France in June

maymouse: Spend a day in Paris recovering from the flight then go east or south for x number of days. Allow 2 more days in Paris before you return. What special interests do you have? France is so nice for most all interests. Donerail

maymouse, Congratulations. Most tourists stay in Paris. France is a very large country with something to please everyone.

A couple questions: (1) How long is your planned trip? (2) What are your interests, i.e. art, architecture, food, wine, sports, scenery?

On our first trip we spent 3 days in Paris at the beginning and 3 more days at the end of our trip. That worked well for us. Then we camped, stayed in small local inns and spent a week in a timeshare for the rest of the 6-week trip.

The Loire Valley is very famous and fun with wine, chateaux and lovely scenery. You can visit the famous chateaux and you can take some time to visit a few of the lesser known (off the beaten track) chateaux.

Normandy is much more than the famous beaches. There are lovely out of the way places there to visit as well as the well known Bayeux of tapestry fame or the WWII Memorial at Caen.

Burgundy is terrific for old villages, wine, food and gorgeous scenery. Nearly every town in France has a lovely church and many have glorious cathedrals. These often have famous works of art in them.

Provence is a perennial favorite with many people. There are the famous sights but every little village is a gem and you can just take off and discover them on your own. If you like nature, visit the Camargue or the calanques on the Mediterranean. Climb mountains in the Luberon or raft some of the famous gorges. If you’re a city person, visit Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, Nice or Marseille. There are lots of smaller cities that have lovely buildings, churches and museums.

The west coast has the Atlantic Ocean and lovely beaches. The eastern part of France contains the Jura Mountains and the Alps. You can see France with a German flavor in the Strasbourg area. Brittany has a celtic air. There is so much to see everyplace!

As you can see, we need your personal interests and a time frame to help you so let us know your interests, and we’ll come up with some suggestions for you to consider.

If you are going for more than 17 days, I highly recommend you lease a car instead of renting. It’s quite a bit cheaper. If you don’t want to drive, there is excellent public transportation but you will have to make a bit more of an effort to get off the beaten track. We drive a leased car unless we’re staying in one city. We’ve leased Peugeots every time and have been very happy with them. Driving in France is no problem. The roads are well marked and they also have an autoroute that is similar to our interstate highway system in the US. We do try to avoid the interstate type highways because we like the out of the way places. It’s fun to wander through an area driving through the center of the towns and seeing the lovely houses, buildings, parks and castles . . . not to mention the people! We do take the autoroute when we need to get from one end of the country to another in a hurry but try to keep marathon drives to a minimum.

If you are staying for fewer than 17 days, pick one or two places and spend the time exploring them. You can always go back and explore other places later!

Thankyou for you reply, it it very helpful. We plan to go for a little over a month. We love nature and the scenery. We are really interested in the nontipical france. We definately want sometime on the Mediterranean. I thought a car would be good and cheaper but one of my other friends thought it would be hindering and we wouldn’t be able to experience the cultur as much. What do you think? I would love to correspond through email. Mine is bluedragoncat@hotmail.com
Thanks again for your reply

Sorry I haven’t answered. We were helping our daughter move . . . lots of fun!

I’m not sure why a car would be "hindering" since it gives you more freedom to go where you want and when you want. We enjoy the idea of heading out to little-visited towns and staying in the countryside rather than staying near a train station with all the other tourists.

If you want time on the Mediterranean and you aren’t interested in tourist areas, try the western coast. The beaches there are much nicer and it’s not nearly as crowded . . . no large cement resorts! There are lovely little towns you can visit, like Collioure and Banyuls right on the ocean. You can take day trips (or longer) into the Pyrenees and visit Cathar country. It’s amazing to turn a bend in the road and see a ruined Cathar castle on the top of a mountain miles away . . . absolutely awesome! All the towns have markets and most have very interesting churches.

Another place you might enjoy for nature and scenery is the French Alps. The entire area is amazing. The Mercantour National Park in Provence is wonderful for both hiking and driving. You can visit small towns that are almost like Swiss villages or drive along magnificent river gorges.

The Cevennes are mountains in south central France that are wild and wonderful (there’s a national park there too) and not often visited by Americans.

As far as scenery, there really isn’t any place in France that you can go wrong. It’s got a wide range of scenery and virtually all of it is wonderful. If you get out and walk around the countryside or the small towns, you will meet people. Go to markets; eat in local restaurants and stay in local hotels.

SalB,
Thank you for your reply.
What kind of price range would you recommend for about a month trip? Do you know where to get cheap tickets? Where do you rent/lease you car?
If you have any other ideas on where to go or places to stay, I would love to hear about them.
You can email me at bluedragoncat@hotmail.com
Thanks,
maymouse

maymouse, Excuse me for not e-mailing you but that would defeat the idea of a forum . . . to share ideas with anyone who is interested.

Cheap tickets: Hmm. That varies wildly. You really need to do comparison shopping. The last time we went, I found the best deal right here on the France.com forum. Just click on the blue and red France.com at the top of this page. When you hit the home page, over on the right side of your screen there is a little button labeled Airlines or Flights (with an airplane picture). Click on that and do your search.

I usually check a bunch of other web sites like Expedia, Orbitz, http://www.star-alliance.com/ and then the airlines own web sites. I spend a lot of time looking for airline deals. We have a choice of airports where we live and that helps.

We lease a car but you have to go for 17 days or longer to lease. Since you are going for a month, that would be the cheapest way to get a car. We use the Peugeot Open Europe plan and have used it many many times with no problems whatever. The Peugeot web site is http://www.peugeot.com/sodexa/en/html/index_ns.html and they will have contact information. We always go through Peugeot/Sodexa. You get a brand new Peugeot and 24-hour road service. I recommend you get the smallest car you can live with because roads are narrow, parking places tiny and fuel very expensive. We use the Peugeot 206 unless someone is traveling with us. I don’t drive a stick so we get an automatic too but it is more expensive. Arrange your lease before you go to save money.

Places to stay: Again, check the visitfrance.travel home page and do a hotel search for places you are visiting. We’ve used their reservation service often and always been satisfied. We usually only use it in Paris, however, and use the Logis de France chain of small family-owned hotels for the rest of the country. Their web site is http://www.logis-de-france.fr/uk/ and it is fun to look through the pictures. They have hotels everywhere and for any budget.

As far as budget, 60 euros a day should comfortably feed two people. We often eat our main meal at noon and have bread, cheese and fruit for supper. That saves quite a bit. If your hotel offers breakfast with the room, that saves some more. Shop carefully here but do enjoy the wonderful food you will find in France.

Rooms vary and it depends on your style. We usually aim for 50 to 80 euros a day. In France the price is for the room (not per person) unless it says otherwise. You can find cheaper places and you can easily spend much much more. It depends on what you want. We want clean, friendly, nice location, private bath and outlets to recharge camera batteries and laptop computer. You will have different needs.

I’m not sure what the current price of fuel is in France but perhaps someone on the forum from France will tell you this. (crc95 & ManuNice where are you?)

We have a couple favorite places to stay and one is in Beaune in the Burgundy region. It is Hotel Grillon (http://www.hotel-grillon.fr/) and it is about a kilometer (.6 mile) from the old town area. It’s an easy walk although there is parking right across the street from old town. Another favorite (although a bit more spare) is the Hotel de Biencourt in Azay-le-Rideau. It’s only a block from the Chateau. It is on a pedestrian street so you have to park elsewhere. The town is tiny so that’s never been a problem. It is an old renovated schoolhouse!

We’ve stayed at the Hotel de la Sorbonne in Paris. It’s small but friendly and the location in the Latin Quarter can’t be beat. We book that right here on France.com although they have their own web site.

A favorite in Normandy although a bit more expensive is the Hotel Moulin de Connelles and their web site is http://www.moulindeconnelles.com/

I highly recommend looking through France.com hotels and the Logis de France to see what you might find interesting. Planning is half the fun!

Thanks SalB for the reply, I’m new to the forum circut and appricate the pointers!
Another question for anyone out there: would single women have any trouble travling alone through France or any of the surrounding countries? Thanks!

maymouse: The only trouble will be a weak dollar coupled with a strong Euro. Horrible combination. Donerail

I don’t think a single woman would have any trouble in France. I haven’t been to all the surrounding countries but I have been to Switzerland (no problem), Germany (no problem except possibly at night in large cities), Spain (no problem) and Italy (no problem). I haven’t been anyplace else except London. I can’t imagine a problem in Lichtenstein or Luxembourg but I haven’t been there. There aren’t many other countries in the immediate area. Monaco is fine although boring unless you like to gamble.

As on any trip, try to have a companion late at night when you visit large cities. You should always be aware of your surroundings but honestly, it’s not nearly as bad in Europe as it is in most cities in the USA. Sometimes in Italy the guys are overtly friendly if you are cute, but be firm and they’ll leave you alone. They are not aggressive, just trying to see how far they can get. If you say no, they’ll leave you alone. It’s probably similar in Spain but we haven’t been there much so I can’t say.

If you head for family oriented places, you won’t have any problems at all. The only place I would be a tad nervous is an industrial area in a large German city and I still wouldn’t be nearly as nervous as in Kansas City. I don’t know why you would want to visit an industrial area in a large city anyway . . . )

I have a single friend who travels alone in Europe all the time and she’s not had any problems and she has met lots of wonderful people. I say . . . go for it!

donerail : weak dollar, strong euro, and … sales time right now in France. Man, this sounds like a hell worse than Iraq !

CRC

crc95: Irak seems like such a nice place. After the Chimp gets democracy established, it would be an opportune place to open a business. What kind of shops do you think they would like? I was thinking a Bible store would be a good opportunity.

oddone: I think crc95 was trying to ask you to translate vouch’s post appearing above.

Donerail