Dancin in France - Part 1 The Set Up and Day 1
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| SOOOO ready for a vacation |
I just got back from a beautiful 10 day trip across France with my bf. Since this blog is about both books and adventures, I thought I would share how it went!
Back in March when we booked the trip, I searched high and low on the interwebs for ideas of what we might do. My best source, it turns out, was following blogs and Instagram accounts. I thought I would add to the pool that is already out there just in case others need ideas. The posts will be in four parts: The Set Up (getting ready and day 1), Avignon (days 2 - 3), Nice (days 4-5), and Paris (days 6-10). You ready? Let's go!
The Big Plan
BF and I are the type of folk who like to hop in a car and go for a drive to a different state on a whim. We talked about staying primarily in Paris but then liked the idea of splitting the trip. We wanted the freedom to take little day trips or wander into a different country if we felt like it. Ultimately, we decided to rent a car, slowly make our way down to Nice, ditch the car after a couple of days in Nice, and then take the train to Paris.
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| We're driving in France!!! |
We knew Nice and Paris were musts on our list of places but where to stop on our way to Nice was a bit puzzling. I did some research on the internet and couldn't find a whole lot about the little cities between Paris and Nice. I looked at driving times to figure out what might make the most sense in terms of hours. We would be landing in Paris after a red-eye direct flight from Boston. We were going to rent the car at the airport and hit the road from there. So we picked a random spot (Dijon) that was about 3 hours from Paris. We picked Avignon after that because it was a straight shot from Dijon, in Provence, and not too far from Nice. We decided to drop off the car in Nice because we also wanted the experience of taking the train. BF and I also figured that after 6 days of bouncing around, the 6 hour trip back to Paris might be a bit cozier as passengers.
Day 1 - Troyes and Dijon
We landed in Paris exhausted but ready to go! BF went through the rental line (soooo long! It took over an hour!) and we ended up with a cute little VW Golf. BF also got an international data plan so we could use GPS to find our way around. We were told we would have to pay extra for GPS in the car. Turns out we couldn't figure out the data with his phone on the first day and the GPS in the car did work so we ended up using that. It was magical!
Our plan was to drive through the city of Troyes on our way to Dijon because it took us through the Champagne region of France.
We stopped in Troyes, as planned and holy crap was it beautiful! It is an old medieval town with cobblestone streets and has amazing timber architecture. (My pictures are not as good as a google image search. So you should do that too. Or click here because I already did it for you.) I was super excited about France already! We got some street bread - what we affectionately started calling baguettes because, seriously, everyone just walks around France with baguettes - and wandered around a bit trying to find some WiFi so we could contact our first Air BnB host.
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| Gotta get that street bread |
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| Troyes |
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| Cool comic book store in Troyes |
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| Carousels everywhere in France! |
The drive from Troyes to Dijon was simply stunning. Acres and acres of vineyards. We passed so many champagne vineyards but decided to keep driving instead of stopping.
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| Yes - That is a GIANT champagne cork. |
Our Air BnB was a garden studio near the owner's property. It turns out that while this was true, the world outside of her gated entrance was a little lacking in charm. Dijon was not as vibrant and lively as Troyes. We aren't sure if it was just a quiet night, if we were tired, if we were in the wrong part of the city or what. We weren't too impressed with the city that invented dijon mustard. However, Dijon was really just a stopping point on our way south. So in the end we were ok with the decision.
The next morning, we stopped at a local grocery store, picked up road trip snacks, baguettes, and some real DIJON dijon mustard. Then we hit the road again!
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| Peace out Dijon! |
So there you have it! Day 1! Next up is Day 2 - Avignon.
Lessons Learned
1. To get data working on your phone, you probably need to restart it.
2. WiFi is pronounced wee-fee. If you say it wrong they can't help you find it.
3. Troyes > Dijon, if you go stay there instead
4. Always take the scenic route
Aw so awesome! Sounds like it was an amazing road trip
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