It’s a luxury to have a long lead time to plan our summer trip to France, but it also allows for me to get somewhat obsessive. When researching a country, I like to read about the history, read other blogs/travel sites, talk to people who have visited there and, for the first time, I’ve added Periscope to my information search tools. From now until the end of June, I will be a Francophile.
The essentials for my planning purposes are:
1) Map of France ~ I highly recommend getting a map of the location you’ll be visiting and a marker so you can circle all the interesting places you’ll want to see. My map already has my top “must visit” locations circled: Paris, Versailles (I’ve been but my husband and daughter have not), Mormant, Le Mont-St Michel, Rochefort, Les Cabannes and Beaune. I’ve also added Andorra. We’ll be so close when we’re in Les Cabannes, it would be a shame not to explore the sixth smallest country in Europe.
2) Skyscanner for the cheapest airfare
I check Skyscanner first for the lowest priced flights. Their site allows you to look at an entire month for the cheapest day to fly. Once I’ve narrowed it down to which carrier is the best price, I go to the airlines website to check on flight schedules and then book it.
3) Tripadvisor for hotel information
Tripadvisor is my first stop for hotels, Bed & Breakfasts and Vacation Apartments. I appreciate the personal reviews and read them within context. A few years ago, while researching places to stay in Inverness (Scotland), a B&B received a low score but it was due to the establishment not allowing children under age 5 to stay. The person giving the review never stayed there but gave it a “1.” I actually liked the policy since B&Bs are too small/thin walled for younger children. We ended up staying there and really enjoyed ourselves all thanks to a bad review.
4) Lonely Planet:France Guidebook (lots of useful info even if out of date)
We keep all our outdated Lonely Planet books because there is timeless information in them. Lots of background information, the history of the area, and safety tips which are always helpful. Our library carries the most current issues of most travel guidebooks but my old Lonely Planets can be highlighted and scribbled in.
5) Reading blogs is one of my favorite ways to get a locals perspective of a city or town. For France, I’ve been catching up with Les Photos de Suzanne & Pierre ~ expats who wrote updates while living in Paris for two + years (it’s in French and English). If you have any suggestions on other ones, please let me know.
6) Periscope ~ I find Periscope to be fascinating but scary as well. It has the potential to get sketchy quickly. It’s a live streaming app that allows you to interact with the person scoping. So far, I’m only following a few “travel” periscopers and one friend. For my trip planning, I’ve found an amazing tour guide named Claire who uses Periscope. She’s been a wealth of information and makes me want to stay the whole time in Paris. Click here for more information about Claire and her tours. Once our dates are confirmed, I’m hoping to book an actual live tour with her. She’s lived in Paris for twenty years and speaks French and English fluently. Her love for Paris is very apparent and I really like her positive attitude.
Planning trips are a lot of fun and I’m thankful my fellow travelers (husband and daughter) trust me to make the right decisions for an intriguing adventure. I get very few complaints. Every once in awhile, they’ll go rogue and decide to do something completely and utterly touristy.
Please leave me a comment with any advice you might have for me ~ especially about a town or area we shouldn’t miss while on our explorations of France. We’ll be traveling the northwestern, west and southwest areas of France.
Patty, I cannot wait to live vicariously through your trip to France! One of my favorite blogs is https://jothetartqueen.wordpress.com/
Jo is a baker, photographer, and traveler. Her photos from France (and other places) are truly beautiful.
Time to start thinking about travel, without a campaign to distract me!
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Hopefully everything will come together for the trip to France ~ I’m still waiting for less expensive but they seem to be getting more expensive 😦 I follow Jo’s blog. Always makes my mouth water!
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I love Paris, thought it’s been many years since I’ve been. My favorite museum is the Musee d’Orsay. It used to be a train station, before they converted it into a museum. It’s full of my favorite kind of art, art deco furniture and impressionist works. The Louvre is famous, but I found it both overwhelming in scale, and full of dark, ominous works. The d’Orsay gets my vote.
I too loved Mt. St. Michel. You’re going to have so much fun.
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/overview.html
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Thanks for the Musee D’Orsay recommendation. We’ve been to the Louvre so I was looking for another museum to visit. I’m looking forward to the trip and hoping I can get all the logistics locked in.
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The Musee d’Orsay is a good recommendation. Make sure you get advance tickets so you can skip that line and make sure you get in the right line when you show up. If you have time for a day trip, you might consider Claude Monet’s gardens at Giverny.
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I think you’ll love it.
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Skyscanner is my number 1 go to for flights, such a great tool. You have some great tips here, and your trip sounds fantastic! I get very obsessive with my travels too!
http://www.lizzysprettythings.co.uk
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Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I love the planning part of a trip ~ especially when it all starts to fall together.
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Wow, Patti. A summer in France??!!! Lucky you. I see that you have included Paris, which should be a fabulous part of a fabulous trip. We’ve been several times, including a two week stay in 2014. One of the planning sources we used was a blog by Carol Gillott, an ex-pat artist that goes by the name of Paris Breakfasts. Her posts tend to be about things that are going on at the moment, so a good approach is to look at her archives for the month(s) you are going to be there. And for getting around, the app for the Paris Metro is outstanding. Just go to the App store and ask for the RATP app. Make sure you wander the streets at night, the city is at its best then. Examples can be found on my blog, just search for “Paris.” And if you need lists of things like patisseries, chocolatiers, and boulangeries, etc., just shoot me an email.
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I wish it were a whole summer. We’ll be there for a little over two weeks so I’ll have to plan every moment if I want to get to all the great suggestions. I’m going to spend some time this weekend reading through your Paris updates. Thanks so much for your advice on the Paris Metro app and for suggesting Paris Breakfasts.
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Google Flights is always helpful when booking tickets. If you have the chance to go, Lyon and Bordeaux are both wonderful. Here are some of my favorite moments from my trip to Bordeaux this past summer: https://districtandmore.com/2015/10/01/bordeaux-france/
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I haven’t tried Google Flights ~ will look into it since I haven’t purchased my tickets yet. I just read your post about Bordeaux ~ thanks so much for sharing the link. Everything looks lovely!
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We went to Casis and LeLavendou and loved both!
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I’ve never thought of using Periscope as a travel tool, but it sounds interesting. I’m a big fan of tripadvisor and lonely planet as well. Have fun planning!
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I hadn’t thought about Periscope much either and just started using it about a week ago. So far I’ve only followed Claire because of my interest in Paris but I have watched a few other “scopes” and they’ve been fascinating. There’s a lot of junk out there too though so I’m treading lightly in the shallow end…
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If you’re going to Beaune, don’t miss Dijon. In that general area I’m also a fan of Strasbourg, Colmar and Nancy. If you have any interest in Art Nouveau you should definitely visit Nancy.
I mostly use booking.com for hotels, and the reviews there are only from people who have actually stayed in the properties.
I’m a fan of Lonely Planet too, although I sometimes also check Rough Guide, and for deciding where to visit I like the glossy guidebooks like Insight and Eyewitness. For France I might look for Michelin, too.
If you like reading blogs you might enjoy the trip reports on fodors.com. I have one on eastern France that includes the places I’m recommending:
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/nice-to-paris-on-not-taking-it-easy-in-eastern-france.cfm
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Great advice. Thanks so much. I read your Trip Report on Fodors ~ fabulous tips and information. And thanks for the links you provided to the train site and hotels. Nancy seems like a great town to stop in ~ it’s on the short list so we will see once everything falls into place.
I had no idea the Dijon mustard seeds came from Canada ~ seems so odd to me. I’ve been to Beaune before and am hoping to stop in for a quick visit on our way back to Paris to fly out. We were in Beaune during the winter and I’ve always wanted to go back to see it in the summer. So many places…
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Patty, I want you to plan my next trip!!! Seriously, there are some very nice tips here and I didn’t know about sky scanner.
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Thank you! Skyscanner is great ~ I especially like the “everywhere” feature which lets you see the least expensive flights from Washington DC.
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I’ll be trying it. Glad it works for domestic flights too.
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