July 14 is France’s National Day. It is also a very special day for me.
That’s because July 14, 2013 marked the end of the most satisfying journey I had ever had.
I had reached France on June 9 and left the country more than a month later on July 14. I had planned everything down to the last detail and yet had plans if I wanted to change the itinerary. This is what my trip looked like.
Planning a trip to France is always a daunting task. There are so many places and things to do. There is the history-filled Northern part where much of World War 2 played out. The East has the French Alps while the West has beaches and natural beauty. Central France is strewn with gorgeous châteaus and champagne while the French Riviera in the South needs no further introduction.
While there cannot be a perfect itinerary for so great and huge a country, having a month can allow you to see a considerable part of France. I recently spent over a month and you can see from my itinerary that I still had to leave out East France from the equation. But I hope this will give you a general sense of how to plan your own trip.
I essentially landed in Paris and saw the Rafael Nadal versus David Ferrer finals at Roland Garros in 2013 before going to the North, Central and South parts of the country and then spent an entire week in Paris. You can decide to spend lesser days in Paris, skip going to outlying countries like Andorra and Monaco and factor in cities in East France as well.
Here’s my itinerary for referral. My primary mode of transport all through was trains.
June 9 – Roland Garros
June 10 – Normandy D Day beaches
June 11 – Rennes
June 12 – Mont St Michel and back to Rennes
June 13 and 14 – Tours and Chambord château
June 15 and 16 – Bordeaux
June 17 – Toulouse
June 18 – Toulouse (Space City)
June 19 – Andorra
June 20 – Carcassonne
June 21, 22 – Montpellier, Sete
June 23 – Nimes, Pont du Gard
June 24 – Avignon
June 25 – Provence (Gordes and Roussillon)
June 26, 27 – Marseille
June 28 – St Tropez via St Raphael
June 29 – Cannes
June 30 and July 1, 2 – Nice
July 3 and 4 – Monaco
July 5 to 14 – Paris
If you need any help planning your own trip or suggestions on how I could have done it better, please don’t hesitate to write in the comments below.
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