2 Years living in Paris: Traveling through France

Irena and I lived in Paris for almost all of 2018-2019 and made a point to travel throughout France, mostly by car or train. It was a beautiful time for us overall for many reasons, but having such a beautiful country to explore and getting to know it in such breadth was a treat. This is what we did.

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Champagne

Took the car at Orly airport. Stayed in Épernay and toured the area. We saw the large cave at Chateau Pomery, but we were most impressed by smaller producers. Our favorite was Jean Seleque, just a few minutes drive south of Épernay.

Loire and Saumur

Took the car at Montparnasse with the family after our very small wedding. We stayed Tuesday-Friday at a Gite near Loches. We then stayed Friday-Sunday at a (standard) Chateau near Saumur. While staying in Saumur we saw a fire at an olive oil factory, which was quite impressive, but otherwise we ate and drank very well. During our stay we saw Chateaux de Chenonceau and d'Azay-le-Rideau, and on the drive back to Paris we saw Chateau Chambord.

Medoc+Saint Emillion+Poudenas
We took the TGV to Bordeaux and then took the car from the train station in Bordeaux. We first went to the Medoc area, tasting some seafood at a very quirky restaurant on the bay and doing a tour of the Mouton-Rothschild winery. We then drove to Saint Emillion where we walked through the town and stumbled upon a very nice small jazz festival on the borders of the town. We still have two bottles of wine that we bought in the town. After that we visited our very good friends Raf and Dany in Poudenas.

Bretagne #1 (via Rennes)

Took a train Paris-Rennes and stayed in Rennes one night. Then we took a car and saw eastern Brittany and Mont Saint-Michel (which is technically in Normandy). Saint-Malo is a beautiful town, and we caught very good weather for that time of year. I still consider it one of the most fantastical and dreamy towns I've seen.

Valencay+Poudenas
We drove on Thursday evening with my aunt and uncle from Paris to Poudenas, stopping to stay near Valencay on the way there. We saw the Chateau de Valencay on Friday morning and then made our way to Poudenas. We celebrated a joint 75th birthday party with around 100 people on Saturday, and then on Sunday evening we took a train from Agen to Bordeaux, and then from Bordeaux back to Paris.

Normandie #1 (via Caen/Bayeux)

Took the car from Montparnasse and drove directly northwest to Normandy. We stayed just north of Bayeux, closer to the coast, but not quite. It was a rather rainy weekend, so we ended up not doing too many things. We visited the American cemetery, which is breathtaking and warrants another more thorough visit, and we made a very brief stop at Omaha beach. Besides that we saw the Bayeux tapestry, which is a very underrated site and for me was a big positive surprise.

Alsace

We flew to Mulhouse and took a rental car from there. The trip was heavily focused on visiting Christmas markets, which we saw in Kayserberg, Ribeauvillé, and Colmar. We bought an already made package of choucroute, which we heated up in our airbnb in Rouffach and was delicious. Trying the poêlée and the flammekueche at different markets was also delicious. Besides gastro-tourism, we saw the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg on a very cold and windy day. We then flew back to Paris from the small Mulhouse airport on Christmas day.

Lyon

We took the train directly from Paris to Lyon, but because it was a cheaper train the final stop was the Lyon airport rather than a central train station. We stayed in a very nice hotel for the weekend, and basically walked through the town and drank coffee and ate nicely. Lyon is very famous for having the most "true" French gastronomic food, which we enjoyed, but sometimes it can be too heavy for the non-French.

Chamonix
We took a train from Paris to Geneva and then a 1 hr bus from Geneva to Chamonix. In Chamonix we walked around the town, tried the tartiflette, did a small hike, rode the cable car up to Aiguille du Midi, and took the small train up hill to see Mer de glace. We came back to Paris via the reverse route, bus->train.

Bretagne #2 (via Nantes)

Took the train to Nantes early morning and then took a car that afternoon. There was a sailing tour starting that weekend, so we luckily saw the boats parked at the harbor. We drove west and saw the true peninsula of Brittany, stopping to see the Carnac stones on the way. We made brief stops in the towns of Quimper, Douarnenez, and Vannes, saw the beautiful beaches in Morgat, ate a beach-side seafood dinner at Lestrevet, and did a short hike at the mushroom (I forget the name of the hike...). Just so I don't annoy anyone, it is a funny nuance of history that Nantes was for a long time the capitol of Brittany, but is not currently in the administrative region.

Avignon+Arles

We took a super early morning train to Avignon and then took the car in the afternoon. It was a canicule where the hottest temperatures in the history of France were measured near that area, so we turned the A/C up in the car, and hopped from cafe to shade to museum. We stayed near Arles, and toured around the area. In addition to Avignon and Arles we saw Nîmes and the Pont-du-Gard aqueduct, and made brief stops in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (famous for Vincent Van Gogh) and Les Baux-de-Provence (a very cool fortified town on a hilltop). we tried to visit Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but didn't time it right for the train and had to turn around.

Normandie #2 (Pont l’Évêque)

We took a train Paris-Rouen on Saturday. After visiting Rouen for a half-day we took the car for the week and stayed in two places. First we stayed near Pont Audemer for three nights, and then we stayed near Pont l'Eveque for four nights. Along the way we saw Veules-les-Roses, Bec Houllion, Etretat, Le Havre, Cabourg, Houlgate, Deauville, Trouville, and finally walking through Pont l'Eveque. On our last day we visited the E. Graindorge cheese creamery, returned the car in Rouen, and took the train back to Paris.