Spring in France: What's your favorite region and why?

SalB: I don’t want to sound mauldling but Paris is something special in April. My wife and I have been going there around Easter for a number of years now. Lately we’ve been branching out. Last year we extended the trip to Lyon and the northern Burgundy region. It was beautiful. Temperature were good for touring – the high 50’s low sixties and it wasn’t crowded. This April we will extend from Paris to the Haute Savioe region as well as back to Burgundy. We like this time of year as the summers are just too hot for us. Regards, Donerail

I think people should be sentimental when they talk about France!!

That’s interesting. We’ve visited all those places in the summer and never felt it was too hot. Occasionally there were too many fellow tourists for our tastes, but you can’t complain about tourists when you are one! We’re from southern California so we’re used to "really" hot, i.e. 100+ temps for weeks at a time. We’ve spent a lot of time in Provence in July and it never got too hot for us although we noticed a few around us wilting. (We didn’t go last summer, however!)

What we really don’t have where we live are seasons, at least as they were back East growing up. We thought it would be fun to see the trees, shrubs and flowers starting to bloom and things "waking up" for the summer.

We do love autumn in France. The starkness of the bare trees and bushes against the cloudy skies reminds us of the old black and white photos you often see of Paris. The autumn leaves blowing down the streets seems terribly romantic. It’s a wild sort of beauty.

At any rate, we’re trying for spring next year and will certainly put Paris on our agenda . . . all those chestnut trees. Burgundy is a favorite place also, but I suspect we’ll head for the south and then spend some time in Italy too.

Thanks for your input.

SalB: I hope you enjoy your trip. You are right about the seasons. After a long winter in New England we just love France in the spring. Especially since its been near zero most of January. Seeing the trees and flowers in bloom at Notre Dame from the Qui du Montebello is a gorgeous site. (Plus its only few steps from Bertillon’s ice cream…)Donerail

That is funny. We just had a friend from Boston visit for a week expecting sunny warm weather in the LA area. It was rather brisk while he was here . . . in the low 60s. Then he went back to Boston and you’ve had that horrible cold spell ever since. I think he was doomed to be cold this winter. Oh well, at least he had one day in the 70s here!

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of activity on this particular forum. I wonder why? It’s a great hotel reservation site. We’ve used it for years.

Salb,

Spring is great in most areas of France. If you plan on going to Italy afterwards, then you should basically head in that direction. Franche Comte might still be too cold, but there are some areas in Rhone Alpes that should be worth a visit, like Evian or anywhere around the lake. Provence is very nice as it’s not too hot and there’s so much to see and enjoy.

What you may want to look at is the "arriere-pays" of the cote d’azur. You’re very close to Italy and I really like te area as its not as crowded as the beaches, and I love the countryside.

Also in the spring Paris is absolutely great. You may want to go to the parcs and forets that are around it for a day out in the open. Also, you may want to take a peniche down the Seine, I beleive some comapnies do that.

Normandie with its quiet verdant hillsides is a spring place indeed! And there’s nothing quite like a good cold glass of apple cider when the weather is nice. It’s 2 hours from Paris, it’s very nice, and you also have the beaches but they’ll be too cold for swimming, I guess.

Well, that’s a start, isn’t it?

G

Great start. Thanks.

I wouldn’t have thought of Franche-Compté as I would have thought they would still be in the throes of winter well into Spring. We’ve been to Lac Annecy and Evian in the summer and it’s heavenly.

Obviously, we’ll fly into Paris and spend a few days enjoying that. Then we have to decide which way to drive south.

We love Normandy but it’s a bit out of the way for this trip. We’ll stay in the Côte d’Azure near Italy for a week and zip around sightseeing before we head into Italy.

The big question is, How do we drive down from Paris to near the Aix-Avignon area? There are so many ways to get there. Which is the most beautiful in the Spring? Our only criteria is avoiding the Autoroutes. We like the National or Departmental roads. Any suggestions?

Again, thanks so much for your input.

SalB,

You’re right. Normandy is out of the way, but it’s only 2 hours from Paris, and I thought you could do that for about 3 days and then take the train to say avignon, rent a car from there and drive through Italy. That’s definitely one option.

Otherwise, you’d have to take your usual route through burgundy and down the rhone valley, through lyon and valence. Otherwise you’d have to go around the Massif Central, because that whole area will still be pretty cold. And you know what that means? Icy small mountain roads! Just the way you like it 😉

G.

We lease a Peugeot when we go over. We usually stay from four to six weeks so leasing is cheaper and we love our little Peugeot 206. We’re thinking of flying to Paris and taking the train to Nice and picking up the car there. We’ve found an apartment near Nice and will rent it for a week before hitting the trail into Italy.

You make a good point about Lyon though. We’ve never been there (except for driving through at 15 mph on Bastille Day weekend years go on the way south with the rest of France). We’ve never done that again!

Lyon looks interesting so we may just pick up our Peugeot in Paris and drive to Lyon and spend a few days there. If there is no flooding on the Rhone next spring, that could be a beautiful drive.

Point well taken . . . we’ll avoid those icey mountain roads! Thanks.

Any special sights in Lyon or the region that you would like to recommend?