Help with Voyages for Winter France/Italy Trip

You do know Nice in December is not particularily nice,, I would skip it and add time onto Paris, but perhaps you know that.

Actually I heard that it's at least warmer on the Riviera.. is it a crapshoot? Should I go north instead?

Hi Roger,
We were in France in January, 2001 for 3 weeks, which I realize isn't December but.... It was really cold (and I should have had gloves but I knew I'd lose them)! We decided to go to Nice and Aix en Provence, expecting it to be warmer but it wasn't. The water just made it seem even colder. If I had it to do all over again, I'd just stay in the Paris vicinity but that's just me.

We couldn't go to the Cinque Terre due to slides in the area.
We didn't have an itinerary or reservations except for the first and last night.
Wherever you decide to go, it'll be fantastic! After all, you'll be in Europe! Have a wonderful time!

I think we could spend maybe an extra day or two in Paris but would you say go to Florence/Venice? The other option is to do Paris for 7 days and do London for 7 days via Eurostar. My soon to be fiancee doesn't want to do Brussels/Amsterdam and she'll be mighty disappointed if we don't get to do italy!

Roger is there a reason you are missing Rome??
Why not Rome and Paris, and maybe a daytrip to London if interested. Flights within Europe are cheap if purchased ahead of time and if you travel light. I paid 80 euros to fly one way Paris to Rome this past July, and if I had flown return it was only ( at that time) 110 euros. ( that was on Vueling) .

Winter is winter in Europe , yes, the south areas will likely be a bit warmer, for instance likely no snow in Rome ,, but don't go anywhere thinking it will be warm as in "no jacket" warm.
Venice is also likely to be rainy, and that is not a huge issue, except really Venice is fun to walk around in and that is not as fun in the rain,, so take that into account and pack good waterproof shoes.

Paris in the winter sounds lovely though, the streets are lit up for Xmas, they sell mulled wine and roasted chestnuts on the street, and the museums are warm and dry no matter the season!
And Rome is bound to please your girlfriend if she wants Italy, and flights there take only 1.5 hours,, how cool is that!

Hi Pat,

I've found a new itinerary to do Paris for 5 days, then to Florence for 2, then to Rome for 3 days and then finally London for 3 days.

The reason we're doing London last is because we got an open legged ticket from Seattle to Paris and then from London back to Los Angeles to see our families for Christmas.

This itinerary looks pretty good to me and I understand it will be cold but I live in Seattle and it's regularly in the 30/40s here at night and 50-60 is the norm so I think I'll manage just fine.

We're going to take an overnight train from Paris to Florence completely skipping the French Riviera and then from Florence to Rome and then flying from Rome to London on either RyanAir or EasyJet.

I like your new itinerary. While I love Nice, at this time of the year skipping it in favor of more time in Paris is a good idea.

What do you mean when you say changing to English on voyages-sncf.com "screws up the layout"? Everything looks normal when I do it. Once you force the site to give you a booking page in English by changing LANG=FR to LANG=UK, the site is very fussy about how you enter your departure and arrival points. For the Paris-Florence night train enter Paris Bercy and Florence S M N (entering Firenze won't work on the English version and you must have the spaces as shown between "S", "M", and "N").

If you buy your Florence-Rome train tickets as soon as you arrive in Florence, you may be able to get Amica fares (20% discount). If any of the allotted seats are still available, those fares are sold up until midnight of the day before departure.

So I have to ask, does she know you are going to Europe or that you are going to propose?? Have you decided what city your going to do it in?? I just got married last summer, so I'm still really interested in hearing these stories!!! Good luck!!!

Ni Nikki, Congrats first of all! No, she doesn't know I'm going to propose (although I don't think it would be a huge surprise given how long we've been together) and I haven't decided on where to do it yet. I definitely think it will be Paris as I would not enjoy the trip at all if I had to do it at the end. It just seems better to get it done and both celebrate it there!

I'm going to go down and ask for her parent's blessings next weekend and then have a month to finalize the ring purchase and such. I hope there won't be any problems bringing it into France!

I'm feeling good about this new itinerary and am just trying to work out the budget right now. I feel like we should celebrate a bit and splurge but at the same time, the ring and airfare and such are already a big outlay... =(

Good move eliminating the riviera and Cinque Terre in December--your current itinerary looks great.

When I ordered from SNCF voyages this year, I couldn't get the site to remain in english for ordering tickets. But, ordering was very straighforward in French--even if you don't speak the language you can tell what to fill in and where. You can use the babelfish altavista translator if you get stuck.

Proposing in Paris--I like it!

Will you have either a money belt or a neck wallet? If so, keep her ring safe there until you give it to her.

Nope, I have to buy one of those belts and also a backpacking backpack.

It looks like you are planning to fly home from London on 25 December. If so, you need to know that virtually all public transportation shuts down throughout the UK on Christmas Day. The Heathrow Express will be running from Paddington to the airport, but it will be in the form of bus service rather than train service. The same will be true for the Gatwick Express from Victoria to the airport (bus rather than train). City buses and the Tube will NOT be running.

For your days in London you might want to take advantage of the 2for1 offers that you can use if you buy PAPER travelcards at any National Rail station (NOT the travelcards sold at Tube stations). Download and print the vouchers and take them with you.

For a list of all your transportation pass and ticket choices in Paris with links to detailed explanations of each one, go here. If you plan to walk a lot, buying ten-ticket carnets as needed and sharing the tickets works well.

Roger congratulations! If you decide to propose in Paris, perhaps have lunch or dinner at Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower. It's the most expensive restaurant I've ever been to but the memory still lives on from 20 years ago. All she would think is that you are going to visit the tower, not eat and be proposed to there. "Food for thought" :-)

Roger I think your new plan is great!
I also agree proposing sooner rather then later, she is less likely to lose the ring once it is on her finger , and then poor you trying to hide it in your wallet or money belt!

Years ago my hubby proposed in Hawaii, I was not totally surprised as we were "living in sin" and had decided marriage was the next step. What did surprise me was how he got the ring to Hawaii without me knowing , as I did all the packing for the trip.

He took it out of the box, and wrapped in tin foil ( I have no idea why maybe to bulk it out so it wouldn't slip out?,) and then kept it in his wallet, which of course he kept in the safe in Hawaii, he proposed on day two of a 14 day trip, and once that ring was on my finger it was safe ( no one was getting it from me, LOL) He kept the box at home so I still had it( why this mattered I don't know but at the time it seemed to, now, 20 yrs later I am not sure where it is anyways)

Have a great trip, and remember to be flexible. Proposing at dinner is nice, but , you could do something like just wait till you have a perfect moment alone, while walking across a bridge , or seeing the ET in the distance for first time, then pop out ring and propose, just being together in Paris is pretty romantic, if you find the right moment.!

Best wishes.

I prefer using SNCF-voyages website, the prices are WAY less that raileurope and you can just pick up the tickets at any train station in France when you arrive. It seems to me that once in the past when I selected English, it sent me to a sort of British SNCF website, which if I remember correctly wanted me to pick up the tickets in the UK, which doesn't really work if you need the ticket in France before London. I have just winged in on the French website, and it has all worked out OK. I have some knowledge of French, but for things that look important you can just use google translate or something.

For getting to Nice, I would highly suggest the TGV, it's incredible. You can probably just wing it for the rest of the tickets you'll need after you get to Europe. I am always nervous that the times I want will sell out, so I usually just buy them in the US beforehand.

Good Luck, it sounds like a fantastic time!

Geoff