Looking for ideas of
where to go on holiday? Get ideas from our
driving in France guide.
rnHolidays are rising in cost, and as a result, people are looking closer to home for their summer trips. As a result, a lot of people are choosing to drive around France. When planning a driving holiday in France, the first thing to consider is which route to take. The majority of tourists only get a fortnight off work for their trip, so planning has to be made to fit into this schedule. Right off, are you looking for a peaceful, beautiful route or a trip to the famous wine or cheese regions of France? While there is some crossover (a tour of the wine regions, is home to spectacular scenery), work out the main reason for going and try to stick to the route.
If wine is your thing, travel to Lot from Paris From Paris, the first stop is Bordeaux, the region where Bordeaux wine was first created. Take a visit to one of the many wine cellars in the city as a must. If you need to get some air after the wine tasting, you could climb the 243 steps of the tower of Saint Michel, to get the best view of the city. After Bordeaux, you will travel to the Dordogne, which boasts a not too shabby 1500 medieval castles. Then travel to Dordogne, where you can visit one of the castles, there are well over a thousand so you won't be able to view them all. Visit Bergerac and sample some of the finest wines in France, the areas closeness to the Dordogne river mean the drainage is fantastic. Make sure you don't miss the 2 statues of Cyrano de Bergerac. Continue your travels to Perigord and end up in the Cahors region, home of the famous black wine.
The routing for the best cheeses would be Paris to Normandy to Agen-d aveyron. Firstly, sample some wonderful Brie in it's home of Paris I am not going to mention anything else about the capital as I will be doing an article on it in the future. Onward to Normandy to try some traditional Camembert. As well as holding a lot of history, Normandy is well known for it's food and drink. Camembert is not Normandy's only creation, it's also the spiritual home of Bourssin, Calvados and Brioche. Impressive! Cheese can only be called Roquefort if it is made in the area. The creation of Roquefort is the stuff of legends The tale says that Roquefort was created when a boy was eating cheese in a cave and saw a beautiful girl go past. He left his cheese in the cave and went after her and didn't return his usual haunt for some time. When he came back, the cheese had turned to what we now call Roquefort.
Told you there was crossover. The starting point of the scenic plan is in Troyes. Troyes is primarily know for it's museums and shopping opportunities. Next on the list is Dijon in the Burgundy area. Dijon is primarily famous for it's mustard and Burgundy for it's wines. The drive on this trip is full of beautiful small towns that you wouldn't normally see on organised trips, as well as a number of vineyards which you can feel free to stop off at. Final destination on the route is St Etienne. It's not a massive drive between Dijon and St Etienne at all but it's a beautiful drive. you have to visit the many historic and religious buildings in the area if you are staying here for a night or two.
While being far from a definitive list, hopefully this article has been informative of some of the more popular tourist drives.