katyrush1744

Headed to a Backroads cycling trip in mid-September in the Brittany and Normandy area. We are thinking of spending 4-6 days visiting other areas of France and planning at least 4 days in Paris before or after the Backroads trip. My travel partner hates being hot, loves to bike ride and is not really into wine (but I am). We both love history and being active (walking, biking, hiking). I am a foodie; he is not sadly. We thought about going to Nice but I am worried about the heat in September. Should we explore Alsace or the Geneva area or Loire Valley? We will take public transportation most likely but could rent a car for a day or two. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

StuDudley

Welcome to Fodors

The Brittany & Normandy area is huge. And it is in a corner of France. Alsace & Nice are quite far away. The Loire is closer - but unless you are huge Chateaux fans (you have not mentioned Castles in your "likes") the Loire does not have as many interesting places to visit as in other regions in France do, IMO.

Four to six days is really not that much time at all to visit other areas. And I can't imaging any cycling trip covering all of Normandy & Brittany. So I would just stay in Brittany or Normandy (I prefer Brittany). Plenty of stuff to do & see there.

My wife & I have spent 2 months vacationing in various regions of France almost every year since 1999. Fifteen weeks have been in Brittany & Normandy. Attached is an itinerary I wrote about Brittany & Normandy. I have several other itineraries also. I've sent them to over 5,000 folks on Fodors (really).

Do you already have air reservations??? Is it possible for your 4-6 days to be before the cycling trip? If so - I would spend 4-6 days in Alsace, and then take the 10:01AM train from Strasbourg/Alsace to Rennes/Brittany that arrives at 2:45PM. No train changes. There is not a direct train that goes from Rennes to Strasbourg - except one that gets into Strasbourg after 9PM.

Here is my wife's Shutterfly book from our 2 weeks in Alsace in 2022.

https://www.shutterfly.com/share-pro...HARPRDWEBMPREM
Click on the book image, and then click "Full Screen" in the upper-right corner on the next screen.

Stu Dudley

rouelan

I think that most of your criteria are not specific enough to help you.
you can enjoy walking hiking biking everywhere in France. Just have a look on the GR map (trails). There are plenty of them to suit all tastes, coastal, mountain, forest..
food: lot of good (and bad...) restaurants everywhere. Unless you are after a very specific food (garbure, tripoux, aioli, cassoulet, flamkueche, violets... to name a few of them), you will have no problem to find something up to your taste. Same for wine, just visit a Nicolas branch.
history: goes from 20000 bc till WW2.

The only thing that could help to select or discard regions would be the hot weather. Stu's suggestion to stay in Brittany or Normandy fits your requirement. Or any place in the mountains (like Alps or Pyrénées). If you are serious cyclists, there are lot of challenging cols to climb there.

StuDudley

""history: goes from 20000 bc till WW2."'

Chauvet cave in the Ardeche is even older - 30,000 BC.

We took a train from Montpellier to Paris last year on Oct 1. The temps in Montpellier were around 90-95F. Paris was maybe 10-15 degrees cooler - but still quite hot.

Stu Dudley