Which villages should I visit?

SalB

Gee, once you get out of well-touristed Paris, you are home free. Stay off the Autoroutes if you are driving and take N and D roads (National and Department roads). They go through all the towns and villages and many are lovely.

I don't know which way you are planning to go nor how you are traveling so can only give very general advice. Assuming you are headed southeast toward Italy, you may want to head in the direction of Burgundy first. Provins and Sens would be two good stops. Avallon is very nice and Vezelay is a treasure. One of the crusades left from Vezelay and it is a cobblestone village. It is touristy but still lovely and as a pilgrimage site, it was also touristy in the Middle Ages so at least the atmosphere is authentic.

Chateauneuf near Dijon is a gorgeous cobblestone village on a hill. There are few tourists there and they tend to be French tourists. The chateau is being restored but part is open and you can view the restoration work too. ?It’s furnished with some period pieces borrowed from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. We ate at ?Au Marronnier about a block from the chateau. It's a small family-owned restaurant, very inexpensive with the best duck I've had anywhere. It is definitely not gourmet, just a nice homey place to eat.

Dijon is a nice provincial city, capital of Burgundy. Beaune has a wonderful Old Town with parts of the original city wall and the wonderful Hotel Dieu with its magical colored tile roof. Take a horse and carriage ride to get oriented and then walk. In Beaune we stay at Hotel Grillon, a Logis de France. http://www.hotel-grillon.fr/ It's very inexpensive and just beautiful. You can walk to Old Town but it's very quiet and they have a lovely garden. Mrs. Grillon speaks excellent English and I've heard Mr. Grillon does too but he's only spoken French to us. Perhaps you could test him. 8^)

Not sure which way you will head south from there but further south Orange is very nice with amazing Roman ruins. Provence is a totally different area of France and most of the little towns are gorgeous.

If you want to meet the natives, stay where they do. We always use the Logis de France. This is a chain of small family-owned hotels and most have an excellent restaurant. They come in all price ranges and nearly every town and village in France has at least one. You can check them out at http://www.logis-de-france.fr/uk/ There are photos and little maps. We always look for a Logis at lunch time because the restaurants are very good.

We always lease a car so I'm not going to be very helpful with public transportation outside of Paris. I will say that there is a train station in the center of any French town of moderate or larger size. You can nearly always walk out of the train station directly into Old Town and have a good hotel in a safe neighborhood. If you want to get off the beaten path, there are buses.

You might go to your library or book store and look at Plus Beaux Villages of France. These villages are given awards by the French government for taking care of their historical heritage and planting flowers, etc. They are all stunning, small, historic and friendly. Choose a couple on your path and check to see if they are on a train route. Here's the French railroad site http://www.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic/_SvHomePage?_DLG=SvHomePage&_CMD=cmdHomepageUK&WB=HP

BethanyAnderson

Wow, that was more info. than I expected anyone to provide. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me. I will definitely take your advice. And now I have some points of reference to help me know where to even begin.