Overnight between Burg Eltz and Paris

Trier is about an hours drive from Burg Eltz and has a nice historic center.

Trier does sound like a good plan. Smaller Cochem would work too. The Lohspeicher has gourmet dining and an excellent location with rooms right in the middle of the scenic old town, and it's a popular choice on Tripadvisor. If you just want a quiet, scenic place to lay your head, Bullay is good.

But what's with the car? You don't want a car in Paris - driving and parking is hell there. And driving on your first day can be hazardous - most people are somewhat jet-lagged and need to be in top form to handle driving in a new place with strange road signage, etc. The long drive to Eltz may sound easier than it really is.

I would use the train to Eltz and all the way to Paris and then pick up a car on your way out (assuming you have other places to go as well.) Or at least use the train for Day 1 and pick up the car in Trier.

Driving out of Paris is pretty simple from Versailles, in my experience.

Stephen, I agree with Russ, before you drive a car to Paris/park it there, check to see if your hotel offers free parking. I was just there in April and "parking was available"--what they didn't tell us was it was 35euros/day!

I wouldn't drive in Paris either. We drove through Paris on the autobahn (or whatever it's called once you get into France) from Germany, headed toward Normandy. It was awful, bumper-to-bumper traffic, worse lane changes than any major American city I've ever been in. I'd rather drive in L.A.

For the next week I dreaded the drive back to Paris. I did plan to take everyone's advice here not to drive around Paris while staying there but I had to drive to our hotel to park the car and then drive out when we left. I even picked a hotel on the outskirts and it didn't help me any. I got lost coming in and going, ended up driving all over the city trying to find the Peripherie road. LOL!

I've come to expect great replies on this website and I certainly am not disappointed with what's been wrtten above!

Indeed, jet lag can be brutal during the first 24+ hours . . . and avoiding Paris on day one is a given. Will definitely keep Trier and Cochem as plan Bs if we feel too fatigued to make Reims.

Paris driving - yes! Those "beware of aggressive drivers" signs in the states - they're talking about me! A no-fear attitude - have driven in many major cities with the worst of them. Our Garmin Nuvi 270 has served us well also.

Can anyone suggest a median priced hotel in Paris that INCLUDES parking and is near a metro station?

We are doing what Rick refers to as the Whirlwind Kamikaze tour - counterclockwise from Frankfurt, Burg Eltz, Paris, Giverny, Burgundy, Chamoix, Provence, Cinque Terre, Florence, Venice, Fussen, Rothenburg, Frankfurt in 15 days . . . hence our agressive travel schedule - yawn!

I really apprciate the great info, advice, suggestions and even concerns above!

My eyes about popped out of my head when I saw your itinerary. For anyone interested in a visual, I roughly mapped it out HERE

Stephen, I know you aren't asking for commentary regarding your itinerary (but since you put it out there, the Peanut Gallery will chime in...), but are you sure you want to be this aggressive? I mean, I'm no shrinking violet when it comes to aggressive itineraries, but this one made me stop dead in my tracks.

Angela, thank you for assisting us in laughing at ourselves - even more! And that itinerary already has Gimmelwald and Hallstatt lopped off! Your Google map looks very similar to ours! LOL

We are now matching distances/travel times to destinations and site seeing times and can readily see more cuts will have to be made.

We are determined not to compromise the four corners of Burg Eltz, Giverny, Arles and Venice. Burgundy and Chamonix will simply be replaced with a marathon drive from Giverny to Vaison la Romaine - by far the longest single leg.

This link and the planning tools there may help you as you take another look at your itinerary:

http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/28278/bhelp-with-itinerary-planning--travel-timesb.html

To cut out some of the driving, you may find the European discount airlines to be helpful. For instance, it looks like RyanAir flies from the Beauvais airport (about 85 km north of Paris) to Marseille. I just plugged in a random date in September (the 10th) and the one-way fare came back at €9.97 (including taxes). This doesn't include any additional fees they may tack on for baggage check, etc., but it may be worthwhile to suss out further.

A website you may find helpful in determining where the discount airlines fly is www.whichbudget.com.

In the meantime, keep hacking away at that beast of an itinerary! :)

Driving through southern Germany and Northern France for me was gruelling and I love to drive. Lot of construction going on the autobahns and a lot of semi/large truck traffic on our drive from Rothenburg to Mont. Saint-Michel. Took us hours longer than we planned due to slow moving traffic and all the construction going on. We were going to spend the night in Dinan and didn't get that far.

I was exhausted and we ended up staying in a horrid Etap hotel somewhere an hour or so outside of Paris. The kids hated all the riding in the car.