France: Paris, Burgundy, Provence and the Riviera at a slower pace

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Paris

   Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to your hotel in central Paris

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Paris
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) at any time. A driver meets you in the arrivals hall and takes your cases from there, so you do not lift them again until you leave France: the drive into the city takes 45 to 75 minutes depending on traffic. The hotel is central and has a lift, which is a condition we set for every hotel on this trip. Rooms are usually ready by mid-afternoon; if you land early, leave the bags, have lunch nearby and rest. At 5:30 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group in the lobby for a short, seated briefing: how the days run, where the free afternoons fall, which visits have an easier way round and what the walking is like. The welcome dinner is in a bistro a few minutes' walk from the hotel, and nobody needs to be up early tomorrow.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner at a nearby bistro

   Temps libre : Free until the 5:30 pm briefing

   Activité : Land by about 3 pm to rest before the briefing; later arrivals are met and join the group at dinner.

2. Jour 2 : Notre-Dame and the Seine by boat

   Your hotel to the Île de la Cité, then a Seine boat

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Paris
   Détail du jour 2

   Breakfast is unhurried and the vehicle leaves at about 9:45 for the Île de la Cité, dropping the group at the cathedral square rather than at a metro stop. Notre-Dame reopened in December 2024 after the 2019 fire, and inside the restored nave is pale and bright; the visit is on one level, with chairs in the nave, and takes about an hour with your guide. A short, flat walk along the quay brings us to a boat for an hour on the Seine, seated the whole way, past the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower and back under the old bridges. That is the morning's work. Lunch is your choice near the river, and the afternoon is free: the hotel for a rest, a café terrace, or the Sainte-Chapelle next door to Notre-Dame for those happy with its stairs.

   Compris

   • Notre-Dame Cathedral with your guide
   • A one-hour boat on the Seine
   • Vehicle to the Île de la Cité and back

   Activités en option

   • The Sainte-Chapelle, whose upper chapel is reached by a narrow spiral stair

   Option plus facile : Stay on the boat's covered deck and take the vehicle straight back to the hotel afterwards.

   Option plus active : Walk back to the hotel with your guide through the Latin Quarter and the Luxembourg Gardens, about 2.5 km.

   Temps libre : Lunch, afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 2 km on foot, all of it level. Queues at Notre-Dame are shortest with a timed reservation, which we make.

3. Jour 3 : The Musée d'Orsay and Montmartre

   Your hotel to the Musée d'Orsay, then Montmartre by vehicle and funicular

   • Environ 45 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Paris
   Détail du jour 3

   We reach the Musée d'Orsay for its 9:30 opening, before the rooms fill. The museum is a former railway station with lifts between floors and benches in most galleries, and a local guide takes us through the Impressionists, Monet, Renoir, Degas and Van Gogh, in about 90 minutes at a pace set by the group, not the guide. Lunch is together near the museum. In the afternoon the vehicle drives up to Montmartre, and instead of the long flights of steps below the Sacré-Cœur we take the funicular, which does the climb in under two minutes. From the terrace in front of the basilica the city is spread out to the south. Your guide walks the near-level lanes to the Place du Tertre, where painters still set up their easels, and the vehicle collects us at the top for the drive back by about 4:30.

   Compris

   • The Musée d'Orsay at opening with a local guide
   • Lunch near the museum
   • The Montmartre funicular, the Sacré-Cœur terrace and the Place du Tertre with your guide

   Option plus facile : Stay on the Sacré-Cœur terrace or at a café on the Place du Tertre while the group walks the lanes.

   Option plus active : Walk down from Montmartre by the Rue Lepic and the Moulin de la Galette with your guide, about 1.5 km downhill, before the vehicle collects you.

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : About 3.5 km on foot over the day, with lifts in the museum. The Musée d'Orsay is closed on Mondays, so this day never falls on one.

   

4. Jour 4 : TGV to Dijon and on to Beaune

   Paris Gare de Lyon to Dijon by TGV, then Beaune

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Beaune
   Détail du jour 4

   Your cases leave Paris after breakfast in our vehicle, so you board the TGV with a day bag only, on a train at about 10:30 rather than at dawn. Seats are reserved together, and the ride to Dijon takes about 1 hour 40 minutes. In Dijon the driver meets the group at the station with the cases already on board. Your guide walks a short, level loop through the old capital of the Dukes of Burgundy, past half-timbered houses to the church of Notre-Dame, where a little carved owl on the outside wall has been rubbed smooth by visitors touching it for luck. Lunch is together near Les Halles, the iron-roofed covered market. Then it is about 45 minutes by road to Beaune, and we check in by about 3. The rest of the afternoon is free: a walk round the ring of ramparts, a nap, or a glass on the Place Carnot.

   Compris

   • TGV from Paris Gare de Lyon to Dijon, reserved seats together
   • Cases carried by road from Paris to Beaune
   • Dijon's old town and the owl of Notre-Dame with your guide
   • Lunch in Dijon

   Option plus facile : Wait at a café near Notre-Dame while the group walks the loop.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free in Beaune

   Activité : About 2 km on foot. Our driver and the guide help at both stations; you never carry your case onto the train. The day's road figure (about 50 km, 1 hour) is the guests' Dijon to Beaune leg only; the cases travel about 310 km from Paris without you.

5. Jour 5 : The Hospices de Beaune and the Côte de Beaune

   Beaune to Pommard, Volnay and Meursault, and back

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Beaune
   Détail du jour 5

   A walk of a few hundred metres from the hotel brings us to the Hospices de Beaune at about 9:30. Built in 1443 as a hospital for the poor, it has a courtyard roofed in glazed tiles of red, gold, green and black, and a Great Hall of the Poor still lined with curtained beds; most of the visit is on the ground floor, and it takes about an hour. Then the vehicle drives a few kilometres south through Pommard and Volnay to Meursault. These vineyard plots, the climats, have been on the UNESCO list since 2015, and we see them from the vehicle and on a short, flat walk between the stone walls. In a family cellar a winegrower pours a seated tasting. Lunch is in a village restaurant, and we are back in Beaune by about 3:30 for a rest before a Burgundian dinner at 7.

   Compris

   • The Hospices de Beaune (Hôtel-Dieu) with your guide
   • The Côte de Beaune vineyard villages by vehicle, with a short vineyard walk
   • A seated cellar tasting with a winegrower
   • Lunch in a Côte de Beaune village
   • Burgundian dinner in Beaune

   Option plus facile : Stay in the vehicle or in the village square instead of the vineyard walk.

   Option plus active : Cycle back from Meursault to Beaune after lunch on the Voie des Vignes, a flat, mostly traffic-free path through the vines, about 8 km; electric bikes arranged at booking.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon free before dinner

   Activité : About 2.5 km on foot. Tastings are small pours, with water and juice for anyone not drinking.

6. Jour 6 : Lyon for lunch, then the train to Avignon

   Beaune to Lyon by road, then Lyon Part-Dieu to Avignon by TGV

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Avignon
   Détail du jour 6

   We leave Beaune at about 9:30 for Lyon, about 1 hour 45 minutes by motorway with a coffee stop. A funicular climbs to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, where the terrace looks over the city's two rivers, and a second funicular brings us down to Vieux Lyon, the Renaissance quarter by the Saône, listed by UNESCO with the rest of historic Lyon in 1998. Your guide walks a level kilometre on its cobbled main street and into a traboule, one of the covered passages that cut through the houses. Lunch is in a bouchon, the Lyon bistro, at about 12:30, seated for a proper meal. Rather than drive another 2 hours 15, we take a mid-afternoon TGV from Lyon Part-Dieu to Avignon, about 1 hour 10, while our driver takes the cases south by road. A short transfer brings us inside Avignon's walls by about 5.

   Compris

   • Funiculars up to Fourvière and down to Vieux Lyon
   • Vieux Lyon and a traboule with your guide
   • Lunch in a Lyon bouchon
   • TGV from Lyon Part-Dieu to Avignon TGV, reserved seats, with cases carried by road
   • Transfer from Avignon TGV station to your hotel

   Option plus facile : Stay at the Fourvière terrace café, then take the funicular straight down to lunch.

   Option plus active : Walk down from Fourvière through the Rosary Gardens to Vieux Lyon, about 20 minutes of paths and steps.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Avignon

   Activité : About 2 km on foot, on cobbles in Vieux Lyon. The road time is the drive to Lyon and the two short station transfers. The 2.25 hours of road time is the 1 hour 45 motorway drive to Lyon plus the two short station transfers, about 180 km in all.

   

7. Jour 7 : Avignon and the Palais des Papes

   Avignon on foot and by vehicle

   • Environ 15 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Avignon
   Détail du jour 7

   The popes lived in Avignon for most of the 14th century, and their Palais des Papes is the largest Gothic palace in Europe, with walls several metres thick. We go in at about 10, after breakfast, and each guest has a tablet guide that rebuilds the bare rooms as they were, with your guide alongside. The palace has stairs between its halls; there is a shorter step-free route through part of it, which we confirm with the site, and anyone who prefers can sit in the great courtyard. From the palace square it is a short, gentle walk down to the Rhône and the Pont Saint-Bénézet, the bridge of the song, which stops after four arches. The vehicle collects us there for lunch together inside the walls, and the afternoon is free: the hotel, the shaded Place de l'Horloge, or the Rocher des Doms garden above the river.

   Compris

   • The Palais des Papes with a tablet guide and your guide
   • The Pont Saint-Bénézet
   • Lunch in Avignon

   Activités en option

   • The Petit Palais museum of medieval painting, beside the Palais des Papes

   Option plus facile : Take the step-free route through the palace or wait in the courtyard, and ride to lunch in the vehicle.

   Option plus active : Climb to the Rocher des Doms garden after lunch with your guide for the view over the Rhône, about 15 minutes up a sloping path.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 3 km on foot. Avignon and its bridge have been on the UNESCO list since 1995.

8. Jour 8 : The Luberon: Gordes, Sénanque and Roussillon

   Avignon to Gordes, the Abbaye de Sénanque, Roussillon and L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, and back

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Avignon
   Détail du jour 8

   We drive east at about 9:30 into the Luberon, about 45 minutes. The best view of Gordes is from the road below it, with the village stacked on its hill, and we stop there rather than climb its steep lanes. A few kilometres on, a narrow road drops into the valley of the Abbaye de Sénanque, a 12th-century Cistercian abbey still lived in by monks; from the viewpoint above the abbey you see the abbey and, from late June to mid-July, the lavender in front of it. Roussillon is next, a village of red and orange houses built on ochre cliffs, with level lanes at the top and a long seated lunch on a terrace. On the way back we stop in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, where water wheels turn in the river channels round the old town, for a coffee by the water, and we are back in Avignon by about 4:30.

   Compris

   • The Gordes viewpoint
   • The Abbaye de Sénanque from the viewpoint above the abbey
   • Roussillon's village and ochre views with your guide
   • Lunch in Roussillon
   • A stop in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue

   Option plus facile : Stay at a café on Roussillon's square while the group walks the village lanes.

   Option plus active : Walk the Sentier des Ocres in Roussillon, a trail through the ochre quarries with steps and slopes, about 45 minutes, before lunch.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Avignon

   Activité : About 3 km on foot over short stretches. Lavender is in flower only from late June to mid-July; the rest of the year Sénanque is green or bare in front of the abbey.

9. Jour 9 : Aix-en-Provence and on to Nice

   Avignon to Aix-en-Provence, then Nice

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Nice
   Détail du jour 9

   We leave Avignon at about 9:30 for Aix-en-Provence, just under an hour by motorway. Your guide walks the group along the Cours Mirabeau, a broad, level avenue of plane trees and fountains, one of them a mossy spring that runs warm all year, then into the old-town squares, where the morning market is set up on most days. There is time on a café terrace, and lunch together at about 12:30 on a shaded square. At about 2:15 we set off along the motorway past the red rocks of the Esterel, about 1 hour 50 with a short break, so we reach Nice by about 4:30. The hotel is near the Promenade des Anglais or the old town, and the evening is free: the promenade's blue chairs face the sea and are there for anyone to sit in.

   Compris

   • Aix-en-Provence on foot with your guide: the Cours Mirabeau and the old town
   • Lunch in Aix-en-Provence

   Option plus facile : Stay at a café on the Cours Mirabeau while the group walks the old-town loop.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Nice

   Activité : About 2 km on foot, all level. The two drives are about 1 hour and 1 hour 50.

10. Jour 10 : Nice: Vieux Nice, Castle Hill and the Cours Saleya

    Vieux Nice and Castle Hill by little train and on foot

    • En train
    • Petit-déjeuner
    • Nuit : Nice
    Détail du jour 10

    A slow morning in Nice. At about 10 we board the little tourist train on the Promenade des Anglais, which runs through Vieux Nice and climbs Castle Hill with everyone seated; at the top there is time to walk to the viewpoint over the Baie des Anges and the old port before the train brings us down again, about 45 minutes in all. Your guide then walks the group across the Place Masséna, with its chequered paving and red-ochre arcades, into the Cours Saleya, where the flower and produce market runs every morning except Monday. We stop for socca, the chickpea pancake of Nice, eaten hot. Lunch is your choice, and the afternoon is free: a lounger at a beach club, the Matisse Museum in Cimiez, a short taxi ride up the hill, or a blue chair on the promenade.

    Compris

    • The little train through Vieux Nice and up Castle Hill
    • Place Masséna, the Cours Saleya and Vieux Nice with your guide
    • A taste of socca

    Activités en option

    • The Matisse Museum in Cimiez (closed Tuesdays)
    • A beach-club lounger on the Promenade des Anglais

    Option plus facile : Stay on the train at Castle Hill and go straight to a café on the Cours Saleya.

    Option plus active : Walk down from Castle Hill to the old port by the steps with your guide, about 15 minutes.

    Temps libre : Lunch, afternoon and evening free

    Activité : About 2.5 km on foot, all level except the optional steps. Castle Hill also has a free public lift.

    

11. Jour 11 : Monaco and Villefranche-sur-Mer

    Nice to Monaco by the coast road, then Villefranche-sur-Mer and back

    • Environ 1.5 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
    • Nuit : Nice
    Détail du jour 11

    We drive along the coast at about 9:30, about 40 minutes to Monaco, and leave the vehicle in a car park under the Rock with public lifts up to the old town, so there is no climb. The Oceanographic Museum, built into the cliff more than a century ago, has an aquarium on its lower floor, lifts throughout and a roof terrace looking along the coast to Italy. At 11:55 we are outside the Prince's Palace for the changing of the guard, with a few minutes to find a place at the front. Lunch is together near the harbour, followed by a short drive past the casino. On the way back we stop in Villefranche-sur-Mer, whose old town drops to a curved bay of pastel houses, for a level walk along the waterfront. We are back in Nice by about 4, with time to rest before the farewell dinner at 7.

    Compris

    • Public lifts up to Monaco's old town
    • The Oceanographic Museum of Monaco
    • The changing of the guard at the Prince's Palace
    • Lunch in Monaco
    • The waterfront at Villefranche-sur-Mer
    • Farewell dinner in Nice

    Activités en option

    • The Prince's Palace State Apartments, open from spring to autumn

    Option plus facile : Wait at a café on the palace square while the group visits the museum, and stay in the vehicle at Villefranche.

    Option plus active : Walk up through the stepped lanes of Villefranche's old town to the Chapel of Saint-Pierre, painted by Jean Cocteau, with your guide.

    Temps libre : Late afternoon free before dinner

    Activité : About 3 km on foot, with lifts up to the Rock. The Monaco Grand Prix weekend (late May or early June) is avoided on this day.

12. Jour 12 : Depart from Nice

    Your hotel in Nice to Nice Côte d'Azur Airport

    • Environ 15 min de route
    • Petit-déjeuner
    Détail du jour 12

    Your last morning on the Riviera is unhurried. After breakfast there may be time for a last walk along the Promenade des Anglais or a coffee facing the sea while the driver loads the cases. Your See Sight Tours guide arranges the transfers the evening before and sees everyone off. Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE) is about 7 km west of the centre, around 20 minutes by car, with direct flights to many European hubs and, in the busier months, some transatlantic routes. A driver takes you there at the time that suits your flight, and helps with the cases to the check-in hall. Flights from about 11 am make the morning easiest; for an earlier flight we arrange an early breakfast or a breakfast bag. To stay on by the sea, ask us for extra nights in Nice before you book your flights.

    Compris

    • Drop-off at Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)

    Temps libre : Free until your airport transfer

    Activité : Book a flight leaving after about 11 am for a relaxed morning.

Faune et météo : May, June and September are warm and bright without the worst heat and are the best months for this pace. July and August often go above 35°C in Provence and are the busiest months on the Riviera, which is why the visits are in the morning and the afternoons free. April and October are cooler and quieter, with some rain. Lavender in Provence is only in flower from late June to mid-July.

• Paris3 nuits
• Beaune2 nuits
• Avignon3 nuits
• Nice3 nuits