Request help on France Itinerary !!!!

6656 wrote:

We are planning to stay in B&Bs or families who have room for hire.
Again any suggestions on good host are welcomed.

You can find French farms that offer

1) meals
2) local produce
3) room and lodging

at http://www.bienvenue-a-la-ferme.com/ (only in French I'm afraid...)

Bernard Higonnet

6656 wrote:
We, family of 4 with 2 young kids are going to France at the end of
Nov 03.

You itinerary feels overly ambitious, particularly in view of your later
comment that you don't like moving around. An itinerary covering Paris,
the Rhone Valley, Provence and the Riviera (flying home out of Nice)
sounds like an appealing but do-able trip.

We will be there for about 20 days. We are planning to see Paris (also
Disneyland) and drive along and stay in the following areas:
a) Provence and the Riviera
b) French Alps
c) Rhone Valley

Be sure to visit Lyon. Head to the tourist information center and
purchase a map of the traboules -- the system of passage-ways through
the buildings -- in both the Vieux Lyon and Croix Rousse districts. Your
kids will get a kick out of these semi-secret passage ways and mom and
dad will enjoy the Italianate architecture of the buildings housing the
traboules. Another good place in Lyon for kids would be the Place des
Terreaux. They might enjoy the grid of fountains at kid-level. Superb
eating for mom and dad.

Karen Selwyn

"hotels Splendid + Gounod Nice" wrote in message
...
bonjour
for the riviera, check

http://www.guideriviera.com

for family there is a very nice sea oriented theme park in antibes


You should probably limit your trip to Paris and then possibly head south.
The Côte d'Azur is easy to get around in and there's plenty to see without
doing a whole lot of travelling. Nice makes an excellent base and there are
buses and trains heading in all directions for day excursions. The following
site is quite good for exploring the South beyond the Riviera:
http://www.provencebeyond.com

In November, there are some Easyjet tickets available for 15 EUR one-way
(plus taxes) on the Paris-Nice route, or you can take the TGV high speed
train. It goes fast from Paris to Marseilles and then turns into an express
for the rest of the trip to Nice.

From Nice it might be nice to take the Petit Train des Pignes. It goes to
Digne-les-Bains, but you can get off at one of the intermediate stops.
Unfortunately, the Sunday steam train only operates in the summer, but it's
still a nice trip for sightseeing.

You can try www.abritel.fr for apartments.

Lana

In the message ...
"R J Carpenter" wrote:
"6656" wrote in message
om...
big SNIP
The main purpose of our trip is to enjoy the French culture, food and
maximize our interactions with the locals. And yes, we know a little
bit of French that we hope to put in practice.

The French are private people, so you may find them reserved. Your
children
could be a big help in breaking the ice.

For maps, buy the large Michelin atlas of France. It costs no more than a
few individual maps and covers the whole country at the same scale
(1:200,000) as the individual maps.

Well, on the one hand yes, that's a significant saving. But on the other
hand, it's too heavy for your rucksack and the large number of small pages
makes it harder to plan long journeys than the big sheets in the 24*
series...

The IGN 1:100,000 maps have more detail, but aren't "tuned" to tourism.

Well, they used not to be, but the new series that was first published ca.
2000 calls itself "La carte locale touristique" presumably because it uses
20 special symbols to show features likely to be of interest to tourists.
Details are on-line at www.ign.fr .

The IGN 1:25,000 maps are very detailed,
like the US Geological Survey 1:24,000 quadrangles. Not for tourists.


Regards,

- Alan (in Brussels - beware the spamtrap)

Thanks for the all the good advice.

We will be staying in Paris about 5 to 6 days and spend the other 15
days in Provence and one other area which we still haven't decided.

I will keep all updated within a few days. Thanks once again for all
inputs.

Thanks for all those comments.

We will be staying in Paris (7 days), Provence (5 days), Alsace (5
days)and probably a day or two somewhere in between Provence and
Alsace since it is a long drive.

6656 wrote:

Thanks for all those comments.

We will be staying in Paris (7 days)

You should rent an apartment in Paris (many available; can be found with any
search engine) as hotels are expensive & B&B's unknown as far as I know
(sic!).

Bernard Higonnet

Thanks for all the inputs.

We have finalised that we will be staying a week in Paris, Provence
and Alps region.For Provence, we will be based in Arles and Alps
region in Anncey (tentative). If it gets too cold in Alps in mid dec,
then we may shorten the saty and move to Lyons or Alasce.

Now we are looking for places to stay except for Paris, where we have
free accomodations. We are looking for budget accomodation which ever
is cheaper either B&Bs or self catering. ANyone have any
recommendations.

Anything to add ?

thanks