France Itinerary advice

I am starting to plan a trip to France in July %26#39;09 - I know it%26#39;s a ways off, but I enjoy the planning process!

I think this will be about a 10 day - possibly 2 week - trip. My husband and I will be taking our daughter who will be 2(!). For at least part of the trip, we will be in Cote D%26#39;Azur for a wedding, the reason for our trip.

What would be a good itinerary and manageable w/ a child? My husband and I like quaint towns, art museums, general historic sight seeing, walkable areas, and good food and wine. I imagine our daughter will like running around, being outside and swimming.

I am also open to adding another country beyond France. (We%26#39;ve already been to London, Ireland, Paris, Venice, Milan, Cinque Terre, Florence, Siena, and Athens + Greek Islands)...

Any advice would be great! Where would you suggest flying in and out of?

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France is the 2nd largest Country in Europe!! There are literally LOADSA places!

To be honest, with your trip timespan - and sound like less %26#39;need%26#39; to see Paris, you could fly into practially anywhere. But perhaps Marseilles? Perhaps Nice considering your (not your own) Wedding plans! Sounds like you could go for %26#39;cheapest-flight-to-France%26#39; option, rather than %26#39;most-convenient%26#39;

I would suggest hiring or leasing a car, can make life much easier with a littley, and it is a brilliant way to get around France, anyway.

If you can say how long you will stay at Cote D%26#39;Azur that will help, also will this be beginning, middle or end of your trip? Then it would be possible to suggest some areas that you could %26#39;comfortably%26#39; visit.

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Hmm - We are pretty open-minded at this point. But I was thinking of doing the Cote D%26#39;Azur at the beginning of the trip (maybe leaving Wed. PM and arriving in Franch Thurs. for the Sat. wedding), so that our little one would have a bit of time to get acclimated to a new place before the wedding on Sat. Again, we are still really flexible at this point...

Our friends mentioned the wedding will be near Toulon if that helps...

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Toulon is on the South Coast, (more or less) and in between Nice and Marseille so you could fly to either.

Apart from that, as yet, I am not so good at the South of France, but interesting places that I have been to, within a reasonable %26#39;striking distance%26#39; (in your timespan) include:

Le Puy en Velay

Carcassonne

Avignon would be most interesting (although I have not been there) and Arles also gets lots of comments on this forum.

I would not try to do too much, pick one or two areas in the South of France and stick with that, otherwise you will have a %26#39;chore%26#39; (especially with a 2 year old) rather than a Holiday.

Post on the Toulon forum, or Nice or Marseilles and you will find some local experts to help.

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Hi,

I think EssexWanderer is right that you may want to stay close to where you have been to the wedding - long car trips with 2 year olds are not always a great idea. But if you want to go a bit further - a few suggestions where we have enjoyed holidays with our son who is now 3 years old

Annecy - in French Alps, went when our son was 2, beautiful old town with a very clean lake for swimming, great scenery to see, boat trips on the lake, nice parks by the lake for children

Ile de Re - island off the coast of La Rochelle - probably too far for you but a great place with children, nice sandy beaches, miles of cycle paths (my son loved being on the back of our bikes - he was also 2 when we went there), very pretty villages and old ports with nice restaurants.

Loire Valley - went there when our son was 2 and a half for two weeks. I was amazed at all the things we found which our little boy really enjoyed, and for us all the chateaux, wine, nice old towns to visit made it a great holiday.

Outside France -

Lake Constance (German part), lovely old towns to visit, nice wine and food, boat trips on the lake and for children lots of places to swim and run around, again a place with lots of cycle paths - a very family friendly place

Lake Lucerne - Switzerland - wonderful scenery and loads of things for children to enjoy - we went when my son was 18 months and he loved going up on the mountain train and walking (the very easy) path partway down, seeing all the mountain cows etc., we are going back there for 2 weeks this summer as there is so much to do with small children and it is such a beautiful place.

If you are interested in staying in the Alps Annecy combined with Switzerland would, for me, be a really good trip.

Hope this is useful, if you are really interested in any of the places can give you more info about what we enjoyed doing there

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I am actually really interested in the Loire Valley - would that be a doable combination for this trip? What would be interesting around Toulon?

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We loved Provence. St. Paul de Vence, Arles, Aix-en-Provence. They are just charming and the market days are the best. Eze is another beautiful area on the Cote d%26#39; Azur.

If time allows, head north to the Basque Country. Offers totally different scenery, tastes and cultures.

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Hi,

I think you could do the Loire but it is a bit of a drive (about 800km), so you may need an overnight stop along the way. However, it is virtually all motorway so may not be too difficult a trip, motorways here are not usually too crowded especially on weekdays (weekends in summer can be very busy but the time you are going that is usually people going north to south for summer holidays). The train would take about 7 hours with a couple of changes, so that may not be a good idea. So, think it is possible by car, just depends whether it is worth it to you to spend one or two days in the car to get there.

The previous post suggesting the Basque country is a good idea, you could also cross the border into Spain for a couple of days.

Alison

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