France Honeymoon in April
 

My fiancé and I are going to France for 15 nights in mid April. This will be our first trip to France, other than stopping in Cannes for one day on a cruise. We both really enjoy wine tasting and are looking forward to visiting the Champagne and Bordeaux regions. I know many people will say we are not spending enough time in Paris, but one of the main reasons for visiting France is for the wine, so we want to make sure we have enough time to do that.

My main question is how to best travel between the different destinations. I know the high speed train is very good, but I don’t believe it goes to all the locations we want to see. I am open to renting a car and driving if that is the best option. Neither of us speaks French.

We already have flights booked arriving in Paris and leaving from Nice. Let me know your thoughts on our tentative itinerary:

Day 1- 3: Stay in the Park Hyatt Vendome for 3 nights (already booked) and explore Paris.
Day 4 -5: Take the train to Reims and do some champagne tasting. No hotel booked yet.
Day 6 – 9: Travel to Bordeaux for wine tasting. It looks like the TGV train from Paris is the best option to Bordeaux. No hotels booked yet.
Day 10 – 15: Travel to Saint Tropez, Monte Carlo, and Nice. What is the best way to get from Bordeaux to the south of France (car, train)? No hotels booked yet, but will probably use SPG points for Nice and maybe Monte Carlo.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations on places to visit along the way, attractions to see, or travel options.

They have champagne day tours and tastings out of Reims. But in Bordeaux you should get a car-- loads and loads of wineries in the countryside. You just see a sign for "cave" and drive in.

If you have time get over to the Dordogne area and see the castles and the caves with the 15000 year old cave paintings! (make a reservation). Not very far from the Bordeaux wine region.

About the only way to get to the Riviera from Bordeaux is by car, and it's a pretty good haul. I've said before on this board that I'm not a big fan of Cannes, St Trop, nor Monaco-- why did you pick these places? (I do like Nice) There is so much to do and see on the Riviera, and in much less ostentatious places. My favorite towns are Beaulieu sur Mer and Menton. Real places. Real people. Dip into Italy (just beyond Menton for a different culture, language and ambience). I can expand on my Riviera favorites if you'd like.

Thank you for the information.

I would be interested to hear more about your favorites on the Riviera. We originally picked Cannes, St Trop, and Monaco because my fiance knows people who have been there and enjoyed them. However, we are open to changing our plans.

Well, the OP and fiancé have never been there and it is new to them. Besides, ST is dead in April, just keep that in mind.

I personally do not like that area at all, would rather be more inland or more on the western part of the Med.

We actually went on a very similar honeymoon, but mostly traveled by train, which was for us much more romantic than a rented auto. There is in fact, TGV service at least for part of the trip between Bordeaux and Nice. The service is quite regular and comfortable.

Although we quite liked Nice and stayed there two days, we then used the train, which runs very close to the beautiful shore to visit other towns along the Riviera. When the train didn't stop where we wanted, we took a bus. You can find complete bus schedules here: http://www.cg06.fr/fr/servir-les-hab...s-et-horaires/

If you look for "LIGNES REGULIERES", you can see a list of schedules (which you will download) for many of the towns in the area. If you start from Nice, you will see there are many different routes. We found the bus travel very convenient and affordable (no worries about parking zones!).

Among the places we visited we liked very much were: Èze, La Turbie, Rocquebrune and Menton. We've been back since our honeymoon and everything was as we remembered it.

i have been to cannes and nice in feb. they rolled up the beach. nice has pebbles for beach. they had pulled all the beach chairs. at cannes, the sand is barged(shipped) in. huge piles were sitting near the road. the beach was naked. at the martinez, the last 20 feet or so of the pier had been removed. the restaurants in both places were excellent. no problems with reservations.