My husband is going to France/Belgium for a business trip and I%26#39;m going with him. I%26#39;m having a terrible time trying to figure out how long we should spend in each city and if we have time for additional cities/villages.
Here%26#39;s what I have so far:
Sunday, Oct 11 - Arrive in Nice (mid afternoon)
Monday, Tuesday - Open
Wednesday, Oct 14 - Husband has meetings in Brussels
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - Open
Monday - Meeting in Lyon
Tuesday - Depart from Nice early AM
We need to spend a minimum of two days/nights in Paris, either Monday/Tuesday or Thursday/Friday, for meetings. Will also need to spend a total of two nights in Brussels/Bruges.
I%26#39;m not fired up about Brussels, but would like to do Bruges while we%26#39;re in the vicinity. Basically I have a lot of cities here but I%26#39;m not the type who likes to do one night here, one night there. I like to get to know a place a little more than that and the %26quot;10 cities in 10 days%26quot; thing is very unappealing to me. But will I regret it if we head straight to Paris (or elsewhere) and don%26#39;t spend the night in Nice? Is there a great little town I shouldn%26#39;t miss on the way? Is Lyon worth spending time in?
What we like to do: We like to relax and eat. :) My idea of a great vacation is great views, local cafes, with some history thrown in. Maybe a winery. We like town squares and atmosphere. We both like the idea of the French countryside and small towns; I really love medieval villages. We are in our 40s and not concerned with nightlife, although we do like good restaurants. Will probably skip Versailles (I%26#39;ve been there, he hasn%26#39;t). I think we want to do a dinner cruise in Paris and eat somewhere with a view of the Eiffel Tower at night.
One other thing -- since my husband will be in meetings most of the day, I%26#39;ll be doing a lot on my own. This is a spur of the moment trip and I do not speak French at all. This makes me a bit nervous, so I%26#39;m thinking guided tours might be the way to go. When he%26#39;s with me on the weekend, we%26#39;ll do something independantly.
Suggestions? Thank you so much.
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Hello, Seattle!
The thing I%26#39;m having a hard time wrapping my head around here is why you are flying into Nice if your husband%26#39;s first meeting is in Brussels? And why are you flying home from Nice if you are ending up in Lyon? You suggest possibly spending Monday/Tuesday in Paris yet you arrive in Nice on Sunday. Wouldn%26#39;t it be more logical to fly into and out of Paris which is 90 minutes from Brussels and two hours from Lyon? Better yet of course would be to fly into Brussels and fly home from Lyon.
If you want to visit Nice on this trip you could arrange to fly into Nice and fly home from Paris or better yet Lyon.
I%26#39;m just having a hard time putting together an itinerary that works because the Nice bit isn%26#39;t making too much sense to me. And I%26#39;[m having a hard time making a meaningful stay in Nice work with the days/nights you say you have to be many hundreds of miles away. Help me out, please?
Just FYI the only airline that flies non-stop from Nice to Brussels is EasyJet that has some pretty stringent baggage limits if that matters.
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I%26#39;m not sure of the travel schedule logistics but certainly if you are coming to Nice there are loads of mediaeval villages to see in the surropunding area without wasting much time in travel
Also Nice has its own large and atmospheric mediaeval old town crammed with restaurants, cafes and quirky shops.
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We%26#39;re flying into Nice because this is a business trip that was originally scheduled for Cannes. Cannes got cancelled but we have first class tickets that don%26#39;t allow re-routing. So it%26#39;s either fly in and out of Nice or lose two $5K tickets. Nice it is!
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BTW, my thought was to buy rail passes for the entire trip rather than trying to fly anywhere.
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I%26#39;d strongly suggest checkinmg prices of point to point tickets before buying railpasses -they are likely to be substantially cheaper than a rail pass.
When in Nice :
Train des merveilles to the merdiaeval villages of Sospel, Tende, la brigue, Breil sur roya etc
or Train des pignes to Entrevaux
Both ofbthese train trips through the mountains offer amazing scenery etc - entrevaux would be my choice as its so impressive as a place and its setting.
Also you can take buses costing one euro per person to these mediaeval village :Eze village, st paul de vence, [the first 2 are the most popular and touristy] or Vence, Levens,. Tourettes-levens, la Turbie, Villeneuve-Loubet village, Haut de cagnes, Biot, Valbonne, Villefranche , st martin vesubie etc etc
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I don%26#39;t think you have enough time to use the train for your entire trip. There is only one direct train daily from Nice to Brussels and the trip takes 8 hours. Most options route you through Paris and would take at least an hour longer and involve a change of stations. The rest of your trip probably makes sense by train, but Lyon to Nice is a four hour plus trip so you%26#39;d have to leave Lyon on Monday. And I agree with Selkie on the cost issue of the pass vs P2P tickets.
I%26#39;ll see if I can come up with something intelligent in the way of an itinerary and get back to you later today...
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How about this - On Monday train from Nice to Paris and base yourself tere for a bit. For the day that your husband has his meeting in Brussels, take an early Thalys train to Brussels. While he is in meetings you go to Bruges for the day, rejoining him for the return trip to Paris that evening. Subsequently, you move on down to Lyon, which is a splendid city with wonderful food, and stay either in the city or the surrounding area. To catch the early morning flight from Nice you wold have to catch a late afternoon/early evening train from Lyon and overnight near the airport.
This would cut out one set of changing hotels.
As far as the language question goes, there are a number of useful posts on this forum on how to get by with little or no knowlege of French. The number one rule is to be polite. Fine be a bit nervous but also see it as an adenture.
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I like the plan, railtraveller, except that it does not allow for the OP%26#39;s requirement that at least two nights must be spent in Brussels/Bruges. If that is not an absolute necessity this looks good. The only change I might suggest is that the trip from Nice to Paris might be by plane, thus saving a couple of hours versus the 6 hour train trip.
Another option might be to stay in Paris and travel to Lyon early on the Monday, about 2 hours, for that day%26#39;s meetings. You could then travel on to Nice late that day, about a 4 houv trip. Effectively that would mean that you would have to spend only your first and last nights in Nice with all your other overnights being in Paris.
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