We are visiting France in July to see the Tour. We plan to begin our trip in the Loire Valley. We will be there for about 1-2 days. We are looking for lodging and transportation suggestions coming from Paris. After this point, we are headed to Grenoble where we already have hotel reservations. We plan to take a train from the Loire Valley area into Grenoble. After Grenoble, we are following the Tour to Lons le Saunier. We need to know how long this distance is since we are trying to leave Grenoble and get there the same day? Also, what would be our best mode of transportation? After this stage, we want to spend some time and visit Beaune. Again, how far is this from that point? And, any suggestions on lodging? After Beaune, we will head back into Paris to see the final stage of the Tour. We assume the best thing is to catch a train out of Beaune or Dijon. We really appreciate the help and insight! We are unsure about the car rental situation and whether this is a good idea? And, we are always open for good suggestions on restaurants in any of these areas! If you think you can offer better areas to visit, we are open at this point. And, do you recommend we buy our train tickets now or just wait until we get there? Merci, Jack!
3France during The Tour
June 16, 2004
By francecom
3 Comments On France during The Tour
4mcilvain: My wife and I stayed at a place called Au Gay Sejours in a distant "suburb" of Albertville. It was fantastic – if not a bit remote. In that whole area, if you take the Autoroutes, you can make good time. We went from that place to Macon/Beaune in about 6 hours. It is beautiful country. SalB should be here shortly to give you more specifics. She is fantastic. Donerail
Thanks so much for the response. We appreciate the insight. We will look forward to SalB’s reply and then may have more questions! Please share your input, Jack!
Hi. I couldn’t get on France.com this afternoon. It refused to load. Sorry.
Your questions: First of all, I hope the France.com staff hops on this because they know a LOT more than I do.
To get distances, you can use http://www.mappy.fr/ which is a map web site. You can plug in starting and ending addresses and it will give you the mileage, tolls, local sights, probably gas useage if you’re driving. It’s a great site. If you don’t have an address, type in just the name of each town and you’ll get a pretty good approximation. You will have a choice of the scenic route or a direct route. The scenic routes will avoid A routes (the French Autoroute) and thereby avoid tolls. They will also take a lot longer. We prefer them unless we’re in a hurry. If you are getting from one place to another for a bike race, you will probably prefer the direct routes.
You can easily take the train from Paris to the Loire. As far as where to stay, we usually stay in Azay-le-Rideau at Hotel de Biencourt which is a Logis de France. I don’t remember seeing a train station in Azay, so I suspect that’s not an option for you. Suggestion: Click on the blue and red France.com at the top of this page. That will take you to the home page where you click on the little box that says Hotels. You can do a search by town for hotels. There will be reviews of the hotels and you can reserve on line. We’ve used the France.com reservation system almost since it started and have never had a problem even when we’ve had to make a couple changes. They’re great.
Another source for hotels is the Logis de France chain. They have a web site in English at http://www.logis-de-france.fr/uk/ Again, we’ve used them extensively and they are great. They have pictures but they don’t have reviews of the hotels. Generally, what you see is what you get.
If you want to check out train schedules and stops, visit the SCNF web site at http://www.sncf.com/ This is the French train system. You should be able to find out where the stations are and then you can find a hotel. I can’t seem to load the English site. Perhaps you’ll have better luck.
Lons le Saunier is 233.1 km from Grenoble. We’ve driven it in a day on back roads and had no problem. I have no idea what train service would be like. If you’re following the Tour de France, it might be rather crowded. If you have a rental car, you can do the Mappy express route in (according to them) 2 hrs. 16 minutes. The toll is about 20 euros and probably worth it if you’re in a hurry.
Lons le Saunier is not too far from Beaune. Mappy has it at 108 km and an hour and 8 minutes on the express route. You can catch a train from either Beaune or Dijon back to Paris although it’s a beautiful drive.
In Beaune, we stay at the Hotel Grillon. Their web site is http://www.hotel-grillon.fr/ or you can contact them through Logis de France. Their prices for 2004 are listed as 52 to 65 euros and it really is a nice hotel. You can walk to town although it’s slightly more than a half mile. Mme. Grillon speaks excellent English. Her husband has never spoken English to us, but I’ve heard on other web sites that he does speak English. They are wonderful and the hotel is very nice especially considering the price.
We’ve never taken the train in France except the Paris Metro so I can’t give you any advice there. We lease a Peugeot when we go over but you need to be there at least 17 days to lease. If you won’t be there 17 days, you may want to take the train between cities and rent a car while you’re there. We just prefer the freedom of driving and quite frankly, you are going through some absolutely gorgeous country. It’s nice to be able to stop and take a photo occasionally. If you just want to rent briefly, again, try France.com over on the right side of the home page where it says Cars (or something of the sort) or try autoeurope which is recommended by many people. We’ve never used anything except Peugeot and Kemwell so I can’t give my personal recommendation on autoeurope. I would be comfortable recommending France.com’s car service since I know their hotel service is completely reliable.
I do know you will save money if you rent your car from the US before you go so try to do that. I don’t know about train tickets. Hopefully, France.com staff will answer that one.
I hope I haven’t totally confused you. The Tour de France is a major big deal and it will be crowded and busy and lots of fun. You should have a great time.