France - best cities to visit?

I want to plan a trip to France for our 1 year anniversary. Other than Paris which cities did you love? We'll be going at the end of September into October.

THANKS!

ETA: We'll probably only be there for 8 or 9 days if that makes a difference of what we should try and fit in.

Message edited 12/14/2010 7:42:04 AM.

Re: France - best cities to visit?

I've only been to Paris, however, you should definitely take a day trip and visit Versailles. How about Normandy? You can visit the beach and memorial. There are some really beautiful villages in that area. I also have friends that are huge fans of Dijon. Provence is always great as well. Sorry, I couldn't be more specific as I stated I've only been to Paris but did do some research of the other regions while planning. Enjoy your anniversary!!!!

Re: France - best cities to visit?

Thanks!!! We both have a little history geek in us so Normandy would be perfect!

Anyone else have other recommendations???

Re: France - best cities to visit?

I spent a few days in Dijon and loved it. So quaint!

I took a train from Paris, it was great.

Re: France - best cities to visit?

Paris for 3 days and Versailles (takes about 1 full day for Versailles)

What do you like to see? Beach, country????

Go to the Loire Valley. If you like castles. I recommend Chenonceau. About 2 hour car ride from Paris (or about)

For wine: Reims (where they make Champagne). About 2 hour car ride from Paris

For roman ruins (South):
The aqueduc of Nimes and the Coliseum. It much better in the Summer but I love that town

LOTS of vineyards in the South.

North of France area:
Mont St Michel island and Britany area.

French Rivera:
Monaco. Grace (where they have perfume factories).

Re: France - best cities to visit?

When we went, we stayed in the Loire Valley in a bed and breakfast for the first two nights so that we could visit all the castles. We loved the countryside.

Re: France - best cities to visit?

My favorite was Bandol, but it's a tiny tiny town in the Riviera..

Re: France - best cities to visit?

I really, really enjoyed Beaune in Burgundy. DH and I were there for 4 days and rented bikes and tasted wine. It has been one of the best vacations so far!

We spent two days riding bikes, but based ourselves in Beaune. We rode to Pommard, Volnay, Mersault and Puligny Montrachet. It was good exercise and we tasted tons of wine. Let me know if you need help if you decide to go there.

Message edited 1/4/2011 3:03:57 PM.

Re: France - best cities to visit?

We went to France for our honeymoon and basically split our time between three cities. Three very different cities (the final one was Paris)! But we had such an amazing time!

I studied abroad in France during a summer in college and we stared our trip just outside a beautiful Alpine resort town called Talloires in the city of Annecy. It's on Lake Annecy and about 45 minutes drive from Geneva (we flew into Geneva Switzerland).

All the people around us were French tourists, not American or other European tourists. It's picturesque, the food is fabulous, the people are nice, and it's absolutely beautiful. Annecy has a lot of lakes running through the town and is sometimes called France's Venice because of it.

We were there for 2 days but it would've been 3 except the Tour de France was coming there right after and we couldn't book it to stay in our hotel another day! If you want to go somewhere a little "different" for your average American tourist, I highly recommend Annecy. We even took a tour in English of the historic part of town there (DH doesn't speak French). Google Annecy or Talloires and you'll see why it's worth a trip.

From there, we took a train south to Avignon. (Connecting through Lyon.) I had remembered liking Avignon but not remembering it well, but I knew we wanted to spend some time in the south.

Avignon and the other town in the region of Provence are AMAZING. It's also warmer down there in the south, which would be a nice change from Paris if you're going in the fall.

We stayed in Avignon at a B&B inside the walled city area and rented a car while we were there so we could travel all throughout the region to the small towns in the area. I basically had a big map of the region and we had no trouble finding our way around and also just exploring. The weather was GORGEOUS. We rented kayak/canoes and took a trip on the Gardon River under the Pont du Gard (which is an ancient roman aqueduct). We stopped for meals at some small towns and had some of the best food of our entire honeymoon! Avignon itself is a lively and bustling city (we were there in July which is when they have their huge film and theatre festival so it was almost TOO crowded with street performers and the like) -- in general, it's easy to rent what they call "velo pop" bikes all over the city (basically rental bicycles) so you can get all over the place if you want to explore. The other cities in Provence include Aix en Provence, which is another very large city, and you can even travel down to Marseille and Nice if you wanted (we did not on our HM, though).

We took the train from Avignon to Paris, and while Paris was wonderful, it reminded DH a lot of NY and it didn't feel as foreign and fresh as the other two cities I mentioned.

If you have any other questions about Annecy or Avignon, let me know! It was truly the trip of a lifetime.

I think if I were going again, I'd fly into Geneva, spend a few days in Annecy, then go to Avignon, then to Nice and Monaco and fly out of Nice instead of going up to Paris at the end. Especially at the time of year you're going.

HTH!