What is the best itinerary for a 2 week trip to France?

Question

I visited Paris/Versailles on a previous trip, so I will only be spending 3 days in Paris this time.

I will likely fly into southern Frace and fly out of Paris. I will likely rent a car.

I am interested in history and culture. I am not interested in visiting the beach or mountains.

I am somewhat experienced in European travel - 9 weeks total in the last 3 years. I do not speak French, but will learn enough to survive on the trip.

Complete answers only please. I don't need anyone suggesting individual cities/towns in France. I am looking for a complete itinerary of cities/towns to see, the number of nights I should see in each, and side trips I should take from those towns.

Answer 1

I can only recommend you the Green Michelin guide whcih I used alot through my travels in Europe, they propose various itineraries according to the number of days you have to visit a region, also you may look into buying one per region you will be crossing

Answer 2

Well since you will have a rental car I really really recommend going through the Loire valley ( in the centre region), as there are a rediculous number of castles in that region. SO much history there! Whatever you do, do NOT miss that experience. You should research to see which chateaux you prefer (sorry, I can't tell you hich ones you are going like and also which ones will be open durring your visit), and pick your top 5 or 6, and spend 2-3 days doing that. from there you should travel west and visit the western coast (make that a one day or two day trip). travel south by coast and a little east to the town of poitiers, you will find some hisotry there. spend 2 days visiting poitiers and surounding areas.

sorry, i'm out of advice for now.

I know that in the south west of the region there are prehistoric caves...

Answer 3

A much better place to pose this question would be on specific forums devoted to travel. Trip Advisor is one, and Slow Travel is another, both of which I've found to be extremely helpful when we planned our trip to Italy last year and France, upcoming this year.  Although you have to register for both in order to pose a question, there are very knowledgable people on both forums who are extremely helpful.  Fodor's and Frommer's also both have on-line forums (as well as guidebooks), and you might find answers there as well.  Trip Advisor is very good for candid traveller hotel reviews as well, and we have not gone wrong with anything we selected using their reviews as a guideline.

I know that the folks at Slow Travel recommend not hopping aorund rapidly from place to place, and that's almost inevitable if you only have 2 weeks. One helpful suggestion I've seen is to spend time in perhaps 3-4 "base" locations over a two week period, and go out from there in concentric circles.

Rick Steeve's guidebook (some people love him and some hate him) has suggestions for routes, cities, and amount of days for trips to France of varying lengths.  His itineraries start and end in Paris, but you could use some of the suggestions and modify them.  I do think he tries to cram in too much, too fast.

For history, if you are interested in both the middle ages and WWII, you should defintely go to Normandy.  Since you are starting in the south, that might be a good place to go at the end of your trip before going to Paris.  If you base yourself in Bayeux for about 4 days, you could do a one or two day locally-run tour of the D-Day beaches (e.g. Battlebus, Victory Tours), go over to Mt. St. Michel, and spend time in Bayeux itself, where the famous Bayeux tapestry is housed (William the Conquererer, 1066).

I would love to go to the Dordogne (Perigord) area, where there are many well-known prehistoric sites, but we can't fit it in on our upcoming 16-day trip to France.  We also can't fit in any of southern France on this trip.  We'll be starting in Paris, then to Normandy (Bayeux), Loire Valley (Amboise), and finally Burgundy (Beaune and Dijon).  Our interests are similar to yours, we also don't speak much French, but will be traveling by train which limits us more than it will you.