French driving tour - any help appreciated
Discussion
Planning a ten day tour of central and western/north western France in September. Normally head down to the Alps or further south but cba with the mileage this year, so we're taking two Elises across in the first instance to Fontainebleau for two nights, then thinking of heading down towards Puy de Dome (central Massif/Clermont Ferrand way), taking in Oradour sur Glane at some point, then heading slowly back towards the Loire Valley.
Not an area either of us know particularly well - I use www.sawdays.co uk for help with accommodation, but if anyone has any must see/do ideas, or good tips on hotels/B&Bs we'd be very grateful. Happy to see most things, historic buildings, pretty seaside towns, vineyards etc etc, ideally with some nice D roads thrown in for entertainment value as well
Budget wise on accommodation pretty much across the board - we try and mix in some good value B&Bs with a few blow outs in chateaux, 5 star hotels with top restaurants, so nothing is excluded.
All ideas appreciated - TIA
/edited for blondeness and a complete lack of direction
Not an area either of us know particularly well - I use www.sawdays.co uk for help with accommodation, but if anyone has any must see/do ideas, or good tips on hotels/B&Bs we'd be very grateful. Happy to see most things, historic buildings, pretty seaside towns, vineyards etc etc, ideally with some nice D roads thrown in for entertainment value as well
Budget wise on accommodation pretty much across the board - we try and mix in some good value B&Bs with a few blow outs in chateaux, 5 star hotels with top restaurants, so nothing is excluded.
All ideas appreciated - TIA
/edited for blondeness and a complete lack of direction
Edited by Stephanie Plum on Sunday 3rd July 22:49
For a classic PH haunt, try the Hotel de France, north of Tours (so Loire valley). It's not a coincidence that one of the pics on Tripadvisor has Porsches everywhere!
Just down the road from our house, the restaurant in the hotel is probably better than the rooms
Just down the road from our house, the restaurant in the hotel is probably better than the rooms
What you are describing is more central and western France. From Fontainebleau, I would go slightly more south east towards Dijon, Bourgogne. Stay a night in the Morvan with its great lakes and beautiful countryside and decent, quiet driving roads. If you want to splash out stay at Bernard Loiseau in Saulieu.
Not far away, about 20 miles east from Saulieu, is the old circuit at Pouilly-en-Auxois.
A few miles further south visit some excellent wine chateaus like Meursault, Savigny, Pommard, Santenay etc. Some great wines are in the area. Givry, Mercurey, Rully, Montrachet, Pommard to name but a few. At Chateau Savigny they have a great collection of fighter jets, Abarths, vintage motorcycles and models. Really worth visiting.
From there I would venture west towards Nevers where you can pick up the Loire and have a look at Magny-Cours.
I prefer this to Clermont-Ferrand and surrounding area.
Not far away, about 20 miles east from Saulieu, is the old circuit at Pouilly-en-Auxois.
A few miles further south visit some excellent wine chateaus like Meursault, Savigny, Pommard, Santenay etc. Some great wines are in the area. Givry, Mercurey, Rully, Montrachet, Pommard to name but a few. At Chateau Savigny they have a great collection of fighter jets, Abarths, vintage motorcycles and models. Really worth visiting.
From there I would venture west towards Nevers where you can pick up the Loire and have a look at Magny-Cours.
I prefer this to Clermont-Ferrand and surrounding area.
We've wandered up and down the west/central/south west quite a few times, so some thoughts vs the places and ideas you mention....
Puy de Dome (central Massif/Clermont Ferrand way),
you've said you want to limit mileage...so you're probably not interested in detouring down the main road from there (which as autoroutes go, isn't too bad) to get to that bridge....
Oradour sur Glane
amazing place - visited some years back almost by chance
stayed here a few years ago - south of Limoges, whereas Oradour is slightly north http://www.relaischateaux.com/en/search-book/hotel...
Poiters would be on your way to the Loire - Futuroscope is somewhat different, if you like big screens and stuff like that http://uk.futuroscope.com/
the Loire Valley.
the obvious stuff are the various chateau - Chambord for instance, da Vinci's home in Amboise is also interesting if you like his art and/or science http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clos_Luc%C3%A9
pretty seaside towns - from Limoges, you are not that far from La Rochelle
vineyards & nice D roads thrown in for entertainment value as well - if you were to head for La Rochelle from Limoge, one route would be through Cognac region, so lovely rolling vineyards, historic buildings in the town and some quite nice roads (imho)
have fun, wherever you end up going
(must get round to a French run again soonish....)
Puy de Dome (central Massif/Clermont Ferrand way),
you've said you want to limit mileage...so you're probably not interested in detouring down the main road from there (which as autoroutes go, isn't too bad) to get to that bridge....
Oradour sur Glane
amazing place - visited some years back almost by chance
stayed here a few years ago - south of Limoges, whereas Oradour is slightly north http://www.relaischateaux.com/en/search-book/hotel...
Poiters would be on your way to the Loire - Futuroscope is somewhat different, if you like big screens and stuff like that http://uk.futuroscope.com/
the Loire Valley.
the obvious stuff are the various chateau - Chambord for instance, da Vinci's home in Amboise is also interesting if you like his art and/or science http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clos_Luc%C3%A9
pretty seaside towns - from Limoges, you are not that far from La Rochelle
vineyards & nice D roads thrown in for entertainment value as well
- if you were to head for La Rochelle from Limoge, one route would be through Cognac region, so lovely rolling vineyards, historic buildings in the town and some quite nice roads (imho)have fun, wherever you end up going
(must get round to a French run again soonish....)
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