Two weeks in France, Spain and Portugal

Sounds like too much to me. First, be honest with yourselves: how many full days do you have? Don't count the day you arrive or depart. Keep in mind that you lose at least half a day (usually more than half a day) any time you move from one place to another - even if you're zooming from one city center to another efficiently with a convenient rail connection. If you're flying, or have complex rail connections, you often lose a whole day. Even though I really like Portugal, with just two weeks, I'd either stick to France, or split the time between France and Spain (and it's probably not practical to try and do Madrid and Barcelona).

Have any of you been to Europe before? If not, I might suggest not going to Portugal and spend a little more time in France to see some of the countryside in addition to Paris & Normandy. A shame not to see what we all think of when we dream of France.

A lot to see in that length of time...as another poster stated, you must consider the travel time, and also the jet lag factor...I would omit some of the three countries and concentrate in one or two at the most.

My suggestion is to headquarter in Paris and take day trips on the TGV to a couple of other cities. Rouen is an hour and a half away and Marseille is only three hours away. The trains run at all hours, so you can get somewhere and back and still have plenty of time at your destination. Besides, you'll need the rest of the time just to get the highlights of Paris. Do Spain and Portugal as separate trips.

Thanks for the responses, we decided to stick to France and Spain. We went to Europe in March of last year and did 6 countries in 2 weeks.