France

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  • 37 days
  • 2025 Spring

I’d been afraid of France since I don’t speak French but that was a complete nonissue. We’d planned a mix of historical sights, culture, and the outdoors, though leaning more toward the cultural. We saved Paris for last which I think was a good call. We were warmed up by then. Every place we went was beautiful, both naturally and architecturally. And the food of course is great. Each area had its own distinct flavor too. In food, yes, but also the white stone and turrets of the Loire, the golden stone and stone roofs of Dordogne, the classical lines of Nice and Paris. France was more regional than I expected. It’s a shame we ran into a stretch of rainy weather on the Cote d’Azur, because that’s where we planned to do some walking. If I had to trim this itinerary I’d drop Mont St-Michel, Carcassonne, and Honfleur.

Food & Beverage $41 per day*

Average per person per day. We bought bakery items for breakfast and ate one meal out per day. Some days we had a picnic dinner..

Lodging $92-248 per night*

Paris was our most expensive stay, of course, then it drops down to $170. Our two cheapest stays were at Airbnbs.

Transportation $576 per person*

Transportation includes our train, bus, and taxi fares. We saved money by buying tickets ahead of time and getting senior discount cards.

Entertainment $739 per person*

Most of this was entrance fees to the various sights. It also includes are rental car in Amboise and local train tickets in Nice, since those were for sightseeing.

* Costs in US dollars at time of trip

Days 1-3: Honfleur

The Plan: We’ll land in Paris in the morning and make our way from the airport to Honfleur by whichever way seems easiest. We’ll have a couple of days to explore the area, including a day trip to Etretat. 

The Reality: We opted to stick to Honfleur, spending our time walking around the town, down to the sea, and around the local gardens. I always underestimate jetlag.

  • Day 1
    • Travel from Paris to Honfleur
  • Day 2
    • Explore Honfleur
  • Day 3
    • Day trip to Etretat 
    • Explore Honfleur

Posts: The first post describes daily activities and the destination. Other posts cover anything that generated lots of photos!

Days 4-6: Bayeux

The Plan: It should take a few hours to get from Honfleur to Bayeux. We’ll spend one of our two days touring the D Day beaches. The other day we’ll devote to sights in Bayeux, like the tapestry and the cathedral. 

The Reality: Things went as planned, other than missing the tapestry because the museum was unexpectedly closed. 

  • Day 1
    • Travel from Honfleur to Bayeux
  • Day 2
    • D Day beaches
  • Day 3
    • Bayeux tapestry and cathedral
    • Aure river walk

Posts: The first post describes daily activities and the destination. Other posts cover anything that generated lots of photos!

Day 7: Mont St-Michel

The Plan: We could visit Mont St-Michel on a day trip from Bayeux, but we’d like to see it illuminated at night and avoid day trip crowds, so we’re spending one night in the area. 

The Reality: We were able to walk around the abbey and the walls like we wanted and get some nice views at night, so it ended up working out well for us. 

Posts: The first post describes daily activities and the destination. Other posts cover anything that generated lots of photos!

Days 8-12: Loire Valley

The Plan: The Loire will be all about chateaux and gardens. We may go overboard on chateaux but two of them (Villandry and Chaumont) will be more about the gardens. We plan to rent a car here just for ease of getting around. There are tours but a rental car would be less expensive and give us more flexibility.  We plan to base ourselves in Amboise.

The Reality: Four chateaux ended up being enough for us. Amboise made a great base. We didn’t even get to see the sights in the town itself. We could have happily spent another day or two here. If you have less time we’d prioritize Chenonceau and if you like gardens, Villandry. Renting a car made it easy to get to the chateaux. 

  • Day 1
    • Travel from Mont St-Michel to the Loire Valley
  • Day 2
    • Chenonceau, Cheverny, and Chambord chateaux
  • Day 3
    • Villandry and Azay-le-Rideau chateaux
    • Chaumont?
  • Day 4
    • Cher River walk
  • Day 5
    • Explore Amboise
    • Amboise market

Posts: The first post describes daily activities and the destination. Other posts cover anything that generated lots of photos!

Days 13-16: Dordogne

The Plan: We’ll base ourselves in Sarlat-le-Canéda since we won’t have a car. It should take most of the day to get there. With three full days to explore we’ll devote one to Sarlat itself, one to seeing the river, hopefully by canoe (that will be different!), and another for a day trip or just relaxing. Cave paintings are a big draw here but we aren’t that interested in them.

The Reality: We ended up taking a tour that included a river boat trip. That sounded less complicated than canoeing. Otherwise we explored Sarlat and took advantage of our terrace!

  • Day 1
    • Travel from the Loire Valley to Sarlat-le-Caneda
  • Day 2
    • Explore Sarlat-le-Canéda
  • Day 3
    • River scenery and villages by tour
  • Day 4
    • Manoir de Gisson Museum

Posts: The first post describes daily activities and the destination. Other posts cover anything that generated lots of photos!

Days 17: Carcassonne

The Plan: Like Mont St-Michel, Carcassonne is apparently overrun with day trippers so we’ll spend a night there so we can see it without the crowds.

The Reality: Carcassonne was easier to get to than Mont St-Michel, so a one night stay to see the medieval city worked well. Now that we’ve seen both, if I had to trim one from the itinerary it would be Mont St-Michel. I think Carcassonne needs to be seen in person to be appreciated. 

Posts: The first post describes daily activities and the destination. Other posts cover anything that generated lots of photos!

Days 18-24: Cote d-Azur

The Plan: Nice sounds very nice (obvious pun intended) and should make a good base for day trips in the surrounding area. We’d like to do a lot of walking while we’re here, perhaps on the coast. We aren’t really casino people but it is Monte Carlo so we should probably stop. 

The Reality: Nice was a good base for us. We didn’t get to do as much walking as we planned because our luck with the weather ran out. But we did get to see everything we really wanted to see. 

  • Day 1: Travel from Carcassonne to Nice
  • Day 2: Explore Nice
  • Day 3: Castle Hill and Vieux Nice
  • Day 4: Day trip to Villefrance-sur-Mer
  • Day 5: Chagall museum
  • Day 6: Day trip to Monaco
  • Day 7: Day trip to Antibes

Posts: The first post describes daily activities and the destination. Other posts cover anything that generated lots of photos!

Days 25-29: Provence

The Plan: We’ll base ourselves in Arles or Avignon. Regardless of where we stay we’ll probably spend a day in each town. We’ll take a day to visit Les Baux and maybe more of the countryside. This might be another place where we rent a car for a day or two.

The Reality: We based ourselves in Arles and went to Avignon for the day. (Arles sounded more our speed.) We didn’t end up renting a car or seeing any villages. We were happy to focus on Arles, and with a festival going on we had to wait for the crowds to clear before we could really see Arles. 

  • Day 1: Travel from Nice to Provence
  • Day 2: Explore Arles
  • Day 3: Explore Avignon
  • Day 4: Arles self-guided walk
  • Day 5: LUMA Arles and Arlaten Museum

Posts: The first post describes daily activities and the destination. Other posts cover anything that generated lots of photos!

Days 30-37: Paris

The Plan: We’ll be in Paris for longer than we typically spend in a single city (other than London, my favorite) but there’s so much to see and do. I tried to spread the art museums around and include outdoor time. It also sounds like there are interesting things to do after dark so our days might be longer.  We’ll probably be glad to relax when we get home!

The Reality: Paris can be tricky to schedule. Pay attention to closure dates (most museums close one day a week) and booking sights ahead. The Pompidou Center was closed for renovations while we were there. And a number of places were closed on May 1, our last day. Which we expected, but it still made scheduling more of a challenge. We were unable to get tickets for the Eiffel Tower so we went to the Montparnasse Tower instead (so we could see the Eiffel Tower). The only thing on our list we really missed was the Rodin Museum.  

We bought the 6-day Paris Museum Pass, so we needed to fit everything covered by that into six days. (We actually did it in five, but only because the Rodin Museum was closed on our last day.) It was nice having the pass because we felt like we could visit the Cluny Museum, for example, just to see the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries; it didn’t cost extra. (We saw other cool stuff there too.)

  • Day 1: Travel from Provence
  • Day 2:
    • Carnavalet Museum
    • Place de Vosges and Victor Hugo’s flat
  • Day 3:
    • Orangerie Museum
    • Pont Alexandre III bridge and Champs-Elysées
    • Arc de Triomphe
  • Day 4:
    • Louvre
    • Decorative Arts Museum
    • Place Vendôme
  • Day 5:
    • Sainte-Chapelle
    • Notre Dame
    • Pont Neuf and Montparnasse Tower
  • Day 6:
    • Orsay Museum
    • Cluny Museum
  • Day 7:
    • Day trip to Versailles
  • Day 8:
    • Eiffel Tower
    • Rue Cler

Posts: The first post describes daily activities and the destination. Other posts cover anything that generated lots of photos!