After our visit to France in September 2011 we vowed to return to Europe in 2013. Our initial thought was to spend a month in Italy and visit the Cinque Terre, Tuscany and Rome. As we were talking and discussing possible itineraries the question came up "Is there somewhere else we should consider in Europe?" Charlotte indicated that she would really like to go back to Provence and specifically St. Saturnin-les-Apt. It is a small charming village and the gite where we stayed last year is exceptional in every way. So we shifted gears and focused on revisiting Provence, along with the possibility of exploring new areas as well.
We decided to invite our friends Jim, Judy and Joy to join us. Jim and Judy have accepted and we are hopeful that Joy can join us as well. We have made a reservation for Le Chene for two weeks in mid-September (http://www.accommodationinprovence.com/Le_Chene.html). This house is owned by the same couple who own the gite we stayed in last year.
We decided to fly into Paris a week earlier and we were looking for an area to stay for a week that is between Paris (where we pickup the car) and Provence. We had done some research prior to our last trip looking at the Burgundy area (specifically Dijon and Beaune). We found a wonderful apartment in Beaune (http://www.graperentals.com/properties/rvb.html) that will be the base for that week.
For our fourth week we are going to explore the French Alps, specifically Annecy and Chamonix. The area looks incredible, with lots of outdoor activities (a lot of hiking in our future). We have contacted a few places in terms of lodging and plan to firm up those plans soon.
We will be dropping off the car in Geneva and flying to Paris the day before we head back to Portland. Once again we will stay at the airport (probably the Ibis again), spend Friday afternoon and evening in Paris and then fly back on a direct flight to Seattle and then fly home.
Once again there was more excitement with trying to use airline miles but I won't bore you with the details. We are booked on a direct flight from Seattle to Paris and will probably take an Alaska/Horizon flight to Seattle the day of our departure. We will be booking the return flight in early November.
