I am traveling in late May - early June with my 21 year old children (boy & girl). I expect they will get their fill of museums in Paris (May 18-26) so for the remainder of our trip I'd like to focus on interesting historical places like the Normandy beaches, Roman ruins (Arles?), and beautiful outdoors sights. We are not shoppers. After a week in Paris, then
Monday - May 27) - drive to visit Giverny and on to Bayeux.( hopefully seeing the Tapestry and museum that day). Spend the night in Bayeux.
Tuesday - we have booked an all day tour of the Normandy beaches. After that, my thought is to drive to somewhere near Tours for the night. (Suggestions please)
Wednesday visit Villandry (or Chenonceaux? or another chateau?) in the morning and go for a vineyard tour and wine tasting after lunch (suggestions please?). Then drive half way to Avignon - maybe Clermont Ferrand and spend the night. Is there a better place?
Thursday - Drive to Avignon and visit Avignon. Spend the night in Avignon
Friday - Breakfast in Avignon, visit Arles, drive to Nice or another pretty town on the Cote d'Azur. (Suggestions please)
Spend night in Nice (or somewhere else?)
Saturday - Morning in Nice (or?), the drive to Anncey. I know it is a long drive. I am not sure if I should take the route through Italy or Grenoble. (Suggestions please). Spend the night in Anncey.
Sunday - Day in Anncey (Hiking?). Spend night in Anncey.
Monday - Visit Chamonix. Spend night near Geneva Airport
Tuesday (June 4) - return rental car to French side (save drop off charge), 7:30 a.m. depart Geneva (cannot change flight). Need help in getting from French side to Swiss side as flight is to London.
So is this crazy?
What should I skip?
Is there a better way to do this?
Thanks in advance!
Help with Itinerary for Tours to Avignon to Geneva in 6 days
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Surprised that nobody offered any advice for you. From Nice to Annecy it is better to drive via Grenoble. If you want to make a day of it then you could take a scenic detour using the N85, also known as Route de Napoleon.
There is an easy motorway route from Annecy to Chamonix or you could take another scenic route through the mountains via the Gorges d'Arly. There is a video of this route here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS9zCMHBuaQ
From Chamonix to the French sector of the airport is tricky as you can't drive on Swiss motorways unless you pay for a vignette (40CHF). If you want to avoid it then there a few options. Map provided by Geneva airport here: http://www.gva.ch/Portaldata/1/Resources/fichiers/publications/af.pdf
They do not show the option of going through Geneva city centre which is probably the quickest and easiest (IMO). As your flight is going early you should miss Geneva rush hour which is between 07:00 and 08:30. There is a video of the driving route (in reverse) to get to the French sector on my Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/BiarritzAirportTransfers
Thanks so much for the advice -- many of the maps I checked had the route from Nice to Geneva going through Italy and Switzerland, and your suggestion through Grenoble sounds so much better. Thanks also for the maps and videos - very helpful! (I had not checked the forum in a while thinking I would not receive a reply.) Thanks again!
I think no one answered because it does indeed sound crazy. A whole vacation inside a car isn't very appealing.
I also think you're underestimating the distances and trying to fit in a lot. Paris - Bayeux is about 4-5 h and Bayeux-Tours about the same if I remember correctly. Bear in mind that the mountain roads in the Massif Central and the Alps will slow you down considerably. I would find spending that much time in a car every few days very uncomfortable and would advise you to take the train between major cities if you really want to move around so much.
If you're only interested in Arles for the ruins, there's a Roman villa near Caen in Normandy and you could try visiting the Thermes de Cluny (Roman baths) in Paris.
Seeing Avignon, Arles and Nice seems particularly quick since each of these would merit several days. Basically,I would divide this into several vacations this size (Paris + Normandy + Tours and Provence+Alps maybe), which would give you time to see the surrounding area in more depth, actually walk around etc. instead of rushing between such vastly different regions.