The France planner — Edition 2026
Five planning files. Each one sets out where to sleep, how many days the region can carry, which trains and roads connect it to the next, and the trade-offs nobody mentions until you are standing on the platform with a suitcase.
The index
Read the region you are building around first, then the one you plan to pair with it. Every file closes with the connections out — which train, which road, and how long it realistically takes with luggage.
File 01 — Île-de-France
Where to sleep depending on whether you want quiet mornings or late dinners, how to book the big collections so you are not queuing twice, and the day trips that justify a full day out of the city.
File 02 — Côte d’Azur
One base, a dozen day trips, and a rail line that does most of the work. Includes pebble-versus-sand beaches and the weeks when the coast books out.
File 03 — Provence
Avignon, Aix or Arles as a base; market days; the short bloom season on the plateaus; and the parking realities of villages built before cars existed.
File 04 — Rhône & Garonne
Two very different city breaks that fit neatly on the same trip. Bouchon dining and Renaissance lanes against limestone terraces, vineyards and an ocean dune.
File 05 — Normandy & the Mont
The one region in this planner where the clock is set by the sea rather than by opening hours. Choose a base between Bayeux, Caen, Rouen and Honfleur, decide whether to drive or use guided transport for the D-Day sites, and time the Mont around the tide tables and the shuttle queues rather than around lunch.
Method
01
Count the number of hotel changes you are willing to make, then divide the trip. Two bases for a week, three or four for a fortnight. Every extra move costs roughly half a day in packing, check-out and transfer time, and that half day almost always comes out of the region you were most excited about.
02
High-speed lines radiate from Paris rather than looping between the regions, so a triangle usually works better than a circle. Lyon, Avignon, Bordeaux and Rennes are all fast from the capital; the awkward legs are the lateral ones, and those are where a hire car or a slower regional train earns its place.
03
Cars are a liability in Paris and Lyon and close to essential in the Luberon and inland Normandy. Pick the station where you collect the car and the station where you drop it, and keep the city nights car-free so you are not paying for secure parking you cannot use.
04
Timed-entry sites, one or two special dinners and long-distance train legs are worth reserving early because they are the items that sell out or rise in price. Everything else — markets, beaches, village afternoons — works better as a shortlist you draw from according to the weather.
We do not publish live prices, invented review scores or claims to have personally inspected every hotel and restaurant in France. Fares, opening hours and tide times change constantly, so each file tells you which official source to check — the national rail operator, the local tourist office, the site’s own booking page — and when in the planning process to check it. For anything specific to your dates, send us the question.