How to Plan a Road Trip in France [Champagne, Burgundy regions, French Alps, Riviera, Pyrenees, Loire Valley Chateaux] : Intro Part 2

 

Rest of the highlight pics here:

MONTPELLIER

CARCASSONNE

PYRENEES

BAD WEATHER WHITEOUT

Gave up trying to reach Gloriette Lake and turned back to safety

Mannequins in the village

PAU

CATHEDRAL

LOIRE VALLEY CHATEAUX

TOURS OLD TOWN

Château de Chenonceau

Château d'Amboise

Château de Chambord

Château de Cheverny

Château de Villandry

Château d'Azay-le-Rideau

CAR RENTAL

AVIS Car rental at CDG was easy. Peugeot 2008  automatic transmission, 860 EUROS, Sep 16-Oct 4, 18 days. We took full insurance for 200 euros from Booking.com through whom we had booked the car 

We made sure our 1^st day drive was short... CDG to Reims was 126 km, 1h 30 min on the highway. So the international flight did not affect the drive

Also our international flights back were at 10.20/11 am on Oct 5.

We made sure to return to Paris the previous day and booked a room at IBIS at the airport.  That way, the car return and taking the flight back home went smooth with no pressure.

 our last day drive to return the car was from Tours to CDG... 250 km, 3hours and we thought we have to return the car at noon as we planned to collect the car at noon.

We collected the car by 10 am. We had to return the car at 10 am on Oct 4, driving in from Tours, they said they'll give 30 min grace. Anyway, we could return only by 11 am as there was a jam entering Paris region. Our fuel had also come down a bar. They did not mind, they signed off on our return

https://goo.gl/maps/R7knqECg8gdjbraH8 is a rough map of our road trip... we drove through the villages in the Champagne region, not on the highway as map shows

The actual map used for our daily drives will be posted in the daily reports... with all the stops we made.

This map shows we covered 2660 km, our actual mileage was near 5000km with all the day trips 

TOLLS

All highways we used had tolls. We got to the booth which had a green arrow, the others took only their monthly card payment.

When we entered, the machine gave a ticket... when we exited the highway, the booth there collected payment... we had to put in our ticket and the credit card in their slots, the payment went through and the bar lifted to let the car through.

Our US card had no hassles.

The toll was 1 euro per 10 km traveled... in our rough calculations, some a little less.

Eg, CDG-Reims was 7 euro toll for 135 km. here's a website https://www.autoroutes.fr/index.htm?lang=en

ACCOMMODATIONS

As explained our last night was at the airport hotel. All the rest were apartments booked through Booking.com

I'll post pics, videos and reviews in the daily reports. We got in touch with them re check in procedures. Reims apt obliged by sending the code to collect keys the previous day. Troyes apt were non obliging and sent the code only on that day at 1.30 pm. We don't travel with data. We walked to nearby IBIS hotel thinking we'll offer to pay for using their wifi to access oir email. There was free wifi in their lobby and we got our code.

In Dijon, it was a bait and switch. The Le Thurot hotel guy gave us a room instead of the apt we had booked. The toilet was blocked too. We rang up Booking.com through the hotel wifi. They talked to the hotel guy and he agreed to give us a free cancellation. We boooked another hotel with an apt nearby and later Booking.com sent us the extra we had paid.

All had free parking. Antibes charged 11 euros for 24 hours, we paid 22 euros for 4 nights... worked out fine.

We usually take pics of the room/apt when we leave. We did not do so for some apts this time. Guess what, the Tours apt guy sent us a rude sms and asked Booking.com that we had to pay him 50 euros for cleaning. 20 euro cleaning charge had already been made in the 4 night payment. We replied to Booking.com we are not paying anything extra and that was that!!

FOOD

We are vegetarians and self catered as usual. Bought our groceries at LIDL Reims and repeated in few places.

MAPS

Offline maps worked OK as usual. France has wifi in some places... like Chamonix for example

COMMUNICATION:

We know some basic French... locals were very kind. We also had the offline google translation app. Surprisingly Spanish worked at the car rental and in another place where our French proved inadequate

PARKING

At attractions, we had already marked parking sites. Most were free, others priced at incremental rates the longer you park. 

Everywhere the parking from 7pm to 8 am was free.

PRONUNCIATIONS

We listened to FORVO where native soeakers say the names of places/towns etc. Came in quite useful

Report continues here

https://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2022/10/france-2022-trip-report-day-1-reims.html