Need suggestions for 3 weeks in France
Replies: 3 - Last Post: Sep 20, 2012 7:34 AM Last Post By: Sharliz
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Need suggestions for 3 weeks in France
hello!so I'm starting to plan a romantic/adventurous 3-week trip for two to France for next spring, and I'm having a little trouble figuring out where to go and for how long. any potential itinerary suggestions would be appreciated!
we are early 30s and love music, art, food, wine, and adventures. we would be open to renting a car for a few days somewhere if it wasn't too expensive, but we are hoping to mainly use trains. we are American and I have enough college French to get by, at least in Paris. (I'm trying to get better via Rosetta Stone before the trip!)
we know we want to spend at least a week in Paris, and finding things to do in Paris is no problem. We're just not sure what is the best way to spend our time in the rest of the country. The only time I've been to France is a few days in Paris here and there, so everything else would be new to me. One of my concerns outside of Paris is having enough varied things to do - though we love to eat and drink we would also like to have some exciting adventures thrown in there too. Looking at scenery and architecture is nice for a while, but we are the kind of people that like to DO rather than just see.
here are our very loose plans so far:
- fly into Geneva and out of London (or vice versa) to see friends - doesn't matter which city is first
- spend at least a week in Paris
- spend a few days in Annecy area to see some people and hopefully do some scenic/fun Alps related activities
- do some countryside wine tasting and biking - but where? we love Loire Valley whites, but we're iffy about seeing a million chateaus (one or two spectacular ones is fine though :) if we go to the Loire, should we also go through Burgundy or elsewhere? are there more/different things to do? I've heard Burgundy has better food and scenery. What about Provence? Are there activities that aren't necessarily geared to the older crowd?
- we want to go to the south of France, but even after researching it, I'm not sure which destinations are best or the most interesting things to do to mix it up. We'd love to go to some nude beaches if possible, and do some nature-y things that let us enjoy the Mediterranean coastline.
I'm also researching music festivals and other fun events that might occur during our trip dates. Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions for a rough itinerary, or great things to do, I would really appreciate it!
Thank you!
1
The Loire is an excellent place to go biking. There are routes almost completely reserved for bikers. I would not let me keep out of the Loire, because of the Chateaux. I know there are a lot, but select the ones you would like to see. We visted two chateaux this summer, Azay-le-Rideau and Chenonceau, and thought that enough. We liked the first one in particular; the second one was nice, but too full of people, which made us decide to skip Chambord. We found the castle in Angers very nice, because of the tapistries about the Apocalypse. (N.B. notice the difference between a castle and a chateaux. The first is basically a fortification, although sometimes rather elaborate and the chateaux is kind of a summer-palace) Near Saumur we visited a mushroom-museum, which was nice. There are a lot of small hotels in the area, where the food and the wine are excellent. Tours is another town worth a visit and Nantes is very interesting. In short, I feel that you can spend a week without any problem along the Loire. The river itself is very scenic in may places. Do some googling about the chateaux and castles along the Loire as well as about the towns.2
Geneve, Annecy, going south by the valley of the Rhone - wine tasting all along the way the 'Cote du Rhone' - to the region La Provence - wine tasting here Cote de Provence. From here north to Burgundy and/or Boujolais and the Loire valley before Paris and London. This could be the way.For the Provence a car would be helpfull as local transport is not the best. The rest you can do by train. Local and good food you will find in any place but dont go into hotels with international kitchen or restaurants with the English translation of their menues. Try Bistros or Brasseries, much better, more local and good prices as mostly used by locals.
Nude beaches you will find on the sea front but it's a little bit far and out of your way - or maybe too much in your short time. Your are looking for activities, what do you mean or what you are looking for?
3
For romantic travel you will need a good restourant. I can suggest you to visit LE BAR À HUÎTRES - TERNES - very, very stylish french restourant with amazing cousine! They serve seafood.ADVERTISEMENT
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