to be near the airport.

Hi, Last year my wife and I had 15 days to try to see Normandy and Brittany and then 10 days in Paris. I know, what a luxury. But do you have ANY idea how big France is? 15 days to travel around Normandy and Brittany were too few days. Look at a map, they are next to each other. Pick a "county" and spend your non-Paris days there. A wonderful old lady, Mrs. Scott of Northern Ireland made (she was quite determined to slow us down, and we know not to argue with a 90 year old) us slow down on that trip. She said that going too fast we wouldn't soak up what we came for. She was and is correct. We have been grateful ever since. A problem with Americans (USA) is that we feel if we get a glimpse of a castle, then we "have seen it". Rowing around a lake is a much different experience than seeing a lake. Maybe the best thing about France is a morning croissant and a good cup of coffee..every morning. Slow down and feel the breeze. wayne iNWI

Fran, I love Dordogne and recommend http://www.carlucet.com/ its centrally located to all the fabulous offerings of the area (food, wine, castles, markets, villages) and the owners are the BEST!!! In Provence (which we also adore) we recommend http://www.bed-breakfast-provence.fr/ they even offer a private wine tour which is a MUST!!! Luckily France has fabulous coffee to keep you truckin' along!!! If you want more details about these areas please let me know. Bon voyage!
amanda

Whatever you decide, I'd heed the advice of those who point out how far the driving distances are in France. We are going in June for a month. We start in Paris and end in Provence with Reims, Verdun, Giverny and Le Mans in between. We love to drive and I originally thought that after Paris and Reims, we would do a loop in a rental car, but when I realized how long just the driving part would be even on the fastest routes back from Provence to return the car to Paris (about 7 1/2 hours), I opted to leave the car in Aix and take the TGV train back. We can actually get to Paris in 3 hours or to CDG airport in 3 1/2. If you buy your tickets 90 days in advance of when you will use them, you can get substantial savings. To get the absolute best price, go to tgv-europe.com and pretend you are from Great Britain. If you say you are from the US, you get bumped into Rail Europe and although very good, the best prices are not shown. I just learned this from Tim's post on TGV Tickets from Paris to Avignon on this same section of the Traveler's Helpline. Check that out for more details.