France trip...beginning of May 2006

My partner and I are takign a big trip to France at the beginning of May and I need some advice on how I should break up our time.

Cities of Interest (among SO many):

Paris (this is where we plan to start, staying for 3 nights)

Bordeaux

Champagne region

Nice (this is where we plan to end)

I figured from Paris we could do a day trip to Champagne, staying in Reimes or troyes or Dijon for an evening. Then making our way between other cool villages, towns, wine travels, etc, making our way down to Nice.

We only have another 5 days after Paris so I want to stop in special places...not touristy heavy places.

Any suggstions would be GREAT!

We are in are mid 20%26#39;s and early thirties...not sure if that helps with a route to take.

thanks!!!!

any specific recommendations in the towns you recommend would be great too!

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Five days from Champagne to Nice via Bordeaux is a great trip if you are really into exploring the autroutes and truck stops of France. Otherwise, you are not really here long enough for all that you are hoping to see.

For such a short trip I%26#39;d recommend sticking to Paris with a day trip to the Champagne region (the largest town in the area is Reims).

Or 4 days Paris, driving to Beaune in the Burgundy region for an over night then heading to Nice for your last few days.

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The other poster is right. with 5 days you really can%26#39;t hit the south of france, it is a REALLY long way from Paris ( I know because I made that mistake !!!) but you could certainly do some nice cities no problem.

If you really want to visit the south coast then taking the train is the only real option which if you take the TGV will take around 6 hours.

Otherwise south of Paris Beaune, Dijon, and Reims are all really nice. As for small towns there are loads in burgundy. My suggestion would be to choose which areas you want to go to and buy the Michelin green guide for that area, they are absolutely full of info and indespensable for rural and touristy France

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I have to agree with phread and leieup that the distance you%26#39;re thinking of covering in 5 days is probably too much. Visit the Autoroutes site at http://www.autoroutes.fr/index.php?lng=2# and try a couple of different routes. You%26#39;ll see that (I%26#39;m hopefully not being stupid in my assumption that you%26#39;re planning to drive) it%26#39;s a lot of ground to cover. For instance, Reims to Bordeaux is 450 miles, and Bordeaux to Nice is 502. You can type in any start and destination point on the website and it will tell you how far and how much the tolls and estimated gas will cost you. If you really want to start in Paris and end in Nice, I would consider looking at the most direct route and see what%26#39;s %26quot;on the way%26quot;, like Dijon, Avignon, Nimes, Arles, etc.