How to do Northern France in 12 Days
Wow, where do I even start? Matt and I took an amazing trip to Northern France this year. Finally!!! We got some cool weather. I couldn’t believe how nice the weather was up there. We’ve been trying for years to find an escape from the heat of Austin and we finally found it along with some fabulous wine and cheese.
Here was our itinerary:
- 2 nights in Reims (Champagne region)
- 4 nights in Trouville (Normandy region)
- 3 nights in Amboise (Loire Valley)
- 2 nights in Paris
In hindsight, I think we should have skipped one of the stops and done it on our next trip. I would have loved an extra day at each of the cities.
Reims
Reims was a bit of a blur as we were jet lagged for most of it. However, we pushed through and saw quite a bit. We did a full day tour of the Champagne region on our second day of our trip. We met some lovely people from Australia. I love meeting people from around the world on tours. We visited some small houses as well as Moet & Chandon. M&C was gorgeous but we preferred the smaller houses. On the third day, on our way out, we visited Veuve Cliquot which was by far my favorite house. The caves were incredible and the history was so interesting.
Giverny
On our way from Reims to Normandy, we stopped in Giverny to tour the home of Claude Monet. He is my absolute favorite artist so this was a very special treat for me. I was surprised at how much of his artwork are still on display at his home. The gardens which were the backdrop of many of his paintings are just gorgeous.
Trouville
We got to Trouville in the evening and we had been in the car for quite a while. What a cute little beach town. I loved it!! It is the sister town to Deauville which is the bigger, fancier town. Fun Fact: Chanel opened her first boutique in Deauville.
We spent the most amount of days in Trouville. On our second day, we took an organized tour of the D-Day beaches and of the American cemetery. Just breaktaking. So peaceful. No words to describe the cemetery. If you can, you must make a visit to these sites. We spent a day in Honfleur which is one of the bigger beach towns. Lots of art galleries and lovely farmers market. Normandy is famous for their seafood and wow it did not disappoint. I wanted to eat mussels every. Single. Day.
Mont St. Michele
En route to Amboise, we stopped at Mont St. Michele which is an old Abby. It was beautiful, but extremely crowded. I think I would have been ok missing this site. However, if you have the time, the walk up to the Abby is beautiful.
Amboise
The Loire Valley is home to amazing wineries and breathtaking Chateaus. We visited 4 Chateaus and 4 wineries while we were there. I wish we had stayed longer. There were so many different little towns we could have visited. I regret not making the drive to one of our favorite sparkling wine houses, Bouvette. I guess we’ll just have to go back again! It is so crazy to imagine that kings and queens lived in these chateaus.
Paris
One of the highlights of our trip was to see U2 in Paris. Wow! The security was crazy but once we got in, it was awesome. Whenever you have the chance to see Bono, you gotta take advantage! We were only there for about a day and a half. Luckily we had already been and had already seen most of the tourist sites. We did walk past the Eiffel Tower, went to the Louvre Gardens and visited Sucre Ceour. Sucre Ceour is my most favorite site in Paris. The cathedral is so beautiful. And bonus, we ended up having lunch at Le Coq Rico which is one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. The original restaurant is in Paris and we randomly stumbled upon it.
It was a once in a lifetime trip. I wouldn’t say it was relaxing as we really packed it in, but we enjoyed every minute of it.
