France by train (next summer)

[drspouse]

The DCs would probably be happy with a longer train journey by now and DH is concerned about the safety of flying in the next year given what flights seem to be like now.
We have flown to Nice before but they both did, to be fair, struggle with the heat quite a bit.
Where could we have a similar (city type break, good deal to do, scenic and no need to have a car) holiday in a slightly more temperate part of France?

Chartres
Hire bikes
Get the train to Paris

Loire Valley, Vendee, lake Geneva Annecy - Alps. Look at SNCF TGV map. All holidays I have had with warm sunny lovely weather.

You can stay in the towns and visit from there or use local trains to get to places, for example the castle in Samur is in the town. Futuroscope is on the TGV Route iirc.

I hadn't heard of that but a theme park would be a winner!

We go to Avignon, straight from London. It’s about 4.5 hours, and you get a nice breakfast and 3 course lunch with wine in. First class.

Avignon is a lovely city, nice parks etc and you can hop on the train to Arles and do a lovely bike ride (v easy to hire bikes near station) along the river, it’s on the Camargue so you see wild horses, paddy fields, herons etc then back to Arles for an ice cream.

We should have been there this week 😟

Go for it, it’s so much nicer than flying

I've been to Lyon in high summer - would Avignon be similar? Temperature wise?

Last June Avignon was mid 20s. I guess summer hols would be hot but we always get a Villa with a pool

I've been to Lyon in high summer - would Avignon be similar? Temperature wise?

Depends on the weather.

Like most of southern France Avignon has the potential to be hot, in fact very hot, certainly up into the mid/high 30s in Summer (meteo France is forecasting 36 degrees there next week).

Before any American readers go I should have said that's 36 Celsius...

Lille for a few days you might want to consider. Amiens, parts of Belgium such as Ypres are possible for a day trip from there, and the local Metro is good.

I'm wondering about Tours, or maybe La Rochelle.

La Rochelle's lovely, and if you could hop over to Isle de Re, even better.

The rule of thumb we go by is south of the Loire has almost guaranteed sunshine, north of the Loire could be anything.

Do you not drive? It's very pleasant in France, very quiet roads, and the bonus is you can bring all the wine and stinky cheese home 😁