Looking for recommendations - NE Italy to Paris

[bmckenney]

Hi All. I like your board. I like the small intimate atmosphere here compared to other larger travel boards. I don't know how I found this board thru Google, but I did. I think it was from searching for apartments in Paris.

My wife and I and two teenage kids just booked flights for next July for 4 weeks, arriving in Rome, departing from Paris. And we're laying down our route and itinerary now, planning on booking apartments as soon as possible for best selection. We plan on spending two weeks making our way from Rome to Venice then east to Tuscany and then some time on the NE coast of Italy before we make way to France. That leaves us two week for France.

Our travel philosophy will be to stay a minimum of three nights at each destination. I prefer a slower pace of travel and the expense of covering less ground, but having a more relaxing time and soaking up more of the places we stay.

We plan on leaving the Italian cost by car and making our way to Paris where we'll spend our last week.

And we plan on taking a week to get to Paris after we leave Italy. I'm sure what would be a good route to take and would love some suggestions. We don't plan on spending much time on the French Riviera (Monaco etc) because we believe the cost and crowds will be too much for us. But I'd like to drive thru part of that coast as we make our way in to France.

We'd like to avoid long drives and veering away from Paris. Which I think means we're looking to stay in SW France. Provence, Lyon and Avignon come to mind. Or the Loire Valley too.

We would like to have this leg of the trip be either one stop of several nights, or two stops of 3 nights each.

Because we will have a car, we can day trip from our apartment so we'd like the destinations to be centrally located. But on the other hand, I'm not sure we want to stay in down town urban apartments either. We'd like to stay in nice towns and villages, or even in a bigger center but in a quainter section.

Let me know if anyone has any suggestions. Or if I should provide further information to help.

Bryan

[PariS]

Welcome to the forum, Bryan! The trip you're planning for next year sounds fabulous! I like the way you're planning to stay several days in each destination and take things at a little slower pace. I don't have any specific suggestions for making your way up to Paris, but several of our regulars here know the routes well and I'm sure will chime in with some good ideas over the next few days. Again, welcome--and don't hesitate to ask us questions!

[holger]

Sounds like a great trip. I happen to adore both Lyon and Dijon but if you want smaller places, St. Remy in Provence is great, Amboise in the Loire is also small. Yet it makes a great base for seeing some of the chateaus.

But you might also want to think about the Dordogne in which case Sarlat is quite an experience especially if you can find an apartment in the old part of the city with its winding, hilly streets which make you feel that you have stepped back in time. It also makes a great base for the prehistoric caves which your teenagers might adore.

If we know what types of things you all like to see, you might get more targeted advice.

[Katharine]

Bryan - do you have room for me to come along, too? Sounds like a great time!

I really like Holger's suggestions. We spent a week in St. Remy in 2008, then drove up to the Loire, staying near Chenonceau. Amboise would be better as it is bigger and will offer more for a family of 4 with teens. If you split it into 2 stays of three nights each (although I would try to eek out four nights for St. Remy - there is so much to do in Provence!), would you do apartments or hotels?

Do you need an apartment suggestion for Paris?

Let us know what we can do for you. Ooohh, trip planning is so much fun!

Katharine

[bmckenney]

Holger, I haven't quite thought thru what exactly I want to see in S. France. I would say a bit of the usual cultural experiences. Villages, food, wine, ruins, castle, day tripping.

I am not familiar with Dordogne but will look in to that.

Katherine, I do need apartment recommendations for Paris. I have been reading some of the archives on this board actually.

It has been 20 years since I was last in Paris. I really need to give some thought as to where I want to be located. Once I figure that out, then I'll start looking for apartments.

Bryan

[Shoesy]

Hi Bryan! So glad you found us!
That's quite a trip you're planning. I'm sure you're going to have a lot of fun planning it, not to mention the true enjoyment you'll get while you're actually touring Italy and France.

[sistereurope]

Yes, welcome Bryan!
I'm also planning a somewhat similar trip...my post about my trip to Lyon and Nice this Oct is below yours. But while I haven't been to the parts of Italy that you're planning, several years ago we flew into Nice, rented a car and slowly made our way to Barcelona.
Based on that somewhat limited experience, here are my thoughts:

From what I hear, driving along the Cote d'Azur in the summer is NOT a fun experience. The traffic is supposed to be dreadful (we were there in March). Maybe you could try to do that part of the drive extra early in the day?

My suggestions for Provence would include Aix-en-Provence...it's a smallish city, but a good base to tour Provence. I also agree with Remy...a little smaller than Aix and convenient to a lot of things. We stayed a week in Lourmarin, a small village in the Luberon, It was beautiful and given your preference for village life you might like it, but we found that the more remote location got to be a drag after a while, especially when we decided to eat dinner elsewhere and had to drive the windy roads at night back to the village. But the perched villages of the Luberon are very beautiful.

I really loved Avignon...very beautiful city and the Palais de Papes is awesome. We were sorry that we didn't stay there and take day trips, as we found the dining scene to be better.

Actually, you might also want to look seriously at Les Baux...it's an incredibly beautiful village between Avignon and Arles, which is a great small city with Roman ruins and also good food.

There is SO much to recommend on the route from Italy to Paris! If you did the two stops of 3 days each., maybe you could spend a few days in Provence, and go up to Paris through Burgundy? I would think that Burgundy would also be very beautiful in the summer, and it would be on your route.

How fun! Good luck planning!!

[Jody]

Hi Bryan , Welcome aboard!

I've only done the big 3 in Italy so no help there.

We did love the time we spent in Lyon, Dijon , Beaune and auxerre. Auxerre is a good place to drop off the car for your trip into Paris. The trains are frequent and not expensive

We'll be in the Dordogne in spring so might have some info for you before you leave.

We all have our favorite apartment rental places. I especially like Vacation in Paris as you can pay in US dollars by credit card and you get the keys and tons of info before you leave home. Their rates are quite reasonable comparded to some other agencies.

I don't know of any site for Italy like this one. Slowtrav and tripadvisor both have Italy boards so they might be useful to you

[bmckenney]

Aug 8, 2010 9:51:30 GMT -5 sistereurope said:

Yes, welcome Bryan!
I'm also planning a somewhat similar trip...my post about my trip to Lyon and Nice this Oct is below yours. But while I haven't been to the parts of Italy that you're planning, several years ago we flew into Nice, rented a car and slowly made our way to Barcelona.
Based on that somewhat limited experience, here are my thoughts:

From what I hear, driving along the Cote d'Azur in the summer is NOT a fun experience. The traffic is supposed to be dreadful (we were there in March). Maybe you could try to do that part of the drive extra early in the day?

My suggestions for Provence would include Aix-en-Provence...it's a smallish city, but a good base to tour Provence. I also agree with Remy...a little smaller than Aix and convenient to a lot of things. We stayed a week in Lourmarin, a small village in the Luberon, It was beautiful and given your preference for village life you might like it, but we found that the more remote location got to be a drag after a while, especially when we decided to eat dinner elsewhere and had to drive the windy roads at night back to the village. But the perched villages of the Luberon are very beautiful.

I really loved Avignon...very beautiful city and the Palais de Papes is awesome. We were sorry that we didn't stay there and take day trips, as we found the dining scene to be better.

Actually, you might also want to look seriously at Les Baux...it's an incredibly beautiful village between Avignon and Arles, which is a great small city with Roman ruins and also good food.

There is SO much to recommend on the route from Italy to Paris! If you did the two stops of 3 days each., maybe you could spend a few days in Provence, and go up to Paris through Burgundy? I would think that Burgundy would also be very beautiful in the summer, and it would be on your route.

How fun! Good luck planning!!

Thanks for the tips Sister. Les Baux sounds interesting (what I'm looking for) and I will look in to that. Same for Aix-en-Provence. I hadn't thought of Burgundy either. You've given me some nice options to look in to. And I may wise to consider not spending the entire week in Provence. Maybe I should split it up between Provence and Burgundy.

Bryan

[bmckenney]

Aug 8, 2010 10:32:41 GMT -5 Jody said:

Hi Bryan , Welcome aboard!

I've only done the big 3 in Italy so no help there.

We did love the time we spent in Lyon, Dijon , Beaune and auxerre. Auxerre is a good place to drop off the car for your trip into Paris. The trains are frequent and not expensive

We'll be in the Dordogne in spring so might have some info for you before you leave.

We all have our favorite apartment rental places. I especially like Vacation in Paris as you can pay in US dollars by credit card and you get the keys and tons of info before you leave home. Their rates are quite reasonable comparded to some other agencies.

I don't know of any site for Italy like this one. Slowtrav and tripadvisor both have Italy boards so they might be useful to you

Hi Jody. Thanks for mentioning why you live vacation in paris. I was looking at the site and notice they are located in NJ which appeals to me.

We will be looking for an apartment in Rome (4-5 nights) and Venice (3 nights) as well. Do you know if any reliable apartment booking websites for these two cities?

And we also want to spend some time in Florence but we were thinking of staying outside that side, somewhere in the Tuscany country side. We'll have a car. So we were thinking of killing two birds with one stone and day tripping in to Florence some of the time and also daytripping around the Tuscany countryside. Is that a good idea? Or is it better to stay in Florence proper? I have heard that for Venice it's better to stay inside the city instead of day tripping from outside because we'll get better time in the early morning and late evening inside Venice when the tourist buses are not around.

Bryan

[Jody]

Bryan, are you in NJ. I'm married to a Jersey boy!

The only site I have for Rome apts. is this one


www.lodjee.com/rome


Someone recommended them to me but I can't remember who. I was looking at the Guilia apt.

[Anne]

Hi Bryan, I second Sister's recommandation re. Provence and also about another stop in Burgundy since this is on the way from Provence to Paris, while SW of France will mean a very long detour.

The problem is that you will be in France during the summer school vacations and you must keep that in mind when planning your driving/stays. First, you must absolutely avoid any serious driving on Saturdays and even the Friday afternoons : freeways are swarming with cars from Northern France/Europe going on vacation or heading back home, there are major traffic jams every week-end in July and August, mid-July to mid-August being the worst period. And as Sister says, driving the Côte d'Azur any day in the summer can be very bad too. Provence will be very busy too, but we spent our summer vacations there on the last two years and enjoyed it very much : no traffic problems and no oppressive crowds as long as you stay away from the most famous villages/markets from end of the morning onwards. When vacationning in France we always rent a house from the Gîtes de France :
www.gites-de-france.com/gites/uk/rural_gites
It is an offical, semi-public organization and totally reliable. Every place is rated from 1 to 5 ears of corn depending on its level of comfort.
I'm not sure whether you'll be able to rent a house for less than a week in the summer in Provence, but then the website also has lots of B&Bs.

As far as Florence is concerned, I would choose to stay outside the city. First, Florence is veeery hot in the summer, well, all Tuscany is, but Florence happens to be located in a basin so it is worse. Also, parking is extremely difficult in Florence and there is a resident parking system. So the best option IMO would be to stay in a nice village/small town near a train station and have day trips by train to the city. The train station is located closer to the city center than most vistors' parkings anyway.

[bmckenney]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Anne, I hear you on the driving and traffic. I am thinking of changing my plans and depart Florence (or outside as you suggest) and miss Cinque Terres and the coastal experience there and instead go directly to Provence and spend a week there (because it is hard find accommodation for less than a week). I'd like to stick with the coastal theme though. I'm going to start another thread on Provence coastal destinations.

Thanks again for replying to my queries. Love the members participation here.

Bryan