28 Days in France
May 2000
Bonjour!
Best things about the trip
Every place was great to visit,
Paris, Normandy, Loire Valley, The Alps, Arles, Cannes, Nice, Menton, Portofino,
Milan
Worst things about the trip
Not having an exit strategy was definitely the worst part of the trip. We were
flying home out of Milan and didn't know hotels were ridiculously hard to find
near the airport.
Eating was sometimes a challenge - finding a reasonably priced restaurant and
finding one that was open when we were ready to eat
Winging it without a destination or reservation the last week of the trip wasn't
good. Where we stayed turned out to be Great, but a bit too much time wasted
trying to find a hotel in our budget.
The only local people who interacted with us were those who had to - hotel and
restaurant staff. Well, we kinda expected that.
France
highlights photos
Room 22 Hotel de Seine
Paris
Our flight was into Paris and out of
Milan. We planned 7 nights in Paris to see all we could while getting over jet
lag the first few days. The first night was at Rick Steve's "favorite" hotel -
Hotel Leveque, in the 7th arrondissement. We expected to stay 7 nights here but
after checking out the room and discussing changing the accommodation with the
hotel staff who said "the rooms are all alike", Steve showed them the
brochure and asked "Where is the room in the picture?" HaHaHaHa. Enough
said, we spent our first afternoon looking for a suitable hotel and found one -
Hotel de Seine, a short walk across a bridge to the Louvre and a short walk
to a major metro station St. Michael. Tip: Always stay in the area close
to where you're going to spend the most time. The hotel in the 7th
arrondissement was not only horrible, it required changing metros at least twice
to get anywhere.
Rodin Museum, The Lovers
We loved room 22 at Hotel de Seine. After checking in we walked over to the
spend the day at The Louvre. Tip: Get your museum pass in advance. You
can avoid the long line in front of the pyramid and get into the Louvre without
a wait by using the side door.
The only people left at Versaille at the end of the day
Click thumbnails to view full image
Versaille
Versaille is a great excursion from Paris, a quick 30 minute train trip takes
you to the opulent world of the King Louis XIV, the Sun King. We spent a very
full day at the palace and grounds doing the guided tour, audio tour, and walked
everywhere around the grounds. If we weren't the last ones to leave, it was
pretty close to it.
Tip: Cheap Eats in Paris pointed us to some great places. Prix
Fixe (fixed price menu) were good values.
Steve had a lot of other destinations for us on this trip so 7 days in Paris was
just right. We picked up the rental car near the hotel and headed north for
Normandy.
29th Division Monument, Omaha Beach
Samuel Rosenbaum, 1914-1995
Normandy
World War II, Bayeaux, Mont St. Michelle, St. Malo
The road system in France is great! Thanks Napoleon :) There are clearly marked
signs pointing into and out of any town and once out of Paris driving was a
breeze.
Steve had heard about staying in Chateau's and had reservations at several for
the next 5 destinations.
Tip: The Chateaux we stayed at were not expensive and a great change from
a hotel.
Bayeaux hotel for 2 nights:
Chateau de Bellefontaine
Visiting Normandy was a very moving experiences, seeing the beaches, towns,
cemeteries and remnants of World War II. Steve's father, Sam Rosenbaum was a
medic in Collecting Company B, 104th
Medical Battalion, 29th Infantry Division that stormed Omaha Beach on D-Day.
We thought about Sam a lot when we were there. And we had to try Calvados - the
apple brandy Sam loved.
Loire Valley
Vouvray
Chateau Chambord
Head south from Normandy to see the famous Castles in the "garden of France"
which is also a huge wine producing area - the Loire Valley. The castles are
certainly not to be missed. We stayed two nights in the delightful carriage
house of Chateau de Montgouverne in Rocheboron near Vouvray.
Bourgogne region
Auxerre, Beaune
The next stops on this road trip were Auxerre and then Beaune, with a night in
each place. Auxerre has interesting half-timbered houses and a walking tour to
see the sights was welcome after the drive.
Oo, oo, Roman ruins in Autun on
the way to Beaune!
We didn't plan on spending lots of time in either Auxerre
and Beaune. In Beaune we toured the 1443 hospital and in the evening had a
memorable menu crisis. That's what happens when there are lots of restaurants in
a walkable square and every single menu has to be examined before settling on
one.
Tip: Don't do that :)
The Alps
Annecy
Out of Beaune and up to some very different scenery - the French Alps! Annecy
was charming.
Provence
Orange, Avignon, Arles, Nimes, Les Baux, St. Remy
Pont du Gard
Theatre Antique, Orange
Down from the Alps heading toward Arles, stopping along the way to see some
great roman ruins in Orange and to visit the "other vatican" - the Palais des
Papes in Avignon.
Arles was our base for the next 4 nights and had some interesting roman ruins
itself. The Hotel was great! Great day trips from Arles to the surrounding area:
Nimes - did you know that is where denim originated? It was a material "of
Nimes" aka "de Nimes".
Pont du Gard - not to be missed - how about those
Romans?
Les Beaux was fascinating, and the Village des Bories was quite a change of
pace.
Cote d'Azur
Cannes
Arles was the last place we had a hotel reservation in advance so now we were
winging it. We didn't have a particular city in mind for the night and drove
through many coastal towns, ending up in Cannes. Lucky there, the Cannes Film
Festival was May 10-21 and had just ended or we would never have had a room.
Just got lucky with Hotel Splendid also and spent 2 relaxing nights there,
enjoying the ocean views from our top floor balcony right in the center of
Cannes.
Nice
Next place we wanted to stop was Nimes, and with no reservation we checked out
the recommendations from the helpful Hotel Splendid staff. Their suggestions
didn't match our budget so now it was checking out the guidebook's budget picks
which didn't match our criteria for a pleasant experience or safety. Prominently
on a hill with ocean views was Hotel Suisse, which turned out to be a great
pick. Would have loved to stay more than one night but they were booked through
the weekend.
The Villa and Gardens Ephrussi de Rothschild
Heading east from Nimes to Monte Carlo is beautiful scenery of the mediterranean
coast from the car window and we stopped at a few choice places. The
Ephrussi de Rothschild
Villa and Gardens was a great place to tour.
Monaco, Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo seemed like a good destination for the evening, but was NOT due to
the upcoming 2000 Grand Prix on June 4. Preparations were in full swing with
streets fenced off with chain link and other barricades. After a visit to the
casino (don't miss the toilets!) and the yacht harbor it was on the road
again.
Narrow street in Menton
Menton
Late in the afternoon we drove through
Menton, turned around and parked in front of the Hotel Royal Westminster. What a
find! A charming room with an ocean view. We really enjoyed Menton, it is a very
relaxing place.
Italy
Portofino, Italy
Portofino
Next stop - Portofino! Wait a minute, why are we sitting in all this traffic?
Should we turn around? The traffic was due to the limited number of parking
spaces in the Portofino parking lot. We stuck it out and in an hour were parked
and seeing Portofino for ourselves. Truly a beautiful place. And every hotel
booked. On the drive out of Portofino there was still a line of cars trying to
get in. We stopped at Hotel Paraggi
and were delighted to get a room, maybe a little out of the budget but not too
bad at the time. Paraggi is another beautiful spot. We walked back to Portofino
for dinner on a trail above the road and more magic - hundreds of fireflies!
Milan
We could have spent another night in Parragi, but I was concerned about the road
and how long it would take us to get to the airport outside of Milan if we left
Parragi the day of our flight. So we headed to Milan to do some sightseeing
there, expecting to get a hotel that evening near the airport. Oh oh, an
unexpected surprise when we got back to the car from Milan sights - it was
booted! Tip: Check and double-check the area you are parking in. If all
the cars on the street have a pass displaying in the window, chances are good
you will need one too.
Obviously going to the policia to pay the fine for illegal parking was not the
happiest experience, but the police station was conveniently in the area we just
came from and the wait to pay our fine and get the boot off the car was only 1.5
hours.
Tip: Always have an exit strategy
This is a first hand account of why "always have an exit strategy" is important
- we headed from Milan in the direction of the airport and quickly found there
weren't any hotels to be found! And it's dark. And these aren't California
freeways lined with cities, billboards and "Exit Here for Hotel" signs. After
two and a half hours of checking out likely exits we finally found a place to
sleep.
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